Agenda item

This report provides a summary of administration and governance issues reviewed by the Local Pension Board (the Board) at its last meeting for noting or action by the Pension Fund Committee.

Speakers:

Neil Mason, LGPS Senior Officer

Tim Evans, Chairman LPB

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Chairman of the Local Pension Board gave a brief introduction to a summary report of the Local Pension Board and highlighted the following areas:

• work undertaken with the risk registers which had been substantially updated
• most of the Administration items had improved and were moving in the right direction
• the turnaround programme had progressed into the transformation programme
• audit reports were expected at the next Board meeting
• a meeting had been held with officers and the Chairmen of the Board and the Committee to discuss the review of Border to Coast governance.

2.    A Member asked a question regarding banking controls and minimal assurance and whether there were issues of risk to Fund assets due to the absence of controls. The LGPS Senior Officer replied that there was no material risk to pension fund assets and that to the issue of internal controls for banking formed part of the Management response to the internal audit report. It had been agreed by senior management of the Council, to transfer all banking controls to direct pension fund control.  This transfer was now in transition.   The Chairman stated that whilst minimal assurance was a low standard, he was reassured at the recent Audit & Governance Committee, where this was discussed, hearing that auditors were satisfied with progress being made.

3.    A query was raised in relation to the information provided about the pensions help desk and a request made for more information on the number of enquires resolved at first point of contact, to include trends and the nature of enquiries. The LGPS Senior Officer responded to this in the wider context and spoke of changes brought about by the transformation programme.

4.    The Chairman requested that the Local Pension Board look at the new government dashboard requirements and to put it on the risk register as this seemed a substantial piece of work with relatively short deadlines.

5.    A Member stated that he had difficulty making judgments about what investments should be made. He considered this a huge risk, putting huge amounts of resource into businesses directly or indirectly in various ways without really knowing their future performance outcomes. The Chairman stated that employed professional advisors support the Committee/Fund.

Actions/ further information to be provided:

None.

Resolved:

1.    That the following changes to the combined risk register be approved:-

              i.        New Risk ID 4A, prior risk ID F16 Added New Responsible Investment Policy for Surrey Pension Fund as planned enhancement.

             ii.        New Risk ID 4B, prior risk ID F17 causes changed to include stranded assets, regulatory fines and IPCC 2021 report on Climate change. Impact increased from 3 to 4. Added TCFD report in Enhancements.

            iii.        New Risk ID 5A, prior risk ID F4 Likelihood increase from 1 to 2.

           iv.        New Risk ID 6A, prior risk ID F9 Likelihood reduced from 4 to 3

             v.        New Risk ID 7A, prior risk ID F10 Likelihood increased from 2 to 3.

           vi.        New Risk ID 7C, prior risk ID F15 Likelihood reduced from 2 to 1.

          vii.        New Risk ID 7E, prior risk ID F30 Impact increased from 2 to 3.

         viii.        New Risk ID 10D, prior risk ID A25(new) New risk reflecting implementation of Unit 4. This will replace risk 10D/A19 in due course.

2.    The Committee recommended the Local Pension Board look at the new dashboard requirements and put on the risk register.