Wrthi'n llwytho
Does dim crynodeb o'r cyfarfod hwn eto. Caiff un ei ysgrifennu pan fydd y cyngor yn cyhoeddi'r cofnodion. Mae'r agenda a'r papurau isod.
1.1 Apologies were received from John Wright, Clive Rogers, Diane Morley and Rhian Hayden
2.1 Board Members confirmed the following declarations of personal interest: Board Member In Receipt of Pension Contributor Bob Campbell Self Steve Harford Self Sister Ian Reese Self Meirion Rushworth Self Jane Waters Brother Self Anthea Wellington Self Daughter 2.2 The Chief Legal Officer left the meeting.
3.1 It was noted that an issue had been raised in respect of attendance at the meeting which had been resolved. 3.2 It was agreed that the minutes were an accurate record of the meeting
4.1 The Head of Pensions and Pensions Manager gave a verbal update on the action sheet. 4.2 The Pension Board noted the Action Sheet.
5.1 The Pension Board considered the draft minutes of the Pensions Committee held on 16th September 2024. 5.2 The Pension Board agreed to note the draft minutes.
6.1 The Head of Pensions outlined the report and provided an update on the status of the Greater Gwent (Torfaen) Pension Fund’s Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31st March 2024. 6.2 Alice King and Dani Davies presented the work undertaken by Audit Wales within the ISA260. There had been no significant issues identified and therefore, no follow up work to be undertaken. Materiality had been calculated on the same basis as 2022/23. There had been one misstatement of £4.1 million identified in respect of the Fund’s valuation of certain private market investments but where this misstatement had not been corrected due to Fund officers adopting best practice and CIPFA guidance in its initial approach. 6.3 There was Annual Report guidance published in April 2024. This was the first since 2019. Due to the short notice in publishing this guidance, LGPS funds were asked to use best endeavours for this guidance. The majority of these updated requirements had been implemented for this year’s report due to the extensive work undertaken by the Pensions Team. 6.4 Following questions from the Board, the following points were made: · In respect of the ISA260, Dani Davies of Audit Wales confirmed that, although CIPFA guidelines had been followed, the misstatement had been flagged as the error was above the required reporting level. · With regards the annual report, the Head of Pensions noted that there would be further information shared with the Committee on the make-up of the identified misstatement. · A member of the Pension Board asked whether the early retirement costs’ set out on page 105 of the Annual Report should include cases where members chose to take their pension early. Following a discussion, it was agreed that these should not be included in the Annual Report, 6.5 Local Pension Board thanked officers for implementing previous suggestions within this report. 6.6 The Local Pension Board noted the draft annual report and accounts for 2023/24.
7.1 The Pension Manager outlined the report and provided an update on the administrative services provided by the Pension Fund and to highlight several areas of activity and development throughout the quarter. 7.2 The following points were made: • There was a new table added to the Key Performance Indicators as per the action raised in the last Local Pension Board meeting. • There were a number of lower KPI’s seen during this quarter due to a busy period with limited resources. • Approximately 36% of the total membership of the Fund was now registered for My Pension Online. • The Pension Awareness Day held with Newport County Borough Council had been highly positive. • All Annual Benefit Statements were now uploaded to My Pensions Online. • Work had been continued on McCloud. • The six-week consultation period had begun on the Pension Administration Strategy. • The Heywood Pension Technologies Integrated Service Provider (ISP) solution to assist the Pension Fund in preparation to the Pension Dashboard. 7.3 Following questions from the Board, the Pension Manager and Head of Pensions made the following points: • Conversations were being held with colleagues to ensure a clear process was in place surrounding the queries made in respect of death certificates. • Transfers-in tended to take an extended period due to the need for information from other parties and due to the general complexities of these. • Bron Afon’s employer pension decisions were entirely at the discretion of the employer. • Bron Afon gave formal notice of their decision to cease participation in the LGPS following a report to Torfaen Council on this matter. • The Pension Awareness Day was held in person at Newport County Council offices. • The demographic of those that attended the Pension Awareness Day tended to be those close to retirement. • The reasons for scheme members opting to utilise the 50/50 scheme were not disclosed to Fund officers and so it was not easy to provide this insight to members. 7.4 The Local Pension Board note the draft annual report and accounts for 2023/24 and comment on the contents as appropriate.
8.1 The Pension Manager outlined the report and provided the Local Pension Board with an overview of the Pension Regulator’s General Code of Practice which was issued in March 2024 and updated members on Fund compliance with the revised code, whilst highlighting several areas of current activity. 8.2 The Pension Regulator’s General Code of Practice came into force on the 28th March 2024. The report sets out the recommended and legal requirements expected from the Fund. Paragraph 7.4 of the report shows a breakdown, setting out where the individual requirements have either been fully met, partially met or not completed. A further update would be provided at the next Local Pension Board meeting. 8.3 Following questions from the Board, the Pension Manager made the following points: · The partially met opinion in respect of Cyber Security was due to the fact that the Pension Fund did not have its own individual Business Continuity Plan and was instead covered by Torfaen County Borough Council’s Continuity plan. · Not completed meant that this area had not yet been looked at and recognised the assessment of compliance remained a work in progress. · This report would be returned to the Local Pension Board in order to address the areas not yet addressed. · The regulator acknowledged the scope of this work and did not expect the Fund to have implemented all of the identified changes immediately. 8.4 The Local Pension Board noted the report.
9.1 The Pension Manager outlined the report and provided an update on the revised Breaches Policy. 9.2 The main updates on this report could be seen in paragraph 4.2 of the report. If these updates were put in place it would ensure this area was fully compliant with the Pension Regulator’s General Code of Practice. 9.3 Following questions from the Board, the Head of Pensions and Pension Manager made the following points: · There would be cross referencing undertaken between the Fund’s breach policy and the Welsh Pension Partnership’s breach policy. · Any breach that directly impacted the fund would be reported. 9..4 The Board noted there was a discrepancy to how they were referred to within the report. 9.5 The Local Pension Board noted the report and commented on the changes to the draft Breaches Policy included within appendix 1.
10.1 The Head of Pensions outlined the report and provided a quarterly update on how the Pension Fund approaches its management of risk. 10.2 Since the Risk Register was last formally considered by the Pension Committee in September 2024, the current version had been reviewed by officers. Since the last review, one risk had received a risk score change and minor updates had been issued to the controls of three risks. Further information on this could be seen in appendix 1. 10.3 For this risk in theme review, the Pension Manager suggested the Local Pension Board focus on strategic risks SR1 and SR3 during this review, focusing on Cyber Security and the Pension Regulator’s General Code of Practice. An update was given on these risks and information shared on how these risks were being appropriately managed. 10.4 Following questions from the Board, the Head of Pensions made the following points: · In respect of risk SR9, a residual score of 12 remained appropriate despite acknowledging that investment performance had moderately underperformed over the initial 5 year period. · The typing errors within the report and Risk Register noted by members of the Board would be amended. 10.5 The Local Pension Board: I. Noted the updated Risk Register and II. Commented on the new ‘risk in theme’ approach and potential areas for consideration as part of next quarters review
11.1 The Head of Pensions outlined the report and gave an update on the work undertaken by the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) on behalf of the eight LGPS funds in Wales. 11.2 The last appendices regarding asset allocation and private market exposure had been added as requested by the Local Pension Board. In respect of asset allocation, as had been reported over prior quarters it was noted that strategic allocation was currently out of sync with what had been agreed for the long-term strategy. However, this was being addressed as evidenced by various investment decision papers to Pension Committee. 11.3 Following questions from the Board, the Head of Pensions made the following points: · The 8% referenced in respect of private market investments referred to what had been drawn down and invested, rather than the overall capital that had been committed · The timing of production of these reports, namely the appendices, were out of sync with other updates on the agenda which was an inevitable outcome of the quarterly reporting cycle.
12.1 The Pension Manager outlined the report and provided an update on the training already undertaken by members of the Pension Board, and proposed the Fund’s participation in the Hymans Robertson’s National Knowledge Assessment for 2024/2025. 12.2 The assessment of training needs was a key part of the Fund’s risk management plan. Therefore, the Fund officers had committed to participation in Hymans Robertson’s National Knowledge Assessment for 2024/2025, which was designed for Pension Committee and Local Pension Board members in order to assess collective knowledge across 8 topics. Following discussion with Hymans Robertson and in recognition of Pensions Regulator’s General Code of Practice, Fund officers determined that investment in an online training tool such as LOLA would be useful for members of the Board’s knowledge and understanding. 12.3 LOLA would provide the Board with the opportunity to watch video presentations with supplementary material and quizzes which would mirror the topics covered in the National Knowledge Assessment. This could be undertaken at the Board’s convenience. 12.4 Following questions from the board, the Pension Manager confirmed the following points: · There was not an expected time commitment to LOLA currently, this would be discussed once it was seen what the learning entailed. 12.5 The Local Pension Board: · Noted the annual training programme included within appendix 3 and considered whether any specific training areas or topics should be included · Would participate in the National Knowledge Assessment for 2024/25 and the ongoing online training tool LOLA in due course.
13.1 The date of the next meeting was noted.
14.1 The Board agreed to the exclusion of the press and public from the meeting as presentations and meeting papers were not for publication because in accordance with paragraphs 12 and 14 of part 4 of Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended by the Access to Information Variation Order Wales 2007), it contained information about a particular individual and information relating to the financial and business affairs of particular persons including the Council and in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemptions outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
Rhaid i gynghorwyr ddweud pan fydd ganddyn nhw gysylltiad personol â rhywbeth sy'n cael ei drafod, fel swydd, eiddo neu aelod o'r teulu. Mae buddiant sy'n rhagfarnu yn ddigon cryf i'r cynghorydd adael yr ystafell fel arfer a pheidio â chymryd rhan.
Caiff datganiadau eu darllen o'r cofnodion unwaith y byddan nhw wedi'u cyhoeddi.
Dyw'r cyngor ddim wedi cofnodi presenoldeb ar gyfer y cyfarfod hwn.
Yn rhestru cynghorwyr presennol y cyngor yn unig. Nid yw aelodau cyfetholedig, swyddogion a chyn-gynghorwyr yn cael eu dangos.