Agenda and minutes

The Democratic Services Officer advised the meeting of the procedure.

The Democratic Services Officer announced that this meeting was being held with only a quorum of the Committee due to ongoing social distancing measures resulting from Covid-19.

He said that an informal virtual meeting of the Committee had been held on Friday 24^th September for all members where they had agreed provisional recommendations.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to complete the green interest forms circulated to groups in their pre-meetings (which will be announced at the Council Meeting) to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer or a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

There was none.

There were none.

There were none.

The minutes were approved as a correct record.

The draft minutes of the Pension Board will be circulated once approved.

The Committee noted the draft minutes of the Pension Board from their meeting that took place on September 21^st 2021.

The Committee, having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, RESOLVED, in accordance with the provisions of the Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 that the public should be excluded from the meeting for this item of business, because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

The Risk Management Framework encompasses three dedicated risk management strategies and a passive equity fund for collateral management purposes, namely the Liability Driven Investment Strategy, Buy-and-Maintain Corporate Bond Portfolio and the Equity Protection Strategy. These strategies are linked to the funding strategy and de-risk the Fund by placing less reliance on growth assets to fund future pension benefits and to simultaneously protect the Fund’s current funding position.

The Committee RESOLVED to note the following:

(i)  The Risk Management Strategies are all achieving their strategic objectives.

(ii)  There are no strategic changes required to any of the strategies.

(iii)  There is adequate collateral to support the strategies.

This report updates the Committee about Brunel and the wider pool covering delivery of service, performance, and risk management aspects of the pool.

The Committee RESOLVED to note the information set out in the report and appendices.

The Investment Panel is responsible for addressing investment issues including the investment management arrangements and the performance of the investment managers. The Panel has delegated responsibilities from the Committee and may also make recommendations to Committee.

The Committee RESOLVED to note the draft minutes of the Investment Panel meeting on 17th September at Appendix 1 and Exempt Appendix 2.

This paper reports on the investment performance of the Fund and seeks to update the Committee on routine strategic aspects of the Fund’s investments and funding level; and policy and operational aspects of the Fund.

The Investments Manager introduced this report. He gave a brief summary of the discussion from the Informal Virtual Meeting held on 24^th September.

·  The funding level is estimated to have improved from 97% to 101% over Q2 as asset growth outweighed the rise in the value of the liabilities. It is estimated to have increased by 9% over the year to 30 June 2021.

·  The benefit of now having a Dynamic Equity Protection Strategy would be that the protection will evolve in line with the markets. The protection would be in place from the first -10% move in equities and that permanent protection would be in place if markets fell from -10% to -30%

·  The portfolio was well positioned with indirect inflation protection for the exposure to real assets and there was also potential to rebalance inflation hedging within the risk management mandate.

The Committee RESOLVED to note the information set out in the report and appendices.

The purpose of this report is to update the Pensions Committee on the latest position concerning the Local Government Pension Scheme [LGPS] and any proposed regulatory matters that could affect scheme administration.

The Committee RESOLVED to note the current position regarding the developments that could affect the administration of the fund.

The purpose of this report is to present the Fund’s performance for the three months to 30th June 2021 against its key performance indicators (KPI’s) in relation to the administration of pension benefits. The report also addresses the Fund’s business operational position from an overall risk perspective.

The Service Director for Financial Control and Pensions informed the Committee that following a representation from the Chairman some staff within the service were now due to receive laptops sooner than expected through the rollout programme.

Councillor Shaun Stephenson-McGall asked if there was any update with regard to staff being able to return to work within Keynsham Civic Centre.

The Service Director for Financial Control and Pensions replied that a remodelling of the River Suite was also planned as part of the refurbishment and that a walkabout of the site was due to take place next week to assess the feasibility for staff within the service to use this space once work had been completed.

The Committee RESOLVED to note:

(i) The Fund performance for the three months to 30th June 2021.

(ii) The current Risk Register.

The purpose of this report is to inform the Committee of administration and management expenditure incurred against budget for the year to 31 July 2021.

The Committee RESOLVED to note:

(i)  The administration and management expenditure incurred for the year to 31 March 2022.

(ii)  The Cash Flow report for the year to 31 March 2022.

(iii)  The Going Concern Statement for the Pension Fund as currently drafted.

Attached to this report is the work plan for the Committee and a separate one for the Investment Panel which set out provisional agendas for forthcoming meetings. The dates for future Committee and Panel meetings are also included.

The Committee RESOLVED to note the Committee & Investment Panel work plans and training programme for the relevant period.