Agenda item

The Committee is invited to go into exempt session before discussing Exempt Appendix 2.

Ann Berresford withdrew from the meeting in accordance with her declaration of interest.

The Investment Manager presented the report. She asked Members to note that the Committee’s Terms of Reference would need to be amended to add the function of nominating a representative to the Oversight Board when this passed from shadow to substantive status. The proposed new Terms of Reference were attached as Appendix 1 to the report; they would need to be approved by Council in May.

A Member asked about the contingency of £500,000 to manage significant variances in individual items in the 2017/18 budget (para 7.1 of the report). He said this was a very high proportion of the £750,000 of the project budget for 2017/18 and wondered whether this indicated that the original cost estimates for the project had been wrong. The Investment Manager said that the total budget for the 15-month project was £1.4m. FLAG had agreed the contingency so that it would not be necessary to go back to the Committees if there were cost overruns. The money could only be drawn on if this was agreed by S151 officers. The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions added that the contingency had been agreed after it was found that the cost of recruitment process for the Chair of the Brunel Company would be well over budget. Another issue was that the FCA accreditation process had imposed a heavier workload than anticipated. A reserve had been set up to facilitate the process without the need to make repeated requests to Committee or Council for additional funds. These were one-off costs to ensure that the company could begin operations on 1^st April 2018.

The Member nominated by Higher and Further Education bodies said that it was not correct to state that he was nominated by “the education bodies” (Terms of Reference, top of agenda page 48). A Member pointed out that the term “’West of England” (ibid.) was now ambiguous, because the Mayoral Combined Authority does not include North Somerset.

The Chair invited the Committee to go into exempt session before discussion of Exempt Appendix 2.

The Committee RESOLVED that it was satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, and that therefore the public should be excluded from the meeting for the duration of the discussion of Exempt Appendix 2 to this item in accordance with the provisions of section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

Having returned to open session the Committee RESOLVED

1. to approve the amended Terms of Reference for the Committee to be

recommended to Council for approval at Council meeting in May 2017;

2. to note that the Committee will have to formally nominate its representative to the Brunel Partnership Oversight Board once the Board moves from shadow to formal status;

3. to note the progress with establishing the Brunel Pension Partnership Limited company.