Agenda item

It was noted that the paragraph beginning “The Investment Manager drew attention to the information about the BPP response…” on pages 3-4 of the Minutes (agenda pages 7-8) had been duplicated on page 4 (agenda page 8). The duplicate paragraph should be deleted. Subject to this amendment the Minutes were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The following Matters Arising were noted:

Page 5 (agenda page 9): ‘a “wiring diagram should be produced showing the new organisation structures’: this appeared under item 12 on today’s agenda.

Page 6, first paragraph: contacts with other Funds re reporting year-end breaches:  the Chair asked whether there had been any further contacts with other funds. The Pensions Manager confirmed there had only been contact with Cornwall Pension Fund. The Chair said that he was keen that the Avon Fund should benchmark itself against other Brunel Funds in the reporting of breaches. He requested that an email be sent to the other funds asking them whether they had reported breaches to TPR, and that a report be made at the next meeting. Avon Fund should have an idea of whether it was being too lenient in respect of breach reporting. The Employer Services Manager said that Cornwall had attempted to report a breach, but TPR had referred it back to them. The Chair said that this was interesting information in the light of the discussion about TPR at the training session; we should try to find out if other funds had had similar experiences. He suggested that the Avon Fund might try a test breach report to TPR to see whether it added to other evidence of how the current regime for breach reporting is working.

Page 6, second paragraph: “recommendation that the 84% of employers who did not attend the Employers’ Conference should be asked the reasons for non-attendance”. The Pensions Manager said that a survey form had been sent to employers, to which there had been about six responses. Reasons given for non-attendance included that it had been the wrong time of year, and that there had been clashes with other meetings. Information about the next conference had been sent to employers. The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions said the conference was not an effective means of engagement with certain employers: the fact that the conference was held during the day and that smaller employers found it difficult to spare staff made attendance difficult in many cases. The Chair urged that pressure be kept on employers who were failing to engage with the Pensions Service.

Page 7, item 32, resolution: wording of ISS: the Head of Business, Finance and Pensions said that this would be addressed in the new ISS, which would go to the December meeting of the APF Committee and be circulated to the Pension Board beforehand.

Page 9, item 34: adoption by APF of the Transparency Code: it was agreed that information on this and which APF fund managers had not signed up would come to the next meeting of the Board.

Page 11, item 37:RESOLVED that the workload impact and resource consequences of rising numbers of employers joining the fund should be reviewed by the Administering Authority.  It was noted this was a matter for the Pensions Committee to decide in the forthcoming review of the Fund administration strategy.

Page 11, item 38: GDPR implementation: it was noted a report on this would come to the next meeting.

Page 12, item 39: Pension Board Annual Report: this had been published on the APF website.