Agenda item

The Investment Manager presented the report.

She said that since the last Committee meeting in March the Brunel Oversight Board (BOB) had met once, in April. There were two matters of particular interest to the Committee. One was a report on governance. Brunel is reviewing the governance arrangements for the whole partnership after 18 months of operation. The review is in large part focussed on technical issues to reflect changes in legislation, FCA regulations, and operational practice now that Brunel is established. The legal officers of the client funds will review the draft proposals, which will go back to BOB in July for comment with the final proposals being considered by BOB in September. Governance arrangements are a special reserved matter, so any changes will require the unanimous approval of the shareholders. The other matter was a review of the Brunel’s internal control environment. Because Brunel is an FCA-regulated company, the control environment is quite onerous. Brunel is in the process of developing their control environment and as part of this process the internal auditor had completed audits on different aspects which identified areas that needed to be strengthened. This had been constructive, and would assist Brunel in developing a robust control environment. Progress would be reviewed by BOB in July. The plan for transitioning assets remains on track. The client assurance framework, by which funds in the pool will hold Brunel to account for service delivery, is near to completion.

Before considering exempt appendices 2a, 2b and 3 the Committee, having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, RESOLVED that the public should be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of exempt appendices 2a, 2b and 3 and that the reporting of this part of the meeting should be prevented, 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 Schedule 12A of the Act as amended.

After the Committee returned to open session it RESOLVED to note:

1. the progress made on the pooling of assets;

2. the updated project plan for the transition of assets.