Agenda item

The Investments Manager summarised the financial report. The forecast was for a net underspend for the year ending 31 March 2013 mainly because of lower fees for investment managers and reduced fees under the new custodial contract. There had been £17,000 additional expenditure on IT, which was approved by the Committee in September 2012.

The Pensions Manager summarised the performance report. Active membership remained fairly stable. The number of joiners had declined, which was not unexpected in view of the on-going freeze in local authority recruitment. Employers had been advised that Employer Self Service had been enhanced to allow online updating of member changes. Online updating would be mandatory from 1 April 2013. The Fund had purchased i-Connect, which will allow information on starters and changers to uploaded monthly into the Fund’s database from employers’ payroll data. The four unitaries had also signed contracts to take i-Connect, which would also allow them to monitor their workforce data electronically to assess their staff for auto enrolment purposes. He then turned to the employer performance data, which would no longer be taken in exempt session. There had been major improvements in the performance of Bristol City Council and North Somerset. South Gloucestershire was improving, but Bath and North East Somerset was lagging behind. This had been taken up with the Head of Human Resources at B&NES, who had sent a response to the Chair. The Chair said that this would be copied to any member who requested it.  The Pensions Manager said that great progress had been made in removing errors from the Fund’s database; all errors should have been removed by the end of the year. A detailed explanation of the apparently poor performance by B&NES and Bristol City Council on deferreds had been included on page 172 of the agenda papers. Their performance figures for deferreds were expected to improve when older “backlog” cases had been cleared. Three employers who had failed to send their year-end returns were listed on page 173 of the agenda. They were Liberata, Mangotsfield Parish Council and Southern Brooks.  Their returns had all been received prior to this meeting

RESOLVED to note:

(i)  administration and management expenses incurred for 7 months to 31 October 2012;

(ii)  performance indicators and customer satisfaction feedback for 3 months to 31 October 2012;

(iii)  Summary Performance Report for period 1 April 2011 to 31 October 2012.