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Pension Board |
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Date of meeting: |
5 June 2025 |
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By: |
Chief Finance Officer |
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Title: |
East Sussex Pension Fund (ESPF) 2024/25 Outturn report |
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Purpose:
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This report provides the financial outturn of the ESPF for the 2024/25 financial year. |
RECOMMENDATION:
The Pension Board is recommended to note the report.
1. Background
1.1 The East Sussex Pension Fund’s (the Fund) business plan and budget sets out the direction of travel, objectives and targets to be achieved in the financial management for the administering authority to carry out its statutory duties in a structured way. The Pension Committee is charged with meeting the duties of the Council as administering authority in respect of the Fund.
1.2 At its meeting on the 22 February 2024 the Pension Committee agreed a budget of £4.561m to support the business plan for 2024/25. The budget estimates do not incorporate any provision for investment fees earned by the investment managers since there is limited scope for the Fund to influence these costs. This is due to the nature of the fees being based on factors outside the control of the Fund such as market movements, strategic asset allocation changes and ownership of mandates at pool level.
2. 2024/25 Outturn Position
2.2 The final outturn position of 2024/25 is £4.276m, this is a decrease from the last projected position of £0.038m and also reflects an underspend against the approved budget of £0.325m. The 2024/25 outturn against budget line items is shown in the table below.
2.3 The underspend since the last reported position mostly relates to decrease in the improvement projects costs. In paragraph 2.4 to 2.9 more detail has been provided around the items that have resulted in this reduction.
2024/25 Outturn Report
|
2023/24 Outturn |
Item |
2024/25 Budget |
2024/25 Actual Outturn |
Previous Forecast Outturn |
Variance to Previous Quarter |
|
£000 |
£000 |
£000 |
£000 |
£000 |
|
|
|
Pension Fund Staff Costs |
|
|
|
|
|
1,958 |
Fund Officers |
2,436 |
2,334 |
2,318 |
16 |
|
1,958 |
Sub Total |
2,436 |
2,334 |
2,318 |
16 |
|
|
Oversight and Governance Expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
365 |
Investment Advice |
448 |
384 |
357 |
27 |
|
39 |
Actuarial Fund Work |
51 |
71 |
53 |
18 |
|
118 |
Actuarial Employer Work |
89 |
92 |
90 |
2 |
|
(119) |
Employer reimbursement |
(89) |
(92) |
(90) |
(2) |
|
38 |
Legal Fees |
57 |
24 |
28 |
(4) |
|
42 |
Governance consultancy costs |
60 |
42 |
50 |
(8) |
|
115 |
Audit |
120 |
144 |
126 |
18 |
|
598 |
Sub Total |
736 |
665 |
614 |
51 |
|
|
Investment Expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
107 |
Custodian |
100 |
102 |
101 |
1 |
|
107 |
Sub Total |
100 |
102 |
101 |
1 |
|
|
Administration Expenses |
|
|
|
|
|
489 |
IT Systems licenses costs and Hardware |
487 |
524 |
529 |
(5) |
|
315 |
Overheads |
531 |
344 |
353 |
(9) |
|
246 |
Admin operational support services |
18 |
91 |
66 |
25 |
|
106 |
Improvement projects |
87 |
92 |
165 |
(73) |
|
61 |
Consultancy |
20 |
30 |
40 |
(10) |
|
60 |
Communications |
37 |
7 |
33 |
(26) |
|
26 |
Training |
33 |
13 |
20 |
(7) |
|
84 |
Subscriptions |
80 |
83 |
79 |
4 |
|
53 |
Other Expenses |
11 |
12 |
11 |
1 |
|
1,440 |
Sub Total |
1,304 |
1,196 |
1,296 |
(100) |
|
|
Income |
|
|
|
|
|
(21) |
Other Income |
(15) |
(21) |
(15) |
(6) |
|
(21) |
Sub Total |
(15) |
(21) |
(15) |
(6) |
|
4,082 |
Total |
4,561 |
4,276 |
4,314 |
(38) |
2.4 The outturn for improvement projects was reduced in main due to the slippage of the Integrated Service Provider (ISP) Dashboard project that officers budgeted for in this year now not taking place until the next financial year. This is reflected by a saving of £73,000 since the last projected outturn and will be incorporated into forecast outturns for 2025/26.
2.6 The Admin Operational Costs have offset these reductions slightly as clarification has been provided around East Sussex County Council (ESCC) Charges for printing and posting increasing the cost of these services. This is reflected by an increased cost of £25,000 since the last projected outturn.
2.7 The Actuarial Fund work was slightly higher than the previous forecast due to additional work on cessations taking place, which is reflected by an increase in cost of £18,000 since the last projected outturn.
2.8 ACCESS costs for work in preparing the response to the Fit for the Future consultation increased the Investment Advice costs by £27,000 since the last projected outturn.
2.9 There were further low value movements across the remaining budget lines which together resulted in an additional £9,000 reduction to the reported outturn forecast.
3. Conclusion and reasons for recommendation
3.1 The Board is recommended to note the final 2024/25 outturn position.
IAN GUTSELL
Chief Finance Officer
Contact Officer:
Russell Wood, Pensions Manager: Investments and Accounting
Email: Russell.wood@eastsussex.gov.uk