Issue - meetings

49.1     The Committee considered a report providing an update on various governance and employer engagement work completed and changes affecting the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) generally and ESPF specifically.

49.2     It was clarified that the new governance structure of the ESPF has been based on best practice published by the Scheme Advisory Board. It is hoped it will be effective, but any areas that are not currently addressed – for example, whether it is a conflict of interest for the Section 151 officer to be both the responsible officer for the administering authority of the Fund and a Chief Finance Officer of an employer of the Fund – could be revisited in the future.

49.3     The Committee RESOLVED to:

(1) Approve the ACCESS Pool Amended and Re-stated Inter- Authority Agreement (IAA) (Appendix 1);

(2) Note the update to the ACCESS link operator agreement;

(3) Approve the Pension Fund Conflict of Interests Policy (Appendix 2);

(4) Note the update on the McCloud Working Group;

(5) Approve Option 3 approach for classification and inclusion of employers for ill health insurance implementation as set out in 2.16 and Appendix 6;

(6) Note the draft Employer Forum agenda (Appendix 7);

(7) Note the progress in recruitment to the Pension Fund team and initiation of review of communications (Appendix 8); and

(8) thank Russell Wood for his work over the past 18 months whilst the new Pension Fund Team has been developed.