Agenda item

Governance Report

Minutes:

6.1 The Board considered a report providing an update on various governance workstreams completed and changes affecting the LGPS and the ESPF.

6.2 Michael Burton (MB) drew the Board’s attention to the following:

1) The Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill was not concluded in the Parliamentary wash up pre-election and would need to be restarted by the new government if this is to be taken forward.

2) The Fund received a letter from the Minister for Local Government dated 15 May 2024 requesting submission. It is unclear at this time if the Fund will be required to respond to the Minister since the general election announcement, but Officers will look to draft a response. It was noted the Scheme Advisory Board has offered a meeting with Fund officers and Fund chairs. An update will be provided to Pension Committee on 19 June.

3) As the Lifetime Allowance has been abolished; the Communications manager and wider team have been working to revise template letters and Fund documentation to reflect this.

4) Tim Oliver has left his role at Brighton University and has stepped down from the Pension Board. Officers are currently going through the process of seeking a new employer representative and a report will be taken to the Governance Committee meeting of 25 June 2024 with a recommendation for a new member.

5) The annual report of the Pension Board to Pension Committee is due to be presented to the Pension Committee at their meeting on 19 June 2024. Officers have liaised with the Chair of Pension Board to produce a draft report to be presented and the Board were asked to comment if they wanted any amendments.

6) The Training Policy, Privacy Notices and Memorandum of Understanding were updated and presented, there were few changes proposed to the policies appended to the report reflecting the Fund is already compliant with regulations; it was agreed that the Privacy Notice should be considered as it was noted scheme employers and other pension funds were not included. Officers will discuss with the Data Protection team and if required will update to ensure it reflects all data processors.

7) An amendment has been made to the Fund’s exit credit policy to reflect the way in which the Pension Committee consider its discretion in the retention of payment of a surplus. Where an admission was entered into pre-May 2018 the wording of the policy was felt to be too definitive whereas in practice this is one of many considerations the Pension Committee take into account when making their decision. It was agreed that the wording would be reviewed again to ensure it is not too assumptive of a particular outcome.

6.3 The Board confirmed there were content with the annual report.

6.4 NS asked whether there is a perception that schemes such as the LGPS are inefficient and what officers view were on this and whether it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of Fund against other public sector schemes. SK confirmed that officers consider the East Sussex Pension Fund to have robust governance processes and that it is effective. A focus on costs usually relates to the investment management fees which do not exist in unfunded public sector schemes so it is very hard to draw comparisons between public sector funds.