Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were none.

To approve the minutes from the previous meeting.

One amendment had to be made on the minutes under item no. 2 “Declarations of Interest”, to read: Councillor Simon Carswell – Member of the Local Government Pension Scheme.

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 October 2024 as amended were approved as a true record.

Details of all Members’ interests in District, Town and Parish Councils will be

displayed in the meeting room. The Statutory Register of Member’s Interests can be inspected via the Community Governance team.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors 2023).

The following declarations were made:

Councillor Simon Carswell – Member of the Local Government Pension Scheme

Rod Bryant - Recipient of the Local Government Pension

Antony White - Member of the Local Government Pension Scheme

Alison Wyatt – Member of the Local Government Pension Scheme. Member of Avon Pension Scheme and a representative of that scheme’s Pension Board

The Chair will allow members of the public to present a petition on any matter within the Board’s remit.  Questions or statements about any matter on the agenda for this meeting will be taken at the time when each matter is considered.

The Chair to advise the Board of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, please see details under ‘click here to join online meeting’.

There were none.

To consider the papers provided to the Pension Fund Committee at their meeting of 13^th December 2024.

Anton Sweet, Funds & Investments Manager, gave a verbal report on the papers provided to the Pension Fund Committee at their meeting on 13 December 2024 highlighting:

Review of Investment Performance

·      The return for the quarter was 1.1%, slightly behind the benchmark of 1.3%. This was broadly consistent with the actuarial underlying requirement.

·      Despite significant market volatility in the second half of last year and the start of this year, returns have been reasonable due to generally positive equity markets.

·      The returns were slightly ahead of the 4.6% absolute return target, which was also the discount rate embedded in the actuarial evaluation for this cycle.

·      Returns for the quarter ending 31st December were slightly better, and returns had been relatively positive in early 2025. There should be improved figures to report at the April meeting.

·      The Primary Rate Estimate was estimated at 18.5% as of 30th September, which reflected market movements since 2022 and a reduction in inflation expectations.

The Employment Communications Lead for Peninsula Pensions, Shirley Cuthbert, gave a report on the administrative performance review papers provided to the Pension Fund Committee at their meeting on 13 December 2024 highlighting:

Review of Administration Performance

·      For the second quarter ending on 30^th September, 87% of work was completed within target, with 92% of that being higher priority procedures like retirement cases.

·      16 compliments were received

·      Ms Cuthbert went through the various appendices and explained how each provided detailed breakdowns of administration performance against statutory disclosure regulations and internal targets, long-term performance for the year ending 30^th September and increase in work received over the previous 12 months compared to the same period the previous year.

·      There were four new admitted bodies, schools moving to Academy status and one cessation within the quarter.

·      The team collaborated with software suppliers to deliver the McCloud project on time, with a dedicated team reviewing 2,720 calculations.

·      An additional member was being recruited for the McCloud project team.

·      Annual Benefit Statements were sent out before the required date, with most issued via the Member self-service Portal, which included a personalized video.

·      On the pension dashboard an online tool for checking pension benefits had been added, as requested by the government, with further information available via a link in the report.

Business plan update

Next, Anton Sweet went through the Business plan update which was provided to the Pension Fund Committee highlighting:

·      The external audit of the pension fund’s accounts was complete, and Grant Thornton presented their audit findings to the Somerset Council’s Audit Committee on 12th November.

·      The final opinion on the pension fund’s accounts was pending until the opinion on Somerset Council’s accounts was issued.

·      Somerset Council’s accounts were published in draft form, slightly behind the 31^st May deadline. Grant Thornton were expected to finalize their opinion by the end of February.

·      Grant Thornton confirmed that the opinion on the Council’s accounts would not impact the pension fund’s opinion, and a clean opinion was expected by the end of February.

To consider this report from the Funds & Investments Manager.

Anton Sweet, Funds & Investments Manager advised the board that:

·      Risks PF admin 6 and 7 had been increased to match the current scores as it had been agreed that all reasonable mitigation was being taken.

·      After Stephen Morton (Strategic Manager – Pensions) left the Council at the end of October the risks that were assigned to him were re-assigned to Anton. This effected risks PF Admin 1, 2, 3 and 4.

·      The assigning of all risks would be reviewed again following the likely legislation by Government for each LGPS administration authority to appoint a “Senior LGPS Officer” and the exact implementation of that by Somerset Council.

To consider this report from the Funds & Investments Manager.

The Chair may raise any items of urgent business.

The Funds & Investments Manager,updated the Board on the forward work-plan and affirmed that after Somerset Council’s (4^th February) restructure consultation there may be additional items and if there was something else which needed to be added into the forward plan there was a 6 month window to add it to the agenda.