Agenda item

To be presented by Julie Edwards, Head of Pensions, Buckinghamshire Council.

Each year the Pension Fund Committee was required to approve the Pension Fund Annual Report, including the Pension Fund Statement of Accounts. The Annual Report included pensions administration and investment performance, in addition to the annual accounts. The approval of the Annual Report was subject to the accounts being approved by the Buckinghamshire Council Audit and Governance Committee. The Chairman reported that he had received an update from the Section 151 officer regarding the accounts in that all figures had been sent to the auditors by the end of this week and were waiting for sign off. However, this could not be undertaken until a Statutory Instrument had been passed by Parliament and the earliest possible date for this was November 2022. The provisional Annual Report and Accounts for 2021/22 would be published on 30 November 2022 without an audit opinion if the audit for Buckinghamshire Council and the pension fund accounts had not been completed by that date. 

The Assistant Director of Finance particularly referred Members to Note 20 regarding Additional Voluntary Contributions and that information on AVC’s had been delayed by Prudential but they were addressing this and would have the information in time for the final accounts publication.

Members discussed the Annual Report. The Brunel Pension Partnership who looked after approximately 90% of the Fund received fees of £18 million and a Member queried whether any further information was available on the fees.  Fees were calculated on the value of the Fund. A further Member then suggested it would be helpful to have information on whether the Fund Manager provided good value for money and whether the fee was justified. The Chairman reported that as a result of the investment pooling agenda, the Buckinghamshire Fund had joined with nine other LGPS administering authorities to set up the Brunel Pension Partnership and the business case had been agreed in 2017 based on an estimated potential fee saving of £550 million over a 20 year period across the ten funds.  The expected costs and savings were set out on page 62 of the agenda pack. Members agreed that a breakdown of the management fees would not necessarily be helpful to the Committee but that Brunel should demonstrate why they were good value for money and also to demonstrate the savings they had currently made. It was noted that Brunel was a not-for-profit organisation.

A further query was made under note 13 regarding additional financial risk management disclosures which included information on market risk and market price risk and why this did not include any information on climate change. The Chairman referred the Member to page 153 of the agenda pack which referred to climate change under the social, environmental and corporate governance policy.

Under that same area, a Member referred to Brunel being committed to industry and corporate engagement, decarbonising its listed investment portfolios, and being transparent about their carbon intensity.  Members noted that the Committee would work with Brunel to ensure that these were implemented over time. On an annual basis Brunel produced data so that the Fund’s progress could be monitored.

RESOLVED

That the Annual Report 2021/22 be approved, subject to the statement of accounts element being signed off by Audit and Governance Committee.