Agenda item

The Committee considered the Buckinghamshire Pension Fund Audit Plan 2021/22 which was introduced by Mr Skinner and presented by Mr Stocks. The report appended to the agenda pack provided an overview of the planned scope and timing of the statutory audit of the Buckinghamshire Pension Fund for those charged with governance. It was anticipated that the Pension Fund accounts for 2021/22 would be in a position to be presented at the next meeting of this Committee.

Key points raise during discussion included:

·         The pension fund contained substantial assets amounting to approximately £3.9 billion so the external auditors undertook an extensive amount of work on the different levels of investments as set out in the report.

·         It was noted within the report that the members of the Audit and Governance Committee were required to understand certain aspects relating to the audit, the Chairman advised that as of May 2022, the Committee membership was the same as the previous year’s so no additional training was undertaken, however since then there had been changes in membership and there could be further changes following the Annual General Meeting of Council in May, as such the Chief Auditor had proposed a training session be held for all Committee Members after the AGM, it was further suggested that an item on the valuation of properties could also be covered in that session.

ACTION: Ms M Gibb, Chief Auditor to arrange Audit and Governance Committee training for a date following the Council AGM Meeting which was scheduled for 17 May 2023.

·         Page 26 of the reports pack referred to ‘…our IT team has checked the progress which management has made against the recommendations made in the report issued in September 2021’. It was clarified that this was a separate IT review which looked at general controls including areas such as password control, super user access, and changes in terms of updating the ledger. Mr Stocks agreed to check whether the report had been previously presented to the Committee, and if not would be happy to share.

ACTION: Mr Stocks to check whether a copy of the IT report had been shared with the Committee and if not, circulate this separately.

·         A Member queried whether Russian investments included both direct and indirect investments and was advised that the external auditors looked as far as they could in to investments in Russia, and noted that the external audit sought assurance controls for which it would take a considerable amount of time to include reviewing investments with indirect links to Russia. Assessing the overall investment work was the responsibility of pension fund managers and The Brunel Partnership along with State Street, the custodian.

·         In terms of international policy, the external auditors assessed the impact of government policy, and took in to account market issues, such as the recent issue with liability backed investments which the pension fund held none of. It was very difficult to look at all worldwide policies; however observable inputs were looked at such as whether all major investments held had a market value. Given the size and power of the US economy, market issues there which had an impact in the UK were assessed, with further work to be done on what funds were held within banks given recent issues in the banking industry and then a decision made on whether a post balance sheet disclosure would be required. The auditors would review accounts and ensure valuations were correct as at 31 March and ensure that there was supporting evidence to back these valuations up, whilst policy assurance would come from Brunel and State Street.

·         It was clarified that this was the audit plan for 2021/22 and that the pension fund accounts containing the figures, along with an audit opinion would be presented to a future Committee meeting.

·         In relation to the dates noted on page 27 of the reports pack, the Committee was advised that this report had initially been scheduled to be presented to the February 2023 meeting, and the audit was underway and should be completed by early April. It was accepted that the report should have said ‘December 2022 to February 2023’ under the Year End Audit heading.

RESOLVED:

That the Buckinghamshire Pension Fund Audit Plan 2021/22 be noted.