Agenda item

This report updates the Pensions Board on various pensions administration matters as part of its remit to oversee the administration of the Brent Pension Fund.

I have attached appendices 1-4 to the main report.

Mr Ravinder Jassar (Head of Finance) introduced the report that updated the Board on various pensions administration matters as part of its remit to oversee the administration of the Brent Pension Fund. He highlighted the following:

The Pensions administration team were holding monthly meetings to monitor the performance of the contract, looking at both the individual month and trends across months.  It has been observed that the cases completed on time has significantly improved since February across all categories but due to a large backlog of cases inherited from the previous administration provider, the number of cases carried forward remained disappointing. He stressed that the number of carried forward cases was 163 lower than February 2019.

The Record Keeping Plan (RKP) was a key document for the Fund that formally documents the actions being taken to review and address the data issues facing the Fund.  One of the most significant elements of the plan is the data cleanse project currently being undertaken by LPP. Phase 1 of the project which addressed critical issues with common and scheme specific data, focusing on ensuring scheme data is accurate was in time for the triennial valuation.

Mr Jassar also provided an update on the forthcoming triennial valuation (every three years), in which a formal valuation of the whole Fund was carried out under Regulation 62 (1) of LGPS Regulations 2013 to assess and examine the ongoing financial position of the Fund.  The chief purpose of the valuation was to value the assets and liabilities of each individual employer and the pension fund as a whole, with a view to setting employer contribution rates which will result in each employer’s liabilities becoming as close to fully funded as possible over the agreed recovery period outlined in the Funding Strategy Statement (FSS).  With that in view, complete and accurate membership data was critical in ensuring the valuation results were accurate.  If the Fund actuary is concerned about the quality of the underlying data, they will usually add a margin of prudence into their assumptions to accommodate data inaccuracies.  This could mean that participating employers may have to pay contribution rates that are not directly related to the underlying liabilities

Members heard that at the end of March 2019, The Pensions Regulator (TPR) formally wrote to the scheme manager informing them that based on the information supplied throughout the engagement, TPR did not intend to take any action against the scheme manager and the case files had closed.

He drew Members’ attention to the 2019 Member Communications Strategy, attached to this report in Appendix 2 and the revised terms of reference for the Pension Board which was annually reviewed to ensure it was fit for purpose (attached to this report in Appendix 4).

In welcoming the updates including the Conflicts of Interest Policy, the Chair added if any Member had concerns about the pensions administration, they should contact the Head of Finance. 

RESOLVED:

(i)       That the pensions administration updates be noted;

(ii)      That the conflicts of interest policy was fit for purpose.