Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to update the Board on the Pension Regulator’s General Code of Practice and Brent’s measures to comply with the new requirements.

John Smith introduced a report from the Corporate Director Finance & Resources, which updated the Board on the Pension Regulator’s General Code of Practice and Brent’s measures to comply with the new requirements.

The following key issues were highlighted in presenting the report:

• In providing further context, the Board was advised that the General Code of Practice had come into force on 28 March 2024 and was designed to consolidate requirements within the previous codes. The code applied to all public and private sector pensions schemes including the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and included five sections relating to The Governing Body; Funding and Investment; Administration; Communications and Disclosure and Reporting to the Pensions Regulator.

• Whilst there was no requirement to be completely compliant immediately, pension schemes were now required to measure their performance against the Code and develop a plan to achieve full compliance in due course.

• Following introduction of the Code, Brent had undertaken a self-assessment, the outcome of which had been detailed in Appendix 1 of the report categorised against specific regulatory requirements, expectations and best practice identifying those areas already assessed as compliant as well as areas for improvement and requiring further action to ensure compliance.

• At this stage, the Board were advised that Brent had not measured itself against the IT module, which covered maintenance of IT systems and Cyber controls as the Pension Fund shared IT services with the Council (as host authority) who were already felt to have robust protocols in place covering the requirements.  Moving forward it was, however, confirmed that Pension fund officers would be meeting with the Shared IT Service and external providers in order to complete the required assessment against the Code.

• The Code also sought to extend the range of knowledge and understanding of Board and Committee members, with further training being planned for members by officer.

• In working to achieve full compliance, the need was identified to ensure regular assessment against the code in order to ensure continuous improvement and identify further actions to be completed.

Having thanked John Smith for the report and acknowledged the substantial work involved in terms of the self-assessment process and ongoing progress towards full compliance the Chair then invited comments from members, with the issues raised summarised below:

• In recognising the additional responsibility placed on Board members under the Code in relation to their knowledge and training, members were keen to seek an overall assessment on the progress being made towards achieving full compliance.  In response, the Board were advised that positive progress had been made with the Fund well placed in terms of the policies and Pension Administration Strategy already established and level of regulation.  A number of areas had already been identified as needing to be addressed including refresh of the Breaches Policy and, whilst Brent was felt to be in a good position, the level of work still required to achieve full compliance was recognised by the Board.

The Chair thanked John Smith and officers for the work in completing the self-assessment and with no further questions raised, the Board RESOLVED to note the update provided and work ongoing towards full compliance with the Code.