Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Ms K Thomson.

To note the Terms of Reference and membership of the Board.

The Terms of Reference were noted. 

Members are invited to disclose any disclosable pecuniary interest they have in any item on the agenda which comprises

1          Details of any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

2          Details of any payment or provision of any other financial benefit (other than from the authority) made or provided within the relevant period in respect of any expenses incurred by you in carrying out duties as a member, or towards your election expenses.  (This includes any payment or financial benefit from a trade union within the meaning of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

3          Details of any contract which is made between you (or a body in which you have a beneficial interest) and the authority

(a)     Under which goods or services are to be provided or works are to be executed; and

            (b)     Which has not been fully discharged.

4          Details of any beneficial interest in land which is within the area of the authority. 

5          Details of any licence (alone or jointly with others) to occupy land in the area of the authority for a month or longer. 

6          Details of any tenancy where (to your knowledge)

            (a)     The landlord is the authority; and

            (b)     The tenant is a body in which you have a beneficial interest.

7          Details of any beneficial interest in securities of a body where

(a)     That body (to your knowledge) has a place of business or land in the area of the authority; and

(b)       Either –

(i)        The total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body; or

(ii)       If that share capital of that body is of more than one class, the total nominal value of the shares of any one class in which the relevant person has a beneficial interest exceeds one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that class.

In addition, you must also disclose other non-pecuniary interests set out in the Code of Conduct where these have not already been registered.

Note

A “disclosable pecuniary interest” is an interest of a councillor or their partner (which means spouse or civil partner, a person with whom they are living as husband or wife, or a person with whom they are living as if they are civil partners).

There were no disclosures of interest.

To consider whether there are any items on the agenda for which the press and public should be excluded.

RESOLVED,     that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of:

Agenda Item No 10 – Review of the Action Plan resulting from Aon’s Review of the Fund’s Cyber Security Arrangements;

Agenda Item No 11 – Review of Administration Matters;

Agenda Item No 12 – LPPA Presentation; and

Agenda Item No 13 – Verbal Update on Emerging Issues

by virtue of paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as the reports contain information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the Authority holding that information).

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the Cumbria Local Pension Board meeting held on  15 July 2022  (copy enclosed).

RESOLVED,     that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 15 July 2022 be agreed as a true and accurate record.

To note the Schedule of future meetings (copy enclosed).

Members noted the schedule of meetings of the Cumbria LGPS Local Pension Board.

To consider the Current Work Plan (copy enclosed).

Members noted the work plan of the Cumbria LGPS Local Pension Board.

To receive an update from the Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) (copy enclosed).

Members considered a report from the Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) which updated them on all aspects of the governance and administration of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

Section 4 of this report summarised the work conducted, and decisions made by the Committee at its meeting held on 16 June 2022, in order that Board Members could review these as part of their legal responsibility to members of the Fund.

This report also advised members of other matters arising, including regulatory changes, since last reported to the Board. 

The Technical Finance Officer took members through the report, and highlighted the following:

·      Legal breaches – there had been no legal breaches reported to the Pensions Regulator during the period to June 2022. 

·      Risk – No new risks had been added to the register.  All risks had been thoroughly reviewed this quarter.  The information security was discussed in greater detail in Item 10.  The inflation risk had been re-worded in the risk register.  There were 18 risks (1 red, 3 amber and 14 green).

·      Data Quality – The data continues to be of a good quality.

·      Investment Management – The value of the Fund had decreased in the quarter from £3.318 billion to £3.144 billion as a result of the market volatility following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  However,  performance exceeded the Fund specific benchmark over 1,3, 5 and 10 years.

·      Training – some Members attended the September Pensions Committee training day held in Leeds, and a Member will be   attending  LGA Fundamentals online training sessions later this year.

·      Regulatory Changes – Public Services Pensions & Judicial Offices Act 2022 – The Act paved the way for the resolution to McCloud to be enacted with Regulations expected to come into force from 1 October 2023.

·      Regulatory Changes – Climate Risk Disclosures – The consultation was published on 1 September.  Officers were reviewing the proposals and would draft a response prior to the 24 November deadline.

A member remarked that with Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) there would be a high turnover of elected members and training would be an area of concern, although they felt it was not a high risk.  The member also remarked that biodiversity should be considered as an emerging risk.

The Senior Manager - Pensions and Financial Services commented that training was an important factor and officers were in the process of collating information to ensure appropriate provision for this would be available in early 2023 and agreed that biodiversity would be included as an emerging risk.

A member noted the valuation and if the impact of McCloud had been taken into account and what workload was expected of officers and employers.

The Senior Manager - Pensions and Financial Services remarked that McCloud had been taken into account.  The Group Finance Manager - Pensions Investments & Insurance added that when the regulations were published it would be possible to gauge what work was required and where this workload would impact.

 A member commented that the work involved in LGR would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

To note that the next meeting will be held on 17 January 2023.

The next meeting will be held on 17 January 2023 at 1pm

To receive an update from the Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) (copy enclosed).

Information security arrangements was identified in Cumbria LGPS’ risk register as the most significant risk for the Fund. In recognition of this AON was commissioned to undertake a review of cyber resilience within the Fund and recommend areas for improvement. The findings of this review, recommendations to further enhance cyber resilience and an associated action plan were considered by the Local Pension Board at its meeting on 15 July 2022.

This report provided further details on the action plan as requested by the Board and includes a confidential Fund Cyber Governance Policy reviewed and approved by the Committee at its meeting on 13 September 2022.

 Finally, it was noted that the Pensions Committee have formally requested that the Local Pension Board review progress of delivery against the action plan and report back to Committee as appropriate.

RESOLVED, that the Board

(1)             noted the Fund Cyber Governance policy.

(2)             noted the revised action plan to further strengthen cyber security arrangements within the Fund.

(3)             noted the allocation of work to the Local Pension Board from the Pension Committee associated with monitoring future progress against the cyber resilience action plan.

To receive an update from the Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) (copy enclosed).

Members considered a report from the Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer), which provided an update on the following key areas of Pensions’ Administration.

·     The service provided and monitoring of LPPA with a further update to be provided by LPPA in their presentation at the next agenda item.

·     Employer Issues and measures taken to mitigate them.

RESOLVED,     that the Board noted the Pension Administration matters detailed in the report and requested further information and/or feedback to the Pensions Committee as appropriate.

Rachel Blundell, Operations Director – Pensions Administration, Local Pensions Partnership has been invited to make a presentation to the Board.

Members received a verbal update from Ms J Darbyshire, Managing Director- Local Pension Partnership Administration (LPPA).  The update included:

·         New format of performance report

·         Performance against SLA’s

·         Customer satisfaction scores

·         Project PACE

The Chair thanked the Managing Director – Local Pension Partnership Administration for her update.

To receive a general verbal update from Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer).

The Director of Finance (S151 Officer) Senior Manager - Pensions and Financial Services updated the Board on current emerging issues, including:-

·      Local Government Reorganisation

·      Governance Arrangements

·      Staffing considerations