Present:-

Fund Employer Representatives

Councillors Brook and Greenslade (Devon County Council), Mr Smith (Devon Cornwall Police) and Mr Hearn (Tavistock Town Council)

Fund Member Representatives

Mr Bowman, Mr Henshaw, (Chairman) and Ms Keightley

Independent Member

Mr Nicholls

Also in Attendance

Dan Harris (Devon County Council, Investment Manager)

Angie Sinclair (Devon County Council, Deputy County Treasurer)

Shirley Cuthbert (Deputy Head of Peninsula Pensions)

Apologies

Ms Lewis

11 Minutes

AGREED that the minutes of the meeting held on 2 July 2015 be signed as a correct record.

Arising on Minute 3 (Overview of the Devon Pension Fund), the County Treasurer undertook to ascertain whether the Devon Pension Fund was subsidising the cost of administering the Avon and Somerset Police Pension Scheme in any way.

12 Investment and Pension Fund Committee: Minutes

The Board received the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/15/85 - text only | pdf | supplementary information CT/15/85) setting out the minutes of the meeting of the Investment and Pension Fund Committee held on 18 September 2015 and highlighting key matters discussed relating to: Performance of the Pension Fund Custodian; the Independent Investment Advisor; and the Pension Fund Risk Register.

AGREED

(a) that in relation to the Investment and Pension Fund Committee s decision that the Devon Pension Fund Custodian s performance should continue to be reported to the Committee by exception, clarification be sought as to what would be regarded as an exception;

(b) that the Board be made aware of the process for considering applications to the Devon Pension Fund for admitted body status;

(c) that the County Treasurer should report annually on training provided for Investment and Pension Fund Committee members and their attendance at the sessions involved;

(d) that Board members be advised of the process for the appointment of the Independent Investment Advisor.

Devon Pension Board members would as a matter of course be given access directly to the agendas and reports for meetings of the Investment and Pension Fund Committee at the same time as they were published, with Part II papers being made available on request.

13 Statutory Statements - Communication Policy (Minute 5/2 July 2015)

The Board considered the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/15/86 - text only | pdf | supplementary information CT/15/86) setting out, and inviting comments on, a draft revised policy for the provision of information and publicity about the Devon Pension Fund scheme to Fund members and representatives of members and employing authorities.

The Funding Strategy Statement was one of the four statutory statements that the Pension Fund was required to have in place. Areas covered by the policy including the format, frequency and method of communication, engagement with external organisations, standards and values and professional expertise available to the Fund.

AGREED

(a) that the first sentence of the second paragraph of section 3.2 of the Communication Policy be amended to read The Board is due to meet at least twice a year .. ;

(b) that Board members be sent the quarterly newsletter published by Peninsula Pensions for employer organisations of the Devon Pension Fund.

14 Statutory Statements - Funding Strategy Statement (Minute 5/2 July 2015)

The Board considered the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/15/87 - text only | pdf | supplementary information CT/15/87) setting out the County Council s Funding Strategy Statement for the Devon Pension Fund.

The Funding Strategy Statement was one of the four statutory statements that the Pension Fund was required to have in place. Its purpose was to explain the funding objectives of the Fund and how the costs of the benefits provided under the Local Government Pension Scheme were met through the Fund. The Statement also defined the objectives in setting employer contribution rates and the funding strategy adopted to meet these objectives.

The current Statement had been prepared in conjunction with the Fund Actuary and in consultation with all employers participating in the Pension Fund.

AGREED that the Funding Strategy Statement be endorsed.

15 External Audit Findings Report 2014/15

The Board received the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/15/88 - text only | pdf | supplementary information CT/15/88) on the findings arising from the external audit of the Devon Pension Fund for 2014/15 and work undertaken by the external auditors to address the risks identified in the approved Audit Plan.

The County Treasurer s Report indicated that the External Audit Findings Report had not identified any control weaknesses and an unqualified opinion had been provided in respect of the Devon Pension Fund s financial statements.

The Board asked that future audit reports include a glossary of terms.

16 Devon Pension Fund Risk Register (Minute 7/2 July 2015)

The Board received the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/15/89 - text only | pdf | supplementary information CT/15/89) setting out the Risk Register identifying the key risks relating to the Devon Pension Fund, processes in place to mitigate the risk and planned improvements to mitigate risk and provide further assurance.

The Report highlighted changes to the Register involving each risk being assigned to a named risk owner and an additional risk to acknowledge the possibility of Local Government Pension Scheme members transferring their pension rights out of the Fund to obtain a capital sum under the Government s Freedom and Choice legislation.

Board members would be notified of the completion of the updated Devon Investment Services procedure manual and of contingency arrangements in the event of a market crash ; they asked for the timescale for mitigating action in the risk register to be date specific.

17 Knowledge and Skills (Minute 8/2 July 2015)

The Board received the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/15/90 - text only | pdf CT/15/90) setting out the requirements of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Knowledge and Skills Framework and the proposed action to address training requirements for the Investment and Pension Fund Committee and Devon Pension Board members.

The Report identified six key areas of knowledge and skills, the proposed provision of a self-assessment toolkit and the training session arranged for Friday 20 November 2015.

18 Compliance with the Pensions Regulator s Code of Practice

The Board received the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/15/91 - text only | pdf | supplementary information CT/15/91) setting out Code of Practice 14 for the Governance and Administration of Public Sector Pension Schemes and action being taken to ensure compliance and best practice.

Discussion focused on the efforts being made by the County Treasurer to ensure the timely distribution of Annual Benefit Statements to all active and deferred members each year and initiatives to reach those members whose email address had changed or was not known.

[NB: The Code of Practice may be viewed at: http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/codes/code-governance-administration-public-service-pension-schemes.aspx]

19 Peninsula Pensions Administration Performance Statistics

The Board considered the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/15/92 - text only | pdf CT/15/92) on the performance of Peninsula Pensions covering team performance since the inception of the new shared service with Somerset, Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) benchmarking and action to improve performance.

Peninsula Pensions main service standard was to complete 90% of its work within 10 working days once all necessary information had been received. In 2014/15 the team had completed 88% of work within target although backlogs were building up in some areas. Monitoring of performance to date for 2015/16 had shown that 81% of work was being completed within target although backlogs had been reduced in most areas. CIPFA benchmarking information for 2014/15 had indicated that the cost per member of administering the service was 13.40 which was well below the average for other Local Government Pension Scheme administration services, although performance in some other work areas was below average.

Action taken to maintain and enhance performance included reviewing and adjusting performance targets, recruiting and training more staff and introducing new ways of working.

AGREED

(a) that the County Treasurer be asked to provide Board members with statistics on the performance and costs specifically relating to the administration of the Devon Pension Fund on a more regular basis to facilitate the monitoring of trends;

(b) that the results of Peninsula Pensions customer satisfaction survey be made available to Board members.

20 Future Work Programme

The Board considered the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/15/93 - text only | pdf CT/15/93) outlining the proposed future work programme for the Board.

AGREED

(a) that the proposed work programme be approved, subject to the addition of the reports on the process for considering applications to the Devon Pension Fund for admitted body status, an annual report on training provided for Investment and Pension Fund Committee members and their attendance at the sessions involved and a comparison of internal and external Fund management costs etc with other authorities;

(b) that the revised work programme be circulated to Board members.

21 Dates of Future Meetings

It was noted that the Pension Board would meet at 10.30am on the following dates:

Thursday 14 April 2016

Thursday 20 October 2016

Monday 24 April 2017

The meeting started at 10.00am and finished at 12.40pm

The Minutes of the Committee are published on the County Council s Website at: