Agenda item

Report of the County Treasurer (CT/19/67), attached.

The Board considered the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/19/67) on a review of the Fund’s policies and statements including a revised version of the Investment Strategy Statement circulated at the meeting and also appended to the minutes.

There was a total of four statutory policies that the Fund was required to have and maintain:

•           Funding Strategy Statement (review due April 2020)

•           Investment Strategy Statement

•           Communications Policy (review due October 2019)

•           Governance Policy and Compliance Statement. (review January 2020)

The Local Government Pension Scheme (Management and Investment of Funds) Regulations 2016 required each LGPS administering authority to have in place an Investment Strategy Statement. The guidance required that the Investment Strategy Statement should be revised at least every three years, and when there were any significant changes. 

The Investment Strategy Statement required by the regulations included: -

(a) a requirement to invest money in a wide variety of investments;

(b) the authority’s assessment of the suitability of particular investments and types of investments;

(c) the authority’s approach to risk, including the ways in which risks were measured and managed;

(d) the authority’s approach to pooling investments, including the use of collective investment vehicles and shared services;

(e) the authority’s policy on how social, environmental or corporate governance considerations were considered in the selection, non-selection, retention and realisation of investments; and

(f) the authority’s policy on the exercise of rights (including voting rights) attaching to investments.

Following the review of investment strategy undertaken by Mercer, a revised Investment Strategy Statement (ISS) had been put together to reflect the outcome of the review. This set out the strategic asset allocation for 2019/20 and the opportunity had also been taken to make other minor amendments. The revised Investment Strategy Statement had been approved by the Investment and Pension Fund Committee in February 2019.

The Report also set out the Pension Board’s Terms of Reference which the Board was required to review each year to ensure they remained effective and reflective of the work and focus of the Board.

In discussion, Members and Officers referred to the anticipated guidance from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government which would reflect issues such as climate change, the terms of reference and the move to four meetings per year, the recent declaration of a climate emergency and whether this should be more explicit in Strategy documents and the feedback and reporting mechanisms from the Local Authority Pension Fund (LAPF) to the Investment and Pension Fund Committee.

The Board asked that there be more easily accessible information on the webpages for improved communication to scheme members regarding climate change and ESG issues. Officers agreed to pick this up as part of a forthcoming review of communications and webpages.

It was MOVED by Councillor Slade, SECONDED by Councillor Randall-Johnson, and

RESOLVED that the terms of reference of the Pension Board, Investment Strategy Statement and Compliance Statement be endorsed and the Investment and Pension Fund Committee be asked to note the Boards comments on the importance of climate change and ESG issues in monitoring of investments and the expansion of this in future Strategies.