The meeting on the 10th of December 2024 was of the Islington Council Pensions Board. The meeting was scheduled to receive reports on the performance of the Islington Pension Fund, the performance of the Pensions administration team, and an update on an interim actuarial review of the fund. The board was also scheduled to review the Pension Fund's Risk Register, and note the board's forward work programme.

Pension Fund performance 1 July to 30 September 2024

The board was scheduled to receive a presentation by Apex, the board's independent investment advisers, on the performance of the Islington Pension Fund for the quarter 1 July to 30 September 2024. The report noted that the value of the fund was £1,982 million at the end of June 2024.

The report contained a summary of the performance of each of the fund's investments. This included the fund's property investments, which are managed by Aviva, Columbia Threadneedle, Franklin Templeton, and Hearthstone. The report noted that Hearthstone is in the process of liquidating their fund. The report included details of the proportion of the fund managed by each fund manager, the fund manager's benchmark, and the performance of both the fund and the benchmark over the 12 months to September 2024.

The report noted that Councillor Paul Convery summarised the discussions held at the Pensions Committee on the 26th of September, and that he stated The Fund was currently worth just under £2bn and he was hopeful that it might rise..

Pension Administration Performance

The board was scheduled to be provided with information on the activities and performance of the Pensions Administration team for the period 1 August to 31 October 2024.

The report pack included a summary of the types of cases the team dealt with, the number of each type of case they dealt with, the target number of days in which each type of case should be dealt with, and the percentage of cases that were dealt with within the target. The report noted that Key processes have decreased by approximately 5% and overall performance is down by 3% during this quarter, and that this was primarily due to the data cleansing project the Pensions Office has undertaken in preparation for the Pension Fund Valuation and the requirements of the Pensions dashboard.

The report pack contained the number of new members of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) broken down by month. The report pack also noted that the Pension Office received 15 communications thanking Pension Administration staff for their service, and 4 complaints.

The report noted that the Pensions Office are currently undertaking a review of the records of pensioners on the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) data matching report who are listed as deceased. The report pack also contains a news update on the Pensions Dashboard, which is a government programme intended to enable people to see all of their pensions information in one place online.

Interim Funding Review Update

The board was scheduled to receive an update on the interim funding review of the Islington Pension Fund. The report pack noted that the review took place in September 2024 and covered the period since the last full actuarial valuation, which took place in March 2023.

The report pack noted that the period since the last actuarial valuation has seen market volatility, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, higher inflation and resulting higher interest rates as well as conflict in the Middle East., and that These factors will have had a significant impact on liabilities.

The report pack stated that the actuary had produced a full reassessment of the fund's expected return outlook, its investment strategy, and had undertaken stochastic¹ modelling of discount rates.

LGPS - Pensions Risk Register

The board was scheduled to review the Pension Fund's Risk Register. The report pack noted that there are two new risks to be added to the register: Delayed implementation of new pension systems and Failure to connect to the Pensions dashboard.

The report noted that in relation to the risk of delayed implementation of new pension systems, the risk rating had been reduced from 12 to 9 following work to Formulate contingency measures to ameliorate instabilities in system performance. The report noted that the risk of failing to connect to the Pensions Dashboard had been reduced from 10 to 5 following a decision by the council to use an ISP Provider procured through the LGPS National Framework.

Pension Board 2024/25 Forward Work Programme

The board was scheduled to note its Forward Work Programme for December 2024 to June 2025. The report pack included details of the topics that the board is scheduled to discuss during its next three meetings. It also included details of the topics covered by training sessions that the board has attended and is scheduled to attend.