The Worcestershire Pension Board met to review a number of reports, including the business plan, risk register, governance and compliance update, training update, and the UK Stewardship Code submission. Due to the meeting being inquorate, the board was unable to vote on any of the recommendations, and could only note the reports.

Officer Capacity

During a discussion of the risk register, the board discussed officer capacity within the fund. There was concern that this was not highlighted as a risk on the register.

It was vital for the Fund to have capable and skilled officers to support it. The Chairman acknowledged that the Fund needed to value its workforce. It needed to develop its own staff whenever possible or find external people with the appropriate skills. It was important to realise when finding funds to support these posts that the Fund was a separate entity to the County Council. It was added that the problem the Fund faced in recruiting staff was that it was in competition with the private sector.

Cyber Security

Emily Stanfield, Governance Lead, told the board that the administering authority cyber specialist had agreed to host a meeting to provide assurances on behalf of the administering authority and share details of penetration testing¹. She added that the fund could procure its own contractor to undertake penetration testing, at an anticipated cost of £10,000.

Councillor Roger Phillips, Chair of the Pension Board, said that the benefits of additional reassurance on the fund's cyber security arrangements justified the expenditure.

Ms Stanfield confirmed that the fund did not take out cyber security insurance because it was difficult to source and would not pay out in the event of a data breach scam. She added that because of the amount of funds and data available, the fund would be a constant target for scammers and security would need to be continually reviewed.

Scheme Advisory Board Update

Councillor Roger Phillips, Chair of the Pension Board, provided an update on the Scheme Advisory Board (SAB). He noted:

• The government's 'Fit for the Future' pension reforms² and its focus on growth, viewing the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) as an opportunity to fund investment in UK infrastructure. He stressed the importance of due diligence on investment opportunities to protect members' fiduciary duty and employers from excessive contribution rates.
• The SAB conference, which included a presentation from Nigel Giffin KC on fiduciary duties.
• The SAB's annual report, highlighting increased fund membership to 6.7 million, a rise in active members, and £340 billion in assets. He noted the fund's existing investments in infrastructure, including affordable housing.

During the discussion, the board considered whether the fund would consider investing in nuclear energy due to the government's proposed reforms. Sherief Loutfy, Head of Pension Investments, Treasury Management & Banking, clarified that the details of what the government considered to be local investment had not been clarified yet, and that the pool had invested 32% of funds in UK infrastructure, interpreting local investment to relate to the geographical area covered by the partner funds.

Business Plan

Stephen Gribben, Membership Manager, introduced the business plan and highlighted an error in issuing P60s³ using the previous year's template in March 2025, which was rectified in April 2025.

During the discussion:

• The chair welcomed the work to rectify the P60 error.
• Sherief Loutfy clarified that any decisions about contribution rates would be based on the actuary's advice, not investment performance, and that it was vital to work with employers to avoid negative impacts on the fund's cashflow or liquidity.
• In response to a query about the use of artificial intelligence (AI), Mr Loutfy emphasised the sophisticated modelling undertaken by the actuary and expressed discomfort in using AI to undermine these assumptions. The chair agreed that AI may be beneficial in the future, but not at the present time, given the recent appointment of the fund's actuary. Mr Loutfy noted the improved performance of Hymans Robertson compared to the previous actuary in terms of process, data transmission, and training platform.

Training Update

Neeshal Patel, Communications and Training Lead, introduced the training update, highlighting a catch-up session from the valuation process meeting provided by Hymans Robertson, now available on the LGPS Online Learning Academy (LOLA) platform. She also mentioned the upcoming Local Government Chronicle (LGC) & Pensions Summit and the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPF) Strategic Investment Forum. In addition, a full induction session would be provided to all new committee and board members on Microsoft Teams.

Sherief Loutfy emphasised the benefits of the LOLA platform for members.

UK Stewardship Code

Sherief Loutfy introduced the report and commented that the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) had recognised that the process for applying for the Stewardship Code had become burdensome and had reduced some of the reporting requirements in the code. He noted that these changes had been introduced too late to impact on the 2025 submission, and that Worcestershire was the first of the partner funds in the pool to submit its application.