The Bromley Council Local Pension Board met on Tuesday 4 November 2025 to discuss the Pension Fund Annual Report and draft accounts for 2024/25, and to review the performance monitoring report for the current financial year. The board was also scheduled to receive training on recent legislation updates. The meeting was held virtually via Microsoft Teams, and members of the press and public could request joining details from the clerk.

Pension Fund Annual Report and Draft Accounts 2024/25

The board was scheduled to consider the Pension Fund Annual Report and Draft Accounts 202425, which the Pensions Committee was scheduled to discuss at their meeting on 28 August 2025. The report included:

• A governance policy and compliance statement
• The fund account and net assets statement
• The funding strategy statement
• The investment strategy statement
• The communications policy statement

The report stated that the draft accounts are subject to external audit and may require revisions prior to finalisation.

Performance Monitoring Report 2025/26

The board was scheduled to discuss the Performance Monitoring Report 202526 Year to Date. The report provided information to assess whether the Bromley Pension Fund was complying with its obligations regarding the governance and administration of public service pension schemes. The report included:

• An executive summary
• Performance monitoring data
• An analysis of fund membership data
• Regulatory compliance
• Information on Liberata's cyber security measures

The report stated that achievements against performance indicators, customer feedback and a relatively small number of complaints indicated that service standards were strong.

Report from the Pensions Committee - 28 August 2025

The board was scheduled to consider the Minutes of the Meeting of Pensions Committee held on 28 May 2025. Items on the agenda for the Pensions Committee meeting included:

• A presentation from Legal & General Investment Management on global equity passive management
• Pension fund performance for Quarter 4 2024/25
• The Local Pension Board Annual Report

The board was also scheduled to consider Report from the Pensions Committee - 28 August 2025 - PART 2 (EXEMPT) INFORMATION, but the details of this discussion were not available to the public.

Training - Legislation Update

The board was scheduled to receive training on legislation updates. The Minutes of the Meeting held on 29 July 2025 show that at the previous meeting, the Assistant Director: Pensions Shared Service gave a presentation on government consultations. The consultations included:

• 'Fit for the Future' consultation, which proposed changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) including reducing the number of regional pools, changing asset pooling requirements and introducing a new requirement around local investment.
• 'Access and Fairness' consultation, which sought to address inequalities for Scheme Members in areas such as survivor benefits and death grants, and to address the gender pensions gap.

The 'Fit for the Future' consultation included a requirement for funds to work with local authorities, regional mayors and their strategic authorities to ensure collaboration on local growth plans. Investment should be ‘broadly local or regional to the Administering Authority or pool’ and ‘should have some quantifiable external benefits to the area’, such as ‘economic growth, environmental benefits or positive social impacts’¹.

The 'Access and Fairness' consultation included four proposals in survivor benefits and death grants:

• survivor pension payable to the survivor of a marriage or civil partnership with a member is calculated in the same way, regardless of the sex or sexual orientation of the member or survivor with equalisation being to the highest level of entitlement currently available (given the date of the marriage or civil partnership)
• to remove the requirement for a signed nomination form in the case of qualifying cohabitee survivors, retrospective for any individual who stopped being a member between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2014 ,
• to remove the age 75 cut-off on eligibility for death grants, backdated for all deaths on or after 1 April 2014 , and
• to remove the requirement on administering authorities to pay the death grant to the personal representative where it hasn't been paid within the 2-year limit, applicable for all death grants yet to be paid.

The consultation also included four proposals to help address the gender pensions gap:

• making authorised unpaid absences under 31 days automatically pensionable,
• updating the rules on buying back pension lost in an unpaid break of over 30 days,
• making additional maternity leave, additional adoption leave and shared parental leave during which no pay is received automatically pensionable with the cost to be met by the employer, and
• making gender pension gap reporting mandatory in the LGPS