The Local Pension Board is scheduled to meet on Friday 5 December 2025 to discuss a range of topics including pension administration, regulatory updates, proposed changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), monitoring of pension fund breaches, internal dispute resolution procedures, and the future of LGPS pools.

Future of LGPS Pools

The Local Pension Board is scheduled to receive an update on the government's proposed changes to the LGPS asset pools. The report pack notes that in April 2025, the government determined that two pools, ACCESS and Brunel, did not have satisfactory plans to meet the requirements set out in the Fit for the Future consultation. As a result, the report pack says that the 21 local authority partners in those pools will need to find new arrangements. The report pack says that the Border to Coast Pensions Partnership (BCPP), of which Durham County Council is a member, is aiming to admit up to seven funds to avoid the risk of direction from the government. The report pack says that the seven ACCESS Funds that have requested to join the Border to Coast Partnership are Cambridgeshire, East Sussex, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Northamptonshire, and West Sussex. The report pack says that the Border to Coast Board approved a report on 27 August 2025 with regards to consolidation of the LGPS Pools. The Border to Coast Board will subsequently make a formal recommendation to the 11 existing Partner Funds regarding the admission of new partners through a modification to the legal agreements that established Border to Coast. The report pack says that it is anticipated that the more formal amendments to the Inter-Authority Agreement and Shareholder Agreement, required before the end of the 2025/26, may need to progress to Full Council.

Regulatory Update

The Local Pension Board is scheduled to discuss a number of regulatory developments impacting the Durham County Council Pension Fund. These include the HM Treasury Pensions Review, the LGPS 'Fit for the Future' consultation, the LGPS 'Access and fairness' consultation, mandatory Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting, and the McCloud judgement¹. The report pack says that the government launched a consultation on changes to the LGPS in England and Wales on 15 May 2025. The proposed changes are intended to improve fairness in and access to the LGPS. The report pack says that the proposals include:

• addressing survivor pensions and deaths grants
• addressing the Gender Pension Gap[^3] in the LGPS
• collecting data on how many members opt out of the scheme and why
• changes to forfeiture, aiming to tackle long-standing issues with forfeiture in the LGPS
• several technical changes to how the McCloud remedy operates
• a number of other miscellaneous changes, including changes to five-year refunds, pre-2014 Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) and small pot payments. The report pack also mentions the Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) and its various activities, including reviews of academies and tier 3 employers, good governance, responsible investment guidance, and the LGPS code of transparency.

Pension Administration Report

The Local Pension Board is scheduled to consider a report on the Pension Administration Report, which provides an update on the fund's pension administration and service provision to members, as well as key performance indicators (KPIs). The report pack says that in the second quarter of 2025/26, 314 retirement cases were processed, with 91.40% of those retirees receiving a statement within 10 days of the team receiving the necessary information. The report pack also says that 31,381 members have registered for the Fund's Pensions Online portal to date. The report pack says that the Fund has begun the implementation of 'Scheme-Standard' KPIs, to assist the Board with their monitoring of the Fund's service delivery. The report pack also notes upgrades to the Fund's online Employer Hub, and the availability of Annual Benefit Statements for both Active and Deferred members of the Scheme ahead of the statutory deadline of 31 August 2025. The report pack mentions that members of the LGPS are able to increase their benefits either through paying Additional Regular Contributions to buy additional pension, or through an AVC facility. Durham County Council Pension Fund offers its members two providers: Prudential and Standard Life. The report pack says that the government's announcement in the 26 November 2025 Budget of a limit on salary sacrifice of a £2,000 a year from 6 April 2029 will reduce the benefit of salary sacrifice AVCs for some individuals. The report pack also provides an update on the McCloud remedy, and the upcoming Pensions Dashboard initiative.

Pension Fund Breaches Monitoring

The Local Pension Board is scheduled to receive a report providing information on breaches of the law and an overview of the Durham County Council Pension Fund's policy on management of breaches. The report pack says that individuals with a role in the LGPS have a duty to report breaches of law when they reasonably believe that a relevant legal duty is not being complied with, and that failure is likely to be of material significance to the Pensions Regulator. The report pack includes an extract of the Fund's Breach Log for 2024/25. The report pack says that the log details one issue relating to scheme member data. The Fund's AVC providers send monthly schedules to each employer's payroll team detailing new AVC members and changes to AVC amounts. They also send a copy of all employer schedules to the Pensions Team so that changes can be recorded on pension records. Unfortunately, Prudential had confused the email address for the pensions team with the email address for Durham's payroll team. This resulted in the full fund schedule being sent to the payroll team. The report pack says that Prudential confirmed that they logged this with their data protection team and had also corrected the email addresses to ensure this does not happen again. Fortunately, both payroll and pensions staff at Durham are covered under the same data protection rules and no breach of personal data occurred. The report pack says that there were no breaches in the period which warranted reporting to the Regulator.

Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure

The Local Pension Board is scheduled to receive a report providing a summary of the outcomes of any internal dispute cases or Pensions Ombudsman cases in which the Pension Fund has been involved in during 2024/25. The report pack says that since April 2024, 9 scheme members or their representatives have made an appeal under the Pension Fund's Internal Dispute Resolution Procedure (IDRP) process. The report pack says that of the nine applications, nine were reviewed at Stage 1 by the Fund's appointed Adjudicator, who in eight cases upheld the original decision. Five of these cases were then progressed to be reviewed at Stage 2 of the IDRP Process, with four cases being turned down and one referred back to the employer. The report pack says that a further case was reviewed by The Pensions Ombudsman, who agreed that the fund had acted in line with regulations, however awarded a modest amount of compensation to the scheme member due to inconvenience.

Observations and Feedback from Pension Fund Committee

The Local Pension Board is scheduled to receive verbal observations and feedback from the Pension Fund Committee meeting held earlier that day.

Local Pension Board Membership

The Local Pension Board is scheduled to receive a verbal update on its membership.

Pension Fund Statement of Accounts

The Local Pension Board is scheduled to receive a verbal update on the Pension Fund Statement of Accounts.

Responsible Investment Policy

The Local Pension Board is scheduled to discuss the Responsible Investment Policy, but this will be during a part of the meeting that will not be open to the public.

Date of Next Meeting

The date of the next meeting is scheduled to be confirmed as 12 March 2026.