The Pension Committee is scheduled to meet to review the fund's performance, administration, governance, and investment strategies. The committee will consider updates on pension administration performance and projects, review the fund's risk register, and discuss the budget. Members will also look at investment performance, stewardship activities, and the investment strategy.

Investment Strategy Review

The Pension Committee is scheduled to discuss the fund's investment strategy. No further information about this discussion is available in the report pack.

Quarterly Investment Performance and LCIV Update

The Pension Committee is scheduled to discuss the investment performance of the fund, noting that the market value of the Fund's assets at 30 September 2025 was £1,065.9m, an increase of £47.9m, over the previous quarter (£1,018m as at 30 June 2025). The report pack notes that the fund outperformed the benchmark by 0.1% over the quarter, with a return of 5.0% against a benchmark of 4.9%. Over the one-year period, the Fund returned 10.1% against a benchmark return of 10.3%. The three-year return of 9.7% compares favourably against the benchmark return of 9.6% and also against the actuary's expected return (discount rate) of 4.3%. The five-year return underperformed by -0.8% (7.2% vs 8.0%).

The report pack states that the fund's outperformance was driven mostly by manager outperformance from the LCIV MAC Fund (+0.6% outperformance) and Partners Group infrastructure mandates (+4.7% outperformance).

The committee will also discuss the fund's asset allocation, noting that the actual allocation as at 30 September 2025 is marginally outside of the strategic asset allocation ranges in Infrastructure and Private Debt and more substantially outside the ranges in Global Equity, Property, Impact and Cash.

An update on the London Collective Investment Vehicle (LCIV) will be provided, and the committee will be asked to delegate authority to the Strategic Director of Resources to sign the shareholder agreement allowing Buckinghamshire Pension Fund to join LCIV. The Buckinghamshire Pension Fund manages the pension investments for local government employees in Buckinghamshire Council¹.

The report pack notes that as of 30 September 2025, total assets deemed pooled by LCIV Client Funds was £37.5bn, of which £20.9bn were in funds managed by London CIV. As at 30 September 2025 the Fund had £666.7m invested directly in LCIV pooled funds and £225.5m invested indirectly through the LGIM passive funds, which represents 83.7% of the Pension Fund's assets under management.

The committee will also note that LCIV is progressing with the transition of the LCIV Emerging Market Equity Fund to a multi-manager structure, and that in-depth reviews of the LCIV Global Equity Focus Fund managed by Longview, the LCIV MAC Fund (managed by CQS and PIMCO) and the LCIV Alternative Credit Fund (CQS) are planned for the last quarter of the year.

Annual Stewardship Report

The Pension Committee is scheduled to approve the draft Stewardship Report 2024/25. The report provides an overview of the stewardship activities undertaken by the Pension Fund during the 2024/25. The main purpose of the Stewardship Report is to outline the Fund's approach to stewardship, describing the actions taken over the past year that have contributed to the Fund's Responsible Investment approach, and provide transparency to members, employers, and other stakeholders.

The report contains nine sections, which are set out as follows:

• Introduction
• Our Fund and How we Operate
• Our Responsible Investment Policy
• Our Responsible Investment Journey
• Engagement
• Voting
• Climate Change
• Impact Investing
• Glossary

The report pack notes that this is the first Stewardship Report that the Fund has produced and it is expected to be further refined and developed in future years, particularly around the reporting of climate metrics, when the data required for this can be more effectively co-ordinated by London CIV.

The report pack states that the Fund uses its influence as a long-term investor to encourage positive change. It expects all of its investment fund managers to exercise their voting rights and to actively engage with companies to encourage responsible investment behaviour, and that divestment is considered as a last resort, once all avenues of engagement have been explored.

The Fund works closely with its chosen pool, the London CIV, to maximise stewardship and engagement opportunities and is a member of the Local Authority Pensions Fund Forum (LAPFF)², an organisation that engages directly with company chairs and boards to affect change at investee companies.

Governance and Risk Update

The Pension Committee is scheduled to receive an update on key governance activities and review the Fund's risk register.

The risk register overview report is included as Appendix A - Governance Risk Update. All risks have been categorised under one of three main themes - Administration, Funding and Investments, and Governance. Each individual risk is assessed as red (high risk), amber (medium risk) or green (low risk) and these are summarised into an overall rating for that group. As at the time of writing this report the Administration risks are rated amber overall, with one red and two amber risks. Both the Funding and Investments group and Governance group are rated green.

The report pack notes that there is currently one red rated risk to bring to the Committee's attention: Failure by software provider (Civica) to provide software compliant with LGPS Regulations. The core risk is that until a fully compliant and tested solution is delivered, the Fund lacks a guaranteed operational system compliant with LGPS regulations, which could lead to the incorrect payment of member benefits. Mitigations remain in place, with Officers addressing issues directly with Civica's client manager and working closely with the national Civica Client User Group to apply collective pressure for a timely resolution.

The committee will also discuss the existing amber risks, including:

• Incomplete or inaccurate member data.
• The impact and cost of changes to the LGPS Regulations.
• Unfavourable trend in pay and/or price inflation causing pay increases to increase above valuation assumptions for some employers in the Fund.
• Failure to protect the Fund's key information and data as a result of malicious cyber-attack.
• Uncertainty around the outcome of the fit for the future pension reforms consultation and the ability of the Fund and its chosen pool London Collective Investment Vehicle (LCIV) to meet the new requirements once they have been confirmed.

The report pack also notes that the formal consultation with all scheme employers has now commenced regarding the calculation of individual contribution rates as part of the Triennial Valuation 2025 Update. Employers have been issued with their individual valuation results alongside the draft Funding Strategy Statement (FSS). The consultation period will run until 31 January 2026.

The committee will also discuss the LGPS Consultation - Scheme Improvements (Access and Protections). The consultation outlines proposals on four key areas:

• Normal Minimum Pension Age (NMPA)
• New Fair Deal
• Academies
• Access for Councillors and Mayors

The Fund uses a specialist supplier for tracing and mortality screening, which is a critical governance control used to safeguard the Fund's assets by identifying deceased pensioners (to prevent fraudulent overpayments) and tracing gone-away members. The Fund's incumbent supplier for this service, Accurate Data Services Limited (ADS), was placed into voluntary liquidation on 7 October 2025, and officers have acted to ensure service continuity and are now undertaking a procurement exercise to appoint a new, long-term supplier.

Finally, the committee will note a recent change to the ministerial team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG). As part of a government reshuffle on 6 September 2025, Alison McGovern MP was appointed as the new Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness.

Budget Monitoring - 2025-26 Six Month Update & 2024-25 Outturn vs Budget

The Pension Committee is scheduled to discuss the Fund's final outturn position against budget for 2024-25 and a mid-year update on the 2025-26 budget.

The final net outturn for 2024-25 came in at £15.090m under the approved 2024-25 net budget. This is largely due to the £12.500m accrual that was made for the Idverde bulk transfer from LB Croydon, along with the receipt of higher contributions than expected.

The Fund is forecasting total management expenses of £6.114m for 2025-26, compared to the original approved budget of £6.469m. This is a positive variance, primarily due to reduced staffing costs and lower projected fund manager fees.

Pension Administration Performance Update

The Pension Committee is scheduled to receive an update on the key administration performance of the Shared Pensions Administration Service.

The total number of outstanding processes has increased slightly from 820 to 837 since the last report, as detailed in the process tracker in Appendix A - Benefits processing performance data. This increase was anticipated and is a direct result of the annual additional Leaver processes following the end of the academic year, which grew from 286 to 443 cases over the quarter.

The report pack notes that officers are monitoring performance against two clear targets to provide enhanced oversight and early warning of potential new backlogs:

• No more than 10% of all cases will be overdue
• No more than 10% of overdue cases will be more than a month overdue

The performance targets and backlog threshold to be monitored against are summarised in the table below, showing the position as at 31 October 2025:

The report pack states that the team's immediate priority was to resolve older cases, and this has been successful, with cases overdue by 31 days improving from 35.3% to 15.3% over the quarter. The red rating for total cases overdue reflects a temporary backlog driven by the increase in leaver cases, rather than a return of the previous historic backlog which remains cleared. Officers are implementing a recovery plan, to focus on this increased volume of leaver processes and bring this KPI back towards target over the next quarter.

Overall, performance against the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) remains positive, especially for high-priority cases for members. Notably, transfer in quotation performance has shown a strong improvement over the quarter and is now at 97% year-to-date. The remaining SLAs have been impacted by the increase in leaver processes over the quarter, however, Officers are targeting improved performance over the next quarter.

The report pack also notes that no breach of law incidents have been reported since the last report, and there are no open IDRP cases currently being investigated by officers.

Pension Administration Projects Update

The Pension Committee is scheduled to receive an update on the key administration projects of the Shared Pensions Administration Service.

The Pensions Dashboard project was completed on time, and the final Project Closure Report from our Integrated Service Provider (ISP) is included in Appendix A - Pension Administration Projects Update. The Fund successfully connected by the guidance staging date of 31 October 2025, managed by Heywood Pension Technologies, and was completed £10,517 under budget. The Dashboards Available Point (DAP), when the dashboard will be available to the public, has not yet been confirmed by the Pensions Dashboards Programme, but officers understand the current estimated timeline for this is Autumn 2026.

Regarding the McCloud Remedy update, communications to all 3,544 in-scope members, explaining the delay and revised timeline, were issued in November 2025. Progress has also been made on the key software dependency, with Civica installing an initial McCloud patch on 21 October 2025. A further patch has been announced by the provider, expected to be available from 20 November 2025; Officers are awaiting confirmation of the delivery date for the Fund. In the interim, manual processes remain in place to ensure any member retiring or leaving the scheme has their benefits calculated correctly. The team continues to work through the project plan, and Officers are pleased to report that the project remains on track to meet the 30 June 2026 completion date. The primary risk remains the timely delivery of the final software patches from Civica, and this is being actively managed through continuous dialogue with the provider.

The Fund is required to issue Pension Savings Statements (PSS) by 6 October each year to any scheme member whose pension growth exceeded the HMRC annual allowance in the previous tax year, and officers can confirm that all required statements for the 2024/2025 tax year were successfully issued to the relevant members ahead of the statutory deadline of 6 October 2025.

As a safeguard to the Fund, Officers write to overseas pensioners annually asking them to complete and return a life certificate. Officers have written to overseas pensioners and the deadline for members to complete and return certificates this year is 31 January 2026.

Alongside the annual life certificate exercise, Officers are also progressing an initiative to transition all overseas pensioners to digital payslips and P60s. Following the successful transition of overseas members, Officers will look to roll this initiative out to UK-based pensioners in 2026/27.

The annual pensions increase will be processed and applied to the pensioner payroll by the April 2026 payroll deadline. Whilst it has not been confirmed by HM Treasury, the expectation is that public service pensions, including the LGPS, will be increased by 3.8%, in line with the annual increase in the Consumer Prices Index up to September 2025.

Work Programme Update

The Pension Committee is scheduled to note the updated Work Programme for the Committee.

The following Work Programme sets out the proposed indicative agenda items for the committee meetings that are due to take place over the next year.

March 2026

• Training: Financial Markets and Product Knowledge
• Business Plan 2026-29 and Budget 2026-27
• Pension Administration Performance Update
• Pension Administration Projects Update
• Governance and Risk Update
• Work Programme Update
• Triennial Valuation and Funding Strategy Statement
• 2024-25 Pension Fund Accounts Audit Findings
• Quarterly Investment Performance
• Responsible Investment Policy
• Investment Strategy Implementation
• Investment consultant monitoring report and LCIV report

June 2026

• Training: Understanding Fraud in the LGPS
• Report on Work of Pension Board 2025-26 (Pension Board Chair)
• Pension Administration Performance Update
• Pension Administration Projects Update
• Governance and Risk Update
• Work Programme Update
• Quarterly Investment Performance
• Investment consultant monitoring report and LCIV report

September 2026

• Training: An Introduction to Cyber Risk
• Pension Administration Performance Update
• Pension Administration Projects Update
• Annual Report & Accounts 2025-26
• Governance and Risk Update
• Work Programme Update
• Quarterly Investment Performance
• Investment consultant monitoring report and LCIV report

December 2026

• Training: Investment Performance and Risk Management
• Pension Administration Performance Update
• Pension Administration Projects Update
• Governance and Risk Update
• Work Programme Update
• 2025-26 Pension Fund Accounts Audit Findings
• Budget Monitoring - 2026-27 Six Month Update & 2025-26 Outturn vs Budget Update
• Quarterly Investment Performance and LCIV Update and Responsible Investment Stewardship Update
• Investment consultant monitoring report and LCIV report