The agenda for this meeting suggests that it included discussion of the performance of the Fund's investments, the cost of managing the Fund, and the implications of the recently concluded Pensions Investment Review.

Pensions Investment Review

The committee were to be provided with an update on the progress of the Government's Pensions Investment Review.

On 16 August 2024, the new Chancellor Rachel Reeves launched a landmark Pensions Review to boost investment, increase saver returns and tackle waste in the pensions system.

The Chancellor had given a speech at Mansion House on 14 November 2024 in which she set out the interim findings of the review. She announced that there would be a consultation with a deadline of 16 January 2025, and the committee were to consider a draft response to that consultation. The outcome of the consultation was to be a set of proposals called LGPS: Fit for the Future.

The final version of the response will be approved by the Director of Finance, in consultation with the Chair of the Pensions Committee, prior to submission by the deadline of 16 January 2025.

Investment Cost Benchmarking

The committee were to receive a report from CEM Benchmarking Ltd on the cost of administering the Staffordshire Pension Fund. The report compared the cost of running the Fund to 40 other similar sized pension funds globally. It found that:

On a like for like basis, versus the international peer group, Staffordshire Pension Fund is marginally above the benchmark cost (0.546% versus 0.537%) for the peer group.

The report also considered the performance of the Fund's investments, both overall, and by asset class.

Breaches of the Law

The meeting was to include a discussion of the Staffordshire Pension Fund's Breaches of the Law Policy. A review of that policy had taken place recently in light of the introduction of the Pensions Regulator’s new General Code of Practice in March of 2024. The committee was to consider a revised policy document.

The revised policy contained a number of examples of breaches of the law:

A Scheme employer is late in paying over employee and employer contributions, and so late that it is in breach of the statutory period for making such payments. It is contacted by officers from the administering authority, it immediately pays the moneys that are overdue, and it improves its procedures so that in future contributions are paid over on time. In this instance there has been a breach, but members have not been adversely affected and the employer has put its house in order regarding future payments. The breach is therefore not material to the Regulator and need not be reported.

The policy also contained an explanation of the Pensions Regulator's whistleblowing policy.

The Pensions Act 2004 makes it clear that the duty to report overrides certain other duties a reporter may have (such as confidentiality), and that any such duty is not breached by making a report.

Audit Report

The committee was to receive the Fund’s Audit Results Report for 2023/24. The report was to be presented by KPMG, who are the council's external auditors. This was to be a separate report from the audit of the council's accounts. The report was to be considered by the council's Audit and Standards Committee in due course.

The committee was also to be given an update on the progress of the audit of the Fund's accounts for the years 2021/22 and 2022/23.

Minutes

The committee was to consider the minutes of their meeting on 27 September 2024 and the minutes of the meeting of the Pensions Panel on 3 December 2024.