The Hounslow Council Pension Board met to discuss the pension board forward plan, review the West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF) administration performance, and monitor compliance with the Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) General Code of Practice (GCOP). The agenda included a review of breaches and late payments, and an update on the Employer's Forum. Some items, including the annual report of the board and exempt minutes of the Pension Fund Panel, were scheduled to be discussed with the press and public excluded.

Here's a breakdown of the key topics:

TPR General Code of Practice (GCOP) Review

The board was scheduled to review and comment on completed modules of the code compliance toolkit to assess compliance with the TPR's General Code of Practice.

The report included a schedule outlining progress in five areas, noting those assessed as fully compliant and those where partial compliance had been achieved. The compliance report broke down the assessment into 15 chapters, with each requirement assessed and assigned a risk rating.

Two additional areas, knowledge and understanding, and funding and investment, had been assessed since the last review.

The assessment summary noted that there were 5 chapters where the requirements of the Code were not fully met:

• Administration: Scheme Administration
• The Governing Body: Knowledge & Understanding
• The Governing Body: Advisers and Service Providers

The report stated that officers had assessed a number of strands, noting the risk rating for each requirement, the evidence taken into account, the owner, the steps to ensure compliance, and suggested immediate actions.

Pension Fund Administration Performance Report

The board was scheduled to receive a monitoring report from WYPF covering the administration service's performance and benchmarking from 1 October 2024 to 31 December 2024. The report included:

• Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Narrative¹
• Age Profile of the Scheme²
• Customer Survey Results³
• Current Technical Issues⁴

WYPF had a monthly target to complete a minimum of 85% of processes within the allotted number of days. The individual monthly performance for this reporting period was:

• October 2024: 88.3%
• November 2024: 92.9%
• December 2024: 90.1%

The report highlighted trends, performance, and areas needing attention for priority 1 areas of work, including retirement quotes and actuals, and death processes. The McCloud remedy⁵, workload volumes and staffing levels were impacting performance in medium and low priority work areas.

Pension Board Forward Plan and Training Log 2025/26

The Pension Board Forward Plan and Training Log 2025/26 included the work programme for 2025/26, the mandatory training day of 10 June 2025, and a training update and training log.

The training log listed training events for the Pension Fund Board, Pension Fund Panel, and Officers.

Pension Board Monitoring Report

The Pension Board Monitoring Report provided a description of the monitoring that took place at the Pension Fund Panel on 7 April 2025, and included the late payment register of the fund for 2024/25⁶, and an update on the Employer’s Forum.

On 27 February, Hounslow Council hosted an Employers' Forum at Hounslow House, inviting all participating employers in the fund, to provide employers with a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities in relation to both the fund and employees. The forum featured presentations from representatives from the WYPF, Barnett Waddingham⁷, the Chair of the Pension Board, and John Wiffen.