The Local Pension Board of Wiltshire Council met on Thursday 22 May 2025 to discuss key issues relating to the Wiltshire Pension Fund ¹, including fund performance, risk management, and compliance. The agenda included updates on the pension administration strategy, communication strategy, and the integrated payroll system, as well as a review of the Local Pension Board's annual report. The meeting also provided an opportunity for the board to monitor key financial controls and low-volume performance measures.

Headlines and Monitoring Report

The board was scheduled to review the Headlines and Monitoring (HAM) report, which provides ongoing oversight of key areas related to the Wiltshire Pension Fund. The report included updates on:

• Scheme, regulatory, legal and fund matters
• Governance, including an update on the General Code of Practice (GCOP)
• A health check dashboard to 31 March 2025
• The risk register
• Administration Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from 1 January 2025 to 30 April 2025
• Progress against milestones in the KPI improvement plan
• An audit update, including progress against the Key Financial Controls audit for 2025/26

The HAM report included a BWPulse update, providing a summary of events in the LGPS ² community over the past month.

The GCOP dashboard was also included, which is used to assess compliance against the Pensions Regulator’s new General Code of Practice. According to the report, the fund is in a strong position, with a high level of compliance, and the assessment tool has helpfully highlighted areas where work needs to be done to achieve full compliance. The next steps involve working to ensure that all gaps are closed, using a combination of internal and external resources.

The Health Check Dashboard provided a snapshot of the fund’s performance against its business plan objectives, measured by service delivery KPIs, investment performance, funding level, customer service excellence, internal audit ratings, cost per member, and staff engagement. Since Q4 2024, the only RAG ³ rating which has changed is the service delivery KPIs, which have moved from red to amber, reflecting significant improvements.

The risk register as of April 2025 was also included, with changes highlighted since the last review in February 2025. The risks have been renamed from Low, Medium, High, Major and Extreme to Very Low, Low, Medium, High and Very High. New columns have been added so that the board can easily assess each risk area against its risk appetite, with a RAG-rated risk flag to highlight which risk areas give most cause for concern.

Tables detailing the administration KPIs over the period from 1 January 2025 to 30 April 2025 showed that the admin performance has improved compared to the level reported at the end of December 2024. The administration team met the backlog target of less than 100 cases at 31 March 2025; however, the KPI targets (90% achieving target) for retirements and deaths were missed.

Key Financial Controls

The board was scheduled to monitor the key financial controls of the fund. The report included updates on accounts and the annual report, quarterly financial performance, payroll reconciliations, and budget reporting. The report stated that the final sign-off for the full Wiltshire Council Accounts for four years, 2019/20 - 2022/23, has now been completed. After finalising the council accounts, Deloitte raised a few new issues on the pension fund accounts, to which officers responded. The signed annual report and accounts have been published on the fund’s website, resulting in the final clearing of four years of audit backlog.

Pension Administration Strategy

The board was scheduled to review an updated Pension Administration Strategy. The main changes to the strategy include:

• All previous policies that were detailed in the appendices of the previous strategy have been included in the main body of the document.
• Changes to KPIs for member-related work to provide clarity for members.
• The strategy has been streamlined to allow for increased member understanding.
• The Employer Escalation Policy and Charging Policy have been fully incorporated in this strategy.
• Barnett Waddingham have fully reviewed this strategy prior to the board’s review.

Following the consultation, the final version will be passed to the Wiltshire Pension Fund Committee for review and approval on 24 July 2025.

Communication Strategy

The board was scheduled to review an updated Communication Strategy, which has been updated to reflect the requirements set out in the Pension Regulator’s General Code of Practice. The main changes include:

• Staff included as a stakeholder
• Demographics laid out as per previous guidance
• Other stakeholders updated to include Investment Managers, Actuary, Board and Committee
• Note included reference how members with AVCs will receive statements from their AVC provider
• Measurements of success updated

Low Volume Performance Monitoring

The board was scheduled to receive an update on the fund’s performance measures for 2024/25 in connection with the following areas:

• ICO Data Protection breach log
• tPR breach log
• Freedom of Information (FOI) log
• Subject Access Request (SAR) log
• Informal Complaints log
• Formal Complaints log
• Internal Dispute Resolution Procedures (IDRPs) log
• Pension Ombudsman log

Local Pension Board Annual Report

The board was scheduled to review the draft Local Pension Board’s (LPB) Annual Report, to confirm it is an accurate representation of the activity carried out during the year. The report will be published as a standalone report on the Wiltshire Pension Fund website, and a summary of the report will be included in the fund’s annual report for 2024/25.

Integrated Payroll System Update

The board was scheduled to receive an update on the post-implementation issues following the fund’s migration of pensioner payroll from SAP to Oracle and then Oracle to Altair. The board was also scheduled to consider this project as closed following a review of these issues.