The Pension Fund Panel were scheduled to meet to discuss the fund's business plan, investment performance, administration, and risk management. They were also scheduled to review compliance with the Pensions Regulator's General Code of Practice¹.

Annual Business Plan 2025/26

The Pension Fund Panel were scheduled to review the proposed work programme for 2025/26 and identify any additional areas for consideration. The work programme included standing items such as the Pension Fund Business Plan, Quarterly Overview and General Matters Report, Pension Fund Administration Performance report, Pension Fund Risk Register, General Code of Practice Update, Investment Adviser's Report, Quarterly PIRC Voting Report, and Minutes of the Pension Board.

The schedule also included administration and governance items such as the Pension Fund Statement of Accounts and Annual Report, and the Annual report of the Board. Funding and investment items included a Fit For Purpose (Pooling) update, Valuation Update, and Strategic Asset Allocation Review. The Panel were also scheduled to discuss training and conference updates.

Quarterly Overview and General Matters

The Pension Fund Panel were scheduled to discuss a report providing an overview of the current valuation, general administrative and regulatory matters of the fund, and an update on income and expenditure for Quarter 4 of the financial year 2024/25.

Specifically, the report pack noted that at the end of March 2025, the net assets of the fund were worth £1,364.0m, 2.3% lower than at the end of December 2024 (£1,396.2m), but 2.4% higher than at the end of March 2024 (£1,332.0m).

Also included in the report pack was a register of late payments to the fund for 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, and a breach register showing two new entries.

The report pack also noted that the staging date for public service schemes to connect to the Pensions Dashboard system² is 31 October 2025.

The Panel were also scheduled to discuss proposed changes to the LGPS³ to promote access and fairness, and a change to the Administering Authority's Overpayment Policy in line with guidance from HMRC⁴.

Pension Fund Administration Performance Report

The Pension Fund Panel were scheduled to receive a monitoring report from West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF) covering performance and benchmarking of the administration service for the period 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2025. The report included key performance indicators (KPIs), an age profile of the scheme, customer survey results, and current technical issues.

The report pack noted that WYPF had a monthly target to complete a minimum of 85% of processes within the allotted number of days, and that the individual monthly performance for this reporting period was: January 2025 (93.1%), February 2025 (92.5%), and March 2025 (87.5%).

The report pack also stated that the McCloud remedy⁵, workload volumes and staffing levels were impacting performance in several areas, particularly in Interfund Linking, Transfer processes and Early Leavers.

Pension Fund Risk Register

The Pension Fund Panel were scheduled to review the updated and amended risk register for the quarter to 31 March 2025. The register details the main risks affecting the Hounslow Pension Fund and the mitigations in place, under 5 main headings: Funding and Investment, Cyber risk, Administration Risk, Resources and skills. A new Risk 13 was scheduled to be inserted under 'regulatory risks' relating to the risk that the government deadline of 31 March 2026 for transferring assets to the pool is not met.

General Code of Practice Update

The Pension Fund Panel were scheduled to review and provide comment on the completed modules of the code compliance toolkit and assess compliance with the TPR General Code of Practice. The report pack included the outcome of an assessment carried out by officers, which was previously presented to the Pension Board for review. Two additional areas had been assessed since the last review: knowledge and understanding, and funding and investment.