The Pensions and Investments Committee of Derbyshire County Council were scheduled to meet on Wednesday, 3 September 2025, to discuss investments, stewardship, and updates to the Local Government Pension Scheme ¹. The committee was also scheduled to discuss the Derbyshire Pension Fund Annual Report for 2024-25. Here's a breakdown of the topics that were scheduled to be discussed:

Investments Report

The committee was scheduled to review the Derbyshire Pension Fund's asset allocation, investment activity, and long-term performance analysis. The report pack included a report from Anthony Fletcher, the fund's independent external advisor. The committee was to consider approving the investment strategy based on recommendations from the Director of Finance and Mr Fletcher.

The report pack included a table that reflected three categories of assets:

• Growth Assets
• Income Assets
• Protection Assets

The report pack noted that the new Intermediate and Final Benchmarks, which were approved by the committee on 6 March 2024, became effective on 1 April 2024 and 1 July 2025, respectively.

The report pack stated that the Final Benchmark relative to the Intermediate Benchmark:

• Reduces Growth Assets by 2.5% to 50.0% (UK Equities -2.0% to 8.0%; Japanese Equities -2.5% to zero; Emerging Market Equities -2.5% to zero; Global Sustainable Equities +4.5% to 36.0%); and
• Increases Income Assets by 2.5% to 30.0% (Multi-Asset Credit +0.5% to 7.0%; Infrastructure +1.5% to 13.0%; and Property +0.5% to 10.0%).
• The Fund's allocation to Protection Assets (18.0%) and Cash (2.0%) are unchanged.

According to the report pack, on 31 July 2025, the fund was overweight Growth Assets, Protection Assets and Cash, and underweight Income Assets, relative to the Final Benchmark. The report pack stated that the fund's outstanding commitments totalled around £460m on 31 July 2025, which could potentially increase Growth Assets by 2.1% and Income Assets by 4.4%.

The report pack stated that the In-house Investment Management Team (IIMT) recommendations reflected in the report: reduce Growth Assets by 1.1% to 49.0% (1.0% underweight) (UK Equities - 1.1%), increase Income Assets by 1.7% to 27.6% (Property +1.0% and Multi-Asset Credit +0.7%); maintain the Protection Assets weighting at 19.5%, and reduce Cash by -0.6%.

According to the report pack, the value of the fund's investment assets rose by £234m (+3.5%) between 31 May 2025 and 31 July 2025 to £7,031m.

The report pack stated that figures provided by Northern Trust show the fund's performance over 1, 3, 5 and 10 years to 30 June 2025.

The report pack stated that the fund outperformed the benchmark on a ten-year basis and was in line with benchmark on a five-year basis, but underperformed on a one and three-year basis.

The report pack included a report from Anthony Fletcher, the fund's independent external advisor, who stated that the dominant factor impacting markets over the second quarter has been the uncertainty surrounding the evolution of US trade policy and how this is likely to continue to feed market volatility and impact economic growth.

Mr Fletcher stated that he was not making any suggestions for new tactical changes to how the growth asset allocation of the fund is currently distributed, and that he would prefer to be underweight global equity and happy to see the fund slightly overweight the UK.

Mr Fletcher stated that he had suggested a 1% underweight exposure to equity for some time, and that he suggested this money be held in cash, as the volatility and uncertainty is now much higher.

Stewardship Report

The committee was scheduled to receive an overview of stewardship activity carried out by LGPS Central Limited (LGPSC) and Legal & General Investment Management.

According to the report pack, LGPSC currently manages around £1.6bn of assets (£1.8bn on a committed basis) on behalf of the fund through various sub-funds and limited partnership arrangements. LGPSC has also taken over the oversight of the fund's Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) arrangements on an advisory basis, including with the engagement and stewardship of the assets managed through LGIM pooled products.

The report pack stated that LGIM currently manages around £2.2bn of assets on behalf of the fund through passive products covering: UK Equities; Japanese Equities; Emerging Market Equities; Global Sustainable Equities, UK Conventional Gilts; and UK Index-Linked Gilts.

The report pack included the Q1 2025-26 LGPSC Stewardship Update.

The update stated that a notable recalibration in shareholder behaviour, corporate governance trends, and regulatory influence have defined the 2025 proxy voting season.

The update stated that the need for robust corporate AI governance continues to intensify, driven by growing concerns over algorithmic bias, data misuse, and the accelerated expansion of AI infrastructure.

The update included case studies on:

• BHP's Just Transition
• Ford Motor Company
• Stellantis
• ArcelorMittal
• Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV
• Antofagasta
• Diageo Plc
• Adidas
• Phoenix Group
• Alphabet Inc
• Bayer AG
• Motorola Solutions Inc

The update stated that between April – June 2025, LGPS Central voted at 2,474 meetings and on 33,584 resolutions globally, and opposed one or more resolutions at 68.1% of meetings.

Local Government Pension Scheme Update

The committee was scheduled to receive an overview of developments affecting the administration and governance of the Local Government Pension Scheme.

The report pack stated that Hymans Robertson LLP, the fund's appointed actuary, provided a training session at the committee's previous meeting in July on preparations and plans for the current valuation exercise which establishes the funding position as at 31 March 2025 with a view to setting employer contribution rates for the three years from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029.

The report pack stated that in January 2025, the LGPS Scheme Advisory Board (LGPS SAB) issued new Guidance for preparing and maintaining a Funding Strategy Statement (FSS).

The report pack stated that in November 2024, the government confirmed that any LGPS liabilities which are outstanding in respect of a Further Education College (FE College) in the statutory sector, which is subject to closure, will not revert to the relevant LGPS fund.

The report pack stated that the LGPS SAB issued its first published Annual Review in January, and that the LGPS SAB Annual Report 2024, which was published in May 2025, is the Board's 12th report since it was set up in 2013.

The report pack stated that the government's detailed response following the 'Fit for the future' consultation was published in May 2025, and that HM Treasury published its response to a consultation on inheritance tax (IHT) changes in July 2025.

The report pack stated that the Neonatal Care Leave and Pay (Consequential Amendments to Subordinate Legislation) Regulations 2025 came into force from 6 April 2025 and introduced changes relating to neonatal care leave and pay and applies for children born after 5 April 2025.

The report pack stated that following a change made by the Finance Act 2022, the minimum pension age is due to increase to 57 from 6 April 2028, and that the Pensions Act 2014 requires the government to regularly review the State Pension age, and a further review was launched in July 2025 to consider factors on which pensionable age is based, including life expectancy.

The report pack stated that the Pension Fund is continuing to keep up to date with developments in respect of Pensions Dashboards, and that public service pension schemes, including LGPS funds, are required to connect to the PDP by 31 October 2025.

Derbyshire Pension Fund 2024-25 Annual Report

The committee was scheduled to discuss the Derbyshire Pension Fund's Annual Report for 2024-25.

The report pack stated that in accordance with the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013, the Administering Authority must prepare and publish an Annual Report for the Fund on or before 1 December following the year end.

The report pack stated that approval was sought for the Director of Finance, in conjunction with the Chair of Committee, to approve the publication of the Pension Fund's 2024-25 Annual Report on the Fund's website at the first available opportunity after the receipt of the external auditor's opinion on the Fund's Statement of Accounts, and for the publication of a draft version of the Fund's 2024-25 Annual Report on the Pension Fund's website by 1 December 2025, if appropriate.

The report pack stated that the Fund's Annual Report is typically more than 100 pages long and is split into sections covering: an Introduction; Key Statistics; Fund Governance; Financial Performance; Investment (including the Fund's carbon risk metrics); Funding; Scheme Administration; and the Fund's Statement of Accounts.

Exclusion of the Public

The committee was scheduled to move that the public be excluded from the meeting for one item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph(s) 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972. This related to Local Government Pension Scheme Investment Pooling.