The Buckinghamshire Council Pension Fund Board met to discuss breaches of the law, the annual benefit statements, and administration performance statistics. They also planned to discuss the valuation assumptions and draft funding strategy statement, the draft conflicts of interest policy, and the risk register. The meeting was scheduled to take place at The Paralympic Room, Buckinghamshire Council, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury.

Breaches of the Law

The Pension Fund Board were scheduled to note and comment on a report about breaches of the law. The report included the procedure for reporting breaches of the law, which complies with the requirements of the Pensions Act 2004 and the Pensions Regulator's General Code of Practice. The procedure details how individuals responsible for reporting and whistleblowing can identify, assess, and report a breach of law relating to the Buckinghamshire Pension Fund. The procedure had been reviewed, with only job titles and post holders updated, and no material changes made.

The breach log detailed administration breaches recorded for quarters two, three and four of 2024/25, and quarter one for 2025/26. For contributions, the position is reported for the 12-month period up until 30 June 2025. According to the report, 100% of Annual Benefit Statements were issued by the statutory deadline of 31 August, and the McCloud extension determination has been applied.

The procedure aims to ensure individuals responsible are able to meet their obligations and avoid placing any reliance on others to report. It also assists in providing an early warning of possible malpractice and reduce risk to the Fund.

The procedure states that training on reporting breaches and related statutory duties, and the use of this procedure is provided to Pension Fund Committee members, Pension Board members and key officers involved with the management of the Buckinghamshire Pension Fund on a regular basis.

The procedure also contains a traffic light framework for deciding whether or not to report, recommending those responsible for reporting to use the traffic light framework when deciding whether to report to the Regulator. All breaches should be recorded even if the decision is not to report.

The record of breaches from 01/07/2024-30/06/2025 included:

• Refunds of employee contributions being paid in excess of 5 years since their date of leaving.
• Pensions paid after age 75.
• Employees/employer's contributions not received by the 19th of the month following the month in which they were deducted.

Administration Performance Statistics

The Pension Fund Board were scheduled to review the Pension Administration team's performance since the last board meeting.

The report included an analysis of the incoming communications received between 1 July 2025 and 31 August 2025.

According to the report, each sub-team that is responsible for the areas of communication above have a set target for responding or dealing with the communication within which are all on target, and 100% of incoming communications were dealt with on the day of receipt.

The report stated that there has been a reduction in the number of emails received into the 'My Pension Online' inbox over the first quarter of 2025/26, because there is now a facility via the online portal for scheme members to submit their queries/requests which creates the workflow automatically on the pensions software system.

The report also included information on workload and performance levels. Over July and August 2025, 10,792 new workflow cases were created, and a total of 10,625 workflow cases were completed by the administration team over quarter 2 of 2025/26. Of the cases completed, 92.94% were completed within the relevant target turnaround.

The team have a priority target relating to the main areas where scheme members will be waiting payment of a benefit and they prioritise daily to ensure a quick turnaround. These areas include retirements, deaths, AVC's¹ at retirement and refunds. This target is to achieve a minimum of 95% of priority tasks completed within relevant turnaround times.

As at the end of August 2025, 32% of all open cases were overdue the expected target completion date, a reduction of 2% from the end of the last quarter, with a target to have less than 30% overdue. Of the cases overdue, 83% of these cases are external meaning that the team are unable to work on these due to waiting on information from an employer or a response/forms being completed by a scheme member/NOK².

The report also included data relating to opt outs. Over Quarter 1 of 2025/26, the fund were advised of 209 opt outs, and over Quarter 2 of 2025/26 so far, a further 117 have been advised. At the end of August 2025, 48 opt out cases remained outstanding of which 56% were overdue, 100% of which are due to either waiting on an opt out form being provided by the scheme or clarification sought.

Employers are due to submit data via i-Connect by 19th of each month, with monitoring taking place monthly by the Employer Liaison Team to ensure submission. The aim is for 100% submission by the deadline. 95% of submissions were received by the July 2025 deadline and 98% by the August 2025 deadline.

Work is in progress on the annual allowance exercise to identify scheme member who exceeded the annual allowance limit in 2024/25 and issue a Pension Saving Statement by 6 October 2025 deadline.

The administration team continues to review data errors and inconsistencies within the pensions software system to improve data quality. The current data score is 97.4% for common data, and 98.92% for scheme specific data. A bulk tracing exercise on deferred member addresses is currently in progress.

Annual Benefit Statements

The Pension Fund Board were scheduled to note the content of a report about Annual Benefit Statements.

Regulation 89 of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013 require an administering authority to issue an annual benefit statement no later than 5 months after the end of the Scheme year to which it relates (31 August).

The Buckinghamshire Pension Fund issued an annual benefit statement to 100% of entitled active and deferred scheme members by the 31st August statutory deadline.

Other Matters

The agenda included the following items:

• Minutes of the Pension Fund Board
• Minutes of Pension Fund Committee
• McCloud Update
• Annual Accounts Audit 2024/25
• Forward Plan
• Administration Performance Statistics - Contributions
• Confidential minutes of Pension Fund Board
• Confidential minutes of Pension Fund Committee
• Valuation Assumptions and Draft Funding Strategy Statement
• Draft Conflicts of Interest Policy
• Risk Register
• Pooling Update
• Pension Fund Performance