The Berkshire Pension Board is scheduled to meet on Monday 13 October 2025 to discuss several key items, including the fund's financial performance, updated governance policies, and risk management strategies. The board will also review the draft minutes from the Pension Fund Committee meeting held on 15 September 2025, and a progress report on the 2025 triennial valuation.

Updated Governance Policies

The board is scheduled to consider updated policies for onward recommendation to the Pension Fund Committee, including a review of the Communications Strategy Statement and the Pensions Administration Strategy Statement.

According to the report pack, regulation 61 of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013 states that the administering authority must prepare, maintain, and publish a written statement setting out its policy concerning communications with its key stakeholders. The key changes to the Communications Strategy Statement are scheduled to be:

• formatting improvements
• new content summarising the launch of the new Pension Fund website in the summer of 2024
• information about school-specific pension surgeries

The report pack states that the UK Government's May 2025 response to the governance and reporting aspects of the LGPS: Fit for the Future consultation, confirmed a strong push toward standardising and mandating certain governance and administrative practices, including mandatory publication of a Pensions Administration Strategy Statement to ensure transparency and accountability. The key changes to the Pensions Administration Strategy Statement are scheduled to be:

• an updated structure
• simplified language
• new content, to include clear aims, updated duties and escalation procedures
• charges that may be imposed on scheme employers for failure to provide timely and accurate data

Finance and Budget Review

The board is scheduled to discuss the Royal County of Berkshire Pension Fund's financial performance, including a review of the Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025, and a mid-year review of the 2025-26 Business Plan and Budget.

The Business Plan and Budget Update report includes information about actual income and expenditure for the four months from April to July 2025, compared against the budget for the same period. The report pack notes that total income in respect of members is higher than forecast for the four-month period, primarily due to member and employer primary contributions being higher than forecast, as a result of higher than anticipated salary increases from all employers.

The report pack also notes that payments in respect of members is also higher than forecast, due to an increase in pensioner numbers with higher lump sum payments than forecast, and that transfers out are also higher than forecast.

The report pack says that despite higher benefit payments, the net income from dealings with scheme members is higher than forecast, demonstrating that the Fund remains cash-flow positive , resulting in £5 million being transferred to Northern Trust, the Fund's custodian, during the four month period for onward investment with Local Pensions Partnership Investments (LPPI).

Risk Management

The board is scheduled to receive the updated risk register at September 2025.

According to the Risk Management report, the current risk register contains 48 risks. The report pack says that the review of the risk register has not introduced or removed any risks, but proposes that the risk score increases for two risks and reduces for one risk.

The report pack says that the post-mitigation score for three risks is proposed to be amended:

• PEN006: Investment Climate Change risk: following work carried out by the Responsible Investment Task and Finish Group, this risk has been completely updated, with changes to the risk description, impact scores, mitigation actions and likelihood scores, resulting in the risk score increasing from 18 (amber) to 27 (red).
• PEN017: Liability Climate Change risk: similarly, the Task and Finish group proposed a complete revision of this risk, resulting in an increase in the risk score for this risk from 10 (green) to 18 (amber).
• PEN026: McCloud Remedy: the Fund has made significant progress on implementing the McCloud Remedy for its impacted members, so a reduction in the risk score from 33 (red) to 27 (red) is proposed.

Other Business

The agenda includes several other items for discussion and noting, including:

• The minutes of the previous meeting
• Reports from the Pension Fund Committee
• A progress report on the 2025 triennial valuation
• Future work plans for the Local Pension Board and Pension Fund Committee
• An administration report from Martin Griffiths, Pension Administration Manager