Ms Miriam Adams, Interim Head of Pensions and Treasury introduced the report and said the report updated members on the changes to the Fund’s risk register and risk management policy.

Ms Adams referred to paragraph 3.3 onwards and provided an update in relation to the risks outlined in the report.  She referred to paragraph 3.7 and said the Pensions Committee had approved the net zero pathway. Whilst it was impossible to completely mitigate against climate change impact, these positive steps towards the net zero target, were at the forefront within the LGPS and therefore considered to be an important risk to monitor.

In response to comments and questions from members the following was noted:

• Ms Adams explained the LAPFF (Local Authority Pension Fund Forum) was a helper body which did not comment on the decisions made by the Fund or its performance. She said it was a lobby group and the Pensions Committee itself was accountable for the Fund.

The Pensions Committee RESOLVED to:

1. Note the comments on the detailed Risk Register (Appendix 1)

Ms Miriam Adams, Interim Head of Pensions and Treasury introduced the report and said the report updated members of the Board and Committee on the changes to the Fund’s risk register and risk management policy.

Ms Adams referred to paragraph 3.3 onwards and provided an update in relation to the risks outlined in the report.  She referred to paragraph 3.7 and said the Pensions Committee had approved the net zero pathway. Whilst it was impossible to completely mitigate against climate change impact, these positive steps towards the net zero target, are at the forefront within the LGPS and therefore considered to be an important risk to monitor.

In response to comments and questions from members of the Board the following was noted:

• Referring to paragraph 3.3 and the issues with Iconnect, the Chair asked what progress had been made. Ms Adams responded stating discussions were ongoing. She said they were working with Payroll to resolve the issues.
• Mr Nisar Visram, Director of Finance, Procurement and Audit stated the working group had looked at dataflows and had an action plan whereby it had implemented changes to the payroll system. He said the issue referred to were historical and the mismatches would take time to fix. Mr Visram confirmed these were system issues with mismatching and glitches which required testing before updates to the system could be released.
• Mr Jones asked if there were enough resources available to target this area? Mr Visram stated most issues had been rectified and going forward there would be no issues with dataflows. They were trying to resolve the historical mismatches.
• Mr Thompson added that the Board had been concerned about the number of Employers still not using Iconnect and said this needed resolution with the employers and payroll coming together as a matter of urgency. He said both internal and external expertise was required to solve this.

• ACTION: The Board be provided with an update on the key issues affecting Iconnect and why Employers are not using the system. The Board stated this issue needed to be concluded as soon as possible.

The Pensions Board RESOLVED to:

Note the recommendation being made to the Pensions Committee who are to consider this report at their meeting of 27th June 2022. 

The Committee is recommended to:

1. Note and comment on the detailed Risk Register (Appendix 1)