Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Delyn Committee Room, County Hall, Mold CH7 6NA

Contact: Janet Kelly 01352 702301  Email: janet_kelly@flintshire.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

30.

Declarations of Interest (Including Conflicts of Interest)

To receive any Declarations and advise Members accordingly.

Decision:

No declarations of interest.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest.

31.

To approve the annual report and accounts pdf icon PDF 158 KB

For the Committee to approve the annual report and accounts

Additional documents:

Decision:

The Pension Committee approved the Annual Report 2018/19.

Minutes:

The Pension Fund Accountant presented this item on the Agenda, beginning by apologising that pages 109 and 110 of the report originally circulated to members of the Committee were incorrect, and that replacements had subsequently been distributed to members.

 

            He explained that the numbers of pages on the Contents Page of the report would be added as soon as the Annual Report was approved by the Committee.  He also explained that statutory policy and governance documents to be included in the Annual Report already approved by Committee had not been included in the version sent to the Committee, although they are available on the Fund’s website.  They would be added to the report when it was published on the website.

 

            He reminded the Committee that the Annual Report now included the Statement of Accounts for Committee approval.

 

            He thanked those members who had contacted officers with minor amendments prior to the meeting and confirmed that they would be included in the final published report.

 

            He explained that the report is required under the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Regulations and that Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) guidance had been followed in its production.

 

            The structure of the report was that both the Independent Advisor to the Fund and the Pensions Board had produced annual reports and that key officers and advisors had also produced reports covering their areas of specialism. These reports formed individual sections of the report. The Pension Fund Accountant went on to explain what was covered in each of these sections.

 

            In terms of key messages, in the 2017/18 Fund Annual Report, the big challenges facing the Fund in 2018/19 had been identified, and the 2018/19 report explained progress on each of these.  In particular, the Fund continues to have a positive investment return and has protected some investment gains in the face of market challenges; has transferred some assets into the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) and will continue to do so during 2019/20; has measured the social impact of the Fund and is planning to improve it; and has made further progress against targets in the Administration Strategy and the Communications Strategy, although increased activity and the increased complexity of the Fund means that there are still challenges to be met, which will be in part by helped by the use of additional resources.

 

            The report also identified the big challenges for 2019/20.  These were to review the Fund’s Funding Strategy in light of the 2019 valuation, and to review the Fund’s Investment Strategy; to continue to transfer assets to the WPP; further develop the work of the Administration and Communication teams; implement any required scheme changes; and consider any improvements falling out of the LGPS consultation on Good Governance, due to report in 2019/20.

 

            The three remaining sections of the report covered the financial activity during 2018/19. Section 7 was the Statement of Accounts, the draft version of which had been approved by the Fund Treasurer and presented to the Pension Fund  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.