Issue - meetings

(a)       The Committee reviewed and approved the Business Continuity Policy for the Fund.

(b)       The Committee commented on the ongoing work in relation to business continuity and cyber security for the Fund.

            Mr Latham noted that the Fund were undertaking significant work understanding the Fund's resilience to cybercrime. Further information will be provided to the Committee in due course albeit this is likely to be a Part 2 item for security reasons.  Mr Latham also highlighted The Pension Regulator's expectations for scheme managers to properly understand and manage cybercrime risk.

            Mr Latham explained that the Fund had also previously completed business continuity planning and therefore should have comfort that there had not been any issues in the past, but further work is being done to ensure business continuity remains up to date and appropriate.  As part of this a Business Continuity Policy has been developed for the Committee to consider and approve.

            Councillor Bateman noted that cybercrime must be one of the Fund's key risks and Mr Latham confirmed it was a key risk and so it is important to get assurances around how this is being managed.

Councillor Williams asked what the Fund were actively doing to look at succession planning. Mrs Williams confirmed that this item was on the risk register and a lot of time was spent considering this. A wider range of staff within the team were either undergoing training or were already trained to manage this area.

            Councillor Williams asked whether the Fund has changed their pay structure as other authorities were paying qualified staff at a higher level. Mrs Williams confirmed that she has not noticed this as an issue as any staff who had previously left the team, have since re-joined.

            In respect of succession planning, Mrs McWilliam said that, as part of the business continuity review, the Fund is carrying out a gap analysis, which will include considering who would cover work if a member of staff were unavailable.  This will help identify any key person risk.

RESOLVED:

(a)       The Committee reviewed and approved the Business Continuity Policy for the Fund.

(b)       The Committee commented on the ongoing work in relation to business continuity and cyber security for the Fund.