Issue - meetings

Victoria Moffett introduced the report. She advised that the scores for some risks had not been updated in the report as they were felt to be appropriate, but actions from a management action plan running alongside it had been taken. These actions included increasing capacity for medium-term resourcing, investing in systems development and improving communications with the Border to Coast fund. The full details were in appendix 4 of the report, with new items being shown in red and those shown in green were actions to have been taken since the last quarter.

Regarding resources and staffing capacities, Jeff Carruthers said he had noticed issues with recruitment, particularly for some specialist roles, and asked if this was the same through the Local Government Pension Scheme. Vicky Jenks said the Local Government Association had recently released a survey asking for members to report and describe any recruitment issues they had been having, as it was acknowledged there had been problems in this area. She said resourcing issues tended to relate to major projects such as preparation for McCloud, which required specialist knowledge, rather than day to day items. Victoria Moffett said Martin Griffiths had recently been appointed to the role of Technical Specialist as he was very experienced. There was an advertisement out for a junior accountancy role and there had been applications for the post, and it was hoped an offer could be made to an applicant. Andy Felton (Assistant Director, Finance) said solutions were being sought to fill vacancies. Some posts had been filled by contractors but this was costly so steps were being taken to try to avoid this.

Mike Snow asked what steps were being taken to assess the impact of increased inflation rates, noting the report stated inflation was at six per cent in relation to CPI and eight per cent in relation to RPI. Victoria Moffett said this had been discussed at the Investment Sub Committee, with members asking if the increased rates were transient or likely to be more longer-lasting. Independent advisors had provided with Fund with knowledge on issues relating to inflation. Victoria Moffett said there had been an increase in benefits payments. Consideration was being given to how protection assets looked in terms of their interest rate and inflation hedging abilities. Andy Felton said modelling by Hymans had suggested the increased inflation rates could last for two or three years rather than a matter of months; however he advised that some assets were inflation protected.

Responding to a question from the Chair, Victoria Moffett advised the register was discussed on a quarterly basis some weeks prior to Staff and Pensions Committee and Investment Sub Committee meetings. The register would be looked at on a line-by-line basis. Andy Felton added that the Pension Fund team would review risks on a day-to-day basis.

Members noted the contents of the report and risk register.