Issue - meetings

The report was introduced by Martin Griffiths (Technical Specialist, Pensions Fund Policy and Governance). The first item presented was the Forward Plan, which detailed the areas of governance work to be covered over the next 12 months. Although nothing specific needed to be brought to the attention of the Board, they were reminded of the training session that had been organised for the following day (31 January). This covered ‘Club Vita’, the tool that Hymans Robertson use to monitor member longevity. Members were thanked for completing the Knowledge and Skills Assessment and informed that a report would be made available shortly when the results were published.

Members’ attention was drawn to the red-rated risks on the risk register, relating to climate change, long term market risk and cyber security. The risk item of governance failure had also become a red risk since the time of writing the report. This related mainly to the introduction of the Pension Regulators’ General Code of Practice and the expected Scheme Advisory Board Good Governance Review. The Board were assured that the Fund would meet the basic requirements of the General Code as it was already meeting the required components of the original Code of Practice 14.

Responding to a question from Jeff Carruthers about what action the Regulator would take if Funds didn’t comply with the General Code, Martin Griffiths said action could be taken against non-compliant Funds using spot checks. However if evidence could be provided that a Fund was working on becoming compliant, legal action would not be taken. A cross unit working group had been set up to look at cyber security, and AON had been asked to review the Cyber Security Policy. Training would be offered to officers, the Committees and Board in due course. Martin Griffiths said the issue of cyber security would ultimately become a business-as-usual item, but practice relating to it had been heightened as a result of the General Code of Practice and had been added as a specific item for the first time. The new Cyber Security Policy would be presented at the Staff and Pensions Committee meeting in March 2024. The Fund would also be updating its Business Continuity Plan shortly and this would include some cyber security scenario testing.

Members were told the new Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities had published statistics relating to the LGPS and published its response to the consultation on investment reforms. Responding to a question from Jeff Carruthers about some of the statistics published by the Department of Levelling up, Housing and Communities, Martin Griffiths said the Warwickshire Pension Fund did not need to have any great concerns regarding the market value decrease in the LGPS Fund, as the figures quoted related to every Fund in the country and not specifically Warwickshire. He also confirmed that the new Code of Practice would address pension scams. Consideration would be given to providing additional communications to pension holders warning of possible scams.

The Chair stated his annual report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2