Agenda and minutes

Report attached.

The Committee were provided with an extract of the Council’s Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2012 showing the accounts of the Havering Pension Fund.

At the time the report had been written the Council’s external auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers had requested no material changes to the accounts.

The key items noted by the Committee were:

·        The Net Assets of the Fund had increased to £403m for 2011/12 from £388m in 2010/11, a net increase of £15m. 

·        The net increase of £15m was compiled of a change in the market value of assets of £9m, investment income of £8m and offset by net withdrawals (cash) of (£1m) and offset by management expenses of (£1m).

·        The overall return on the Fund’s investments was 4.2%. This was an under performance of -0.6% against the tactical benchmark and an under performance of -16.9% against the strategic benchmark. Although stock market values had risen over the year the markets were still very volatile.

·        The 2011/12 accounts included additional disclosures compared to previous years’ accounts in order to meet the requirements of the “Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom 2011/12” This code was based on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) and applied for the accounting periods commencing on or after 1 April 2011.

·        A copy of the audited Pension Fund Accounts and the auditors’ opinion would be included in the 2011/12 Pension Fund Annual Report.  The statutory publication date for the 2011/12 Pension Fund Annual Report will be 1 December 2012.

The Committee raised no issues with the accounts and noted that they would be reported to the Audit Committee for sign off.