Issue - meetings

Report attached.

Officers had informed the Committee that in line with the Local Government Pensions Scheme Regulations (LGPS) 2013 as amended by the LGPS (Governance) Regulations 2015 the London Borough of Havering as an administering authority had a duty to keep the Governance Compliance Statement under review and make revisions as appropriate.

Since the 1 April 2008 it had been a requirement for the administering authority to prepare and publish a report outlining the extent of compliance against a set of best practice principles published by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

The report had set out the Pension Fund’s draft Governance Compliance Statement for November 2016 and had highlighted where changes might be required.

Changes to the Statement had been made to reflect the changes in Committee membership following Annual Council in May 2016.

Officers had highlighted the fact the Statement was not fully compliant against the set of best practice principles. Principle B - Representation item (a) (iii) stated that ‘to meet the required standards all stakeholders are offered the opportunity to be represented by, where appropriate, appointing independent observers.’

The Committee reaffirmed their previous decision not to employ the services of an independent professional observer on the basis that the current monitoring arrangements were sufficient for the size of the funds.

The Committee had been informed that in October 2016 AON Hewitt, with support from CIPFA had developed guidance to support the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in demonstrating good practice governance during the implementation of, and when participating in, LGPS asset pooling arrangements. The guidance had suggested reviewing the wording of the Local Authority’s constitution and/or the Terms of Reference for the Pensions Committee to consider whether they may need to be refined to adapt with the new investment pooling arrangements. Any changes required would be reflected in the next review of the Governance compliance statement.

In the interim the Committee agreed that the Council’s representative on the CIV should report back to this Committee on the decisions taken by the CIV.

The Committee have agreed the Statement as amended.