To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received by Mr Dhingra, Mr Harrison attended in his place.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received from Panel Members and Advisory Members.

It was noted that pension fund officers had an interest in the Pooling item.

To approve the Part I minutes of the meeting held on Monday 18 December 2017.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: that the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 18 December 2017 were approved as a true and correct record.

To consider passing the following resolution:-

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public

be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place

on items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt

information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act."

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: that the order of business as detailed in the agenda, be amended.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

The meeting returned to Part I after the Part II discussions.

To approve the Part II minutes of the meeting on Monday 18 December 2017.

To consider the report.

To Consider the report.

The Panel considered the report that showed the results of the annual internal audit of the Pension Funds governance.  Members were informed that the audit opinion was ‘Substantially Complete and Generally Effective’ which was the second highest of the 4 audit opinions.

There had been 29 moderate concerns raised in the previous audits undertaken in 2015/16 and 2016/17 and only 5 have been raised again as moderate concerns within this review. 

There were 7 concerns identified in this Audit Report which are all classified as moderate concerns. There were 5 minor concerns that were discussed at the exit meeting.  The Management Action Plan for pension governance issues raised was attached to the report and could be found on page 16 of the agenda pack.  

With regards to the first concern about conflicts of interest this had arisen as the Pension Board only allowed three representatives from the unitary authorities so it been agreed, at the point the Board was created, to allow for three substitutes to attend.  Action to resolve the conflict had already been taken.

With regards to training for Panel and Advisory Panel and Pension Board members this would be actioned after pooling had been introduced.  The one Board member who had not completed the training has now completed it.

Action had been taken to reduce the risk of failure to report breaches of the law with the Head of Finance (RBWM) and Monitoring Officer (RBWM) having been trained.

The concern that the constitution had not been updated following changes made to the Panel and Advisory Panel membership had been actioned.

The Panel were informed that all the smaller issues identified in the audit had been resolved.

In response to questions it was noted that the issue of overpayments was not in the audit as this was an audit of governance and not of pension administration and payroll and that the Panel reviewed the risk register every 6 months.

Resolved unanimously: that the Panel notes the Internal Audit Report on Pension Governance.

To Consider the report.

The Panel considered the report that presented updates made to the Administering Authority’s Governance Compliance Statement required by Regulation 55 of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2017.  A tracked changes version had been provided.

Resolved unanimously: that the Panel notes the report and:

i) Approves the amendments made to the Governance Compliance Statement and agrees to the updated version being published on the Pension Fund website.

To Consider the report.