Venue: Committee Room A - County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys. View directions
Contact: Steve Boyd Email: steve.boyd@powys.gov.uk 01597 826374
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Apologies To receive apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors PJ Ashton, TG Turner and Councillor AMC Weale who were on other Council business and from the Strategic Director Resources.
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To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the last meeting held on 16th July 2015 as a correct record. Minutes: The Chairman was authorised to sign the minutes of the meeting held on 16th July 2015 as a correct record.
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Declarations of Interest To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda. Minutes: All members present declared interests as members of the Local Government Pension Scheme.
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Approval of Procedure for Reporting Breaches of the Law to the Pensions Regulator To consider the report of the Strategic Director – Resources. Minutes: The Committee considered the procedure for reporting breaches of the law to the Pensions Regulator. The Pensions Manager confirmed that there were no issues of late payments of employer contributions at the moment.
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Communications Strategy Statement To consider the report of the Strategic Director – Resources. Minutes: The Committee considered the Communications Policy Statement for the Fund.
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Review of Pension Fund Governance Policy & Compliance Statement PDF 63 KB To consider the report of the Strategic Director – Resources. Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered the Governance and Compliance Statement for the Pension Fund. With regards to the Scheme of Delegation, it was confirmed that delegation of functions to the Section 151 Officer was in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair of the Committee.
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Pension Fund Work Programme 2015/18 PDF 54 KB To consider the report of the Strategic Director – Resources. Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered the Fund’s work programme for the period to 31st March 2018. It was agreed that it would be more cost effective to organise joint training for the Committee and the Pensions Board.
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Investment Managers Internal Controls PDF 61 KB To consider the report of the Strategic Director – Resources. Minutes: The Committee was advised that the Pension Fund auditors had undertaken a review of Assurance reports on the internal controls of the organisations it invests with.
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Passive Global Equity - All Wales Joint Procurement PDF 75 KB To consider the report of the Strategic Director – Resources. Minutes: The Society of Welsh Treasurers were recommending the appointment of a single passive investment management with the other Welsh Pension Funds. The Committee was advised that joint procurement of could save in the region of £120,000 to £160,000 per annum.
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Minutes of the Powys Pensions Board PDF 79 KB To receive for information the minutes of the meeting of the Powys Pensions Board held on 31st July 2015. Minutes: The Committee received the minutes of the Powys Pensions Board meeting held on 31st July. With respect to minute 5a), the Committee’s view was that it was good practice for non-voting members of the Board to declare interests if required. The Committee noted the Board’s concern over the significant outperformance of the passive equity manager and whether they were taking any undue risks. Rachel Pinder confirmed that Aon Hewitt were satisfied that they were not taking undue risk.
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Pensions Board - Recommended Amendments to Quarterly Investment Update PDF 57 KB To consider the report of the Strategic Director – Resources. Minutes: The Committee considered the recommendations of the Pensions Board that individual manager performance should be shown against the benchmark and not against manager objective, and that, where possible, the impact of individual manager performance should be shown against the impact of the strategic asset allocation.
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Pensions Board - Amendments to Terms of Reference PDF 76 KB To consider the report of the Strategic Director – Resources. Minutes: The Committee considered the proposed amendments to the Pensions Board’s terms of reference.
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General Update To receive updates on any current issues. Minutes: The Committee was advised that the Fund had entered the Hermes Property Fund. The Pensions Manager also advised that a payment had been made to the Greater Manchester Pensions Fund who had taken on responsibility for the Probation Service Pension Fund in respect of former Powys Probation staff.
Members of the Committee were asked to complete their training needs assessments by 31st October.
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Exempt Items The Monitoring Officer has determined that category 3 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules applies to the following items. His view on the public interest test (having taken account of the provisions of Rule 11.8 of the Council's Access to Information Rules) was that to make this information public would disclose information relating to information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information). These factors in his view outweigh the public interest in disclosing this information. Members are asked to consider these factors when determining the public interest test, which they must decide when considering excluding the public from this part of the meeting. Minutes: RESOLVED to exclude the public for the following items on the grounds that there would be disclosure to them of exempt information under category 3 of The Local Authorities (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007).
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Quarterly Investment Report To consider the quarterly investment report from Aon Hewitt. Minutes: Rachel Pinder gave the Committee an update on market conditions since June.
The Committee was advised that the downturn in equity markets over the last quarter had seen the value of the Fund fall from £511.958m on 31 March to £495.91m on 30 June. Some of the underperformance was due to funds being underweight in the USA. The Fund also remained underweight in Bonds due to low yields.
The Committee remained concerned at the underperformance of a number of the managers and agreed that this needed to be addressed before the next scheduled meeting.
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Medium Term Asset Allocation To consider the Medium Term Asset Allocation Update. Minutes: The Committee was advised that the Fund had outperformed the benchmark by 0.5% in the last quarter. The MTAA had added £1.84m in value since the start of the current mandate on 1 March 2014.
The Chair of the Pensions Board asked about the investment in real assets such as infrastructure projects like ports, roads and airports as a way of diversifying the Fund and bringing in a regular, reliable cashflow. It was agreed to put this on the agenda for the next regular meeting.
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Governance of Investment Managers To consider a report by Aon Hewitt. Minutes: The Committee considered Aon Hewitt’s proposals for the governance of investment managers with a qualified rating. It was agreed that this needed to be considered together with the performance of underperforming managers when the Section 151 Officer was available. It was therefore agreed to hold a special meeting of the Committee on the afternoon of the Council meeting on 21st October.
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