Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 25 June 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 June 2024 were confirmed and signed.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or personal interest as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct.  In making their decision councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests were made at the meeting.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via MS Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  Further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council

All submissions must be emailed in full to Joshua.kennedy@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 08:00am Friday 13 September 2024.

When submitting your question(s) and/or statement(s) please note that:

·       You can submit 1 question or 1 statement.

·       A question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.

·       It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted.

·       Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.

·       When submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder). 

·       Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting.

·       Questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda. 

·       All questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.   

No questions or statements from members of the public were made at the meeting

To receive questions submitted by councillors.

Councillors can submit up to two valid questions at each meeting and sub divided questions count towards this total. Questions and statements received will be published as a supplement to the agenda and all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.

The submissions must be emailed in full to Joshua.kennedy@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 08:00am on Friday 13 September 2024.

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

No questions or statements from Councillors were made at the meeting.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To receive a presentation from Laura Vickers, Chief Executive Officer, Brunel Pension Partnership.

This item was deferred until the March 2025 committee meeting, as Laura Chappell, Brunel’s Chief Executive, had to attend a meeting with the pensions minister.

To receive a verbal update from Cllr John Beesley in his capacity as the Committee’s representative on the Brunel Oversight Board and as a member of the Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

Cllr John Beesley, the pension fund’s representative on the Brunel Oversight Board (BOB), and also a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Scheme Advisory Board (SAB), updated the Committee on governance matters relating to investment pooling. 

Assets under Brunel Pension Partnership’s management were £35 billion, 86% of the total assets of all ten client pension funds, which included approximately 84% of Dorset’s pension fund assets as at 30 June 2024.

A ‘call for evidence’ was published by the government 4 September 2024 inviting responses by 25 September 2024 from interested parties to inform the first phase of its Pensions Investment Review.  The aim of this first phase was to “boost investment, increase pension pots and tackle waste in the pensions system”.  Officers would draft a response in consultation with Brunel and the nine other client funds with the key message that further consolidation of pools and/or funds within the LGPS would be a costly and time-consuming distraction from the government’s goal of seeing more investment in the UK.

Brunel’s Chief Executive and Chief Investment Officer had attended meetings with government ministers and officials to provide input into the review. SAB’s chair had also met with the new Minister of State at MHCLG and was expected to shortly with the new Pensions Minister.

To consider the quarterly report on the value and performance of the pension fund’s investments.

The value of the pension fund’s assets at 30 June 2024 was £3.9 billion. The total return from the pension fund’s investments over the quarter to 30 June 2024 was 1.1%, compared to the combined benchmark return of 2.1%. The total return for the year to 30 June 2024 was 11.0% compared to the benchmark return of 13.2%.

The performance of the so-called ‘magnificent seven’ mega-cap stocks (Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft and Tesla) continued to dominate equity markets which represented a significant concentration risk.  David Vickers highlighted that the relative performance of Brunel’s portfolios, and active managers more generally, had been largely determined by their exposure to these stocks relative to benchmark.

The Committee recorded its concern that Brunel had consistently failed to outperform, or meet, their benchmark targets since appointment, and thus the committee anticipated a material change in outcomes as a priority.

The next triennial valuation of the pension fund was at 31 March 2025. Barnett Waddingham, the pension fund’s actuary, would attend the next training session for Committee members in November to explain the valuation process and timetable in more detail.

To consider the quarterly report on pension fund administration.

Performance against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) continued to be good.

The problems and delays with the software delivery required for the implementation of the McCloud remedy continued with meetings held with Civica, the software provider.  Despite concerns raised by Dorset and other LGPS pension funds, Civica were unable to bring forward delivery times for the remaining developments.  Key software is expected to be delivered into the test environment in October 2024 and January 2025. Due to an anticipated surge of testing work, timescales for the payroll implementation project may need to be postponed.

Annual benefit illustrations for active and deferred members had been issued.

The Data Quality Report for 2024 had been issued showing slight improvements on the scores for both common and scheme specific data compared to the previous year.

To consider the pension fund’s independent auditor’s report for 2021/22.

(Appendix 2 to follow as a late supplement).

The independent auditor’s draft final report for the 2021/22 pension fund accounts was received on 16 September 2024.

Ian Howse, Audit Partner, Deloitte LLP, had completed his review, but there were still a few small areas awaiting further specialist review from within Deloitte.  The draft financial statements were materially correct, and he intended to issue an unqualified opinion.

The government had put in place proposals to clear the backlog of local authority audits across the country.  Audits not completed by 13 December 2024 would be ‘disclaimed’ with no audit opinion given.  This will apply to the council and pension fund accounts for 2022/23.  It was noted that greater capacity in the audit sector must be created to avoid a reoccurrence of the backlog in the future.

To confirm the dates for the meetings of the Committee in 2024/25:

1.30 pm Tuesday 26 November 2024 - County Hall, Dorchester.

1.30 pm Tuesday 18 March 2025 - County Hall, Dorchester.

All meetings to be preceded by training for committee members 10am to 12.45pm.

1.30 pm Tuesday 26 November 2024 - County Hall, Dorchester.

1.30 pm Tuesday 18 March 2025 - County Hall, Dorchester.

All meetings to be preceded by training for committee members 10am to 12.45pm.

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph 3 of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.

There is no exempt business scheduled for this meeting.

There was no exempt business.