Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 17 March 2026.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 March 2026 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 [email protected] by 08:00am on Thursday 28 May.  

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.   

There were no questions from members of the public.

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 [email protected] by 08:00 on Thursday 28 May.

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

There were no questions from councillors.

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 consider the quarterly report on pension fund administration.

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

The Local Government Pension Scheme (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Member Benefits) Regulations 2026 came into force on 1 April 2026. The Regulations had implemented the first phase of the Access and Fairness proposals. The key changes included a retrospective lift of the seventy-five-year age gap cap for death grants for pensioner members, equalisation of survivor benefits and changes in unpaid leave. Software updates were required for the Regulation changes.

Good progress had been made with end of year processes.

Some of the required software for the McCloud remedy work had been delivered in March 2026. Bulk calculations for deferred and pensioner members to identify members entitled to underpins had been completed. The remaining outstanding software was expected to be delivered by September 2026.

Increases of 3.8% have been applied to pensions in payment and deferred pensions from 6 April 2026.

To provide an update on the government’s LGPS ‘fit for the future’ reforms.

(Report to follow)

The government’s LGPS ‘Fit for the future’ reforms were intended to strengthen governance arrangements, improve investment outcomes and deliver efficiencies through greater scale and consistency across the LGPS, and to unlock investment potential for UK growth.

The Pensions Schemes Bill received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 and was now enacted as the Pension Schemes Act 2026. Supporting secondary legislation (regulations) and guidance specific to the LGPS had been drafted and final regulations were planned to come into force on 30 June 2026.

The regulations mandate full participation in Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorised asset pool companies.

The regulations require each administering authority to appoint an “LGPS Senior Officer” with responsibility across all pension functions including investment, funding, administration and governance and an “independent person” to provide support to the administering authority in the discharge of its LGPS duties.

To receive a verbal update from Cllr John Beesley in his capacity as a member of the Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

Cllr John Beesley, a member of the LGPS Scheme Advisory Board (SAB), updated the Committee on governance matters relating to investment pooling. 

The last meeting of the SAB was held on 23 March 2026 and the next meeting was scheduled for 25 July 2026.

Structural changes of the SAB had been discussed and the relationship between the six LGPS pools and the SAB had been explored. Representation by the six LGPS pools on the SAB was the preferred way forward.

Cllr John Beesley attended the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Investment Seminar in March 2026.

To approve the pension fund budget for 2026-27.

In their audit findings report for the year ended 31 March 2025, Dorset Council’s independent auditor, Grant Thornton, recommended that a budget for pension fund account items was developed and reported against throughout the year.

Decision

That the pension fund account budget for 2026-27 was approved.

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 31 March 2026 was just over £4.5 billion, an increase of £466m since the start of the financial year. The total return from the pension fund’s investments over the quarter to 31 March 2026 was 0.5%, compared to the combined benchmark return of 1.2%. The total return for the year to 31 March 2026 was 12.1% compared to the benchmark return of 15.0%.

Markets in the quarter were highly volatile driven by the conflict in the Middle East and the resulting disruption to global energy supplies. This was likely to feed through into higher inflation. Previous expectations that central banks would continue to reduce interest rates were now likely to remain on hold until inflationary pressures became clearer.

Concerns remained that an Artificial Intelligence bubble was developing in US technology stocks and that sufficient returns to justify valuations would not materialise from the billions being invested.

To confirm the dates for the meetings of the Committee in 2026/27:

1.30 pm Tuesday 8 September 2026 - County Hall, Dorchester.

1.30 pm Tuesday 1 December 2026 - County Hall, Dorchester.

1.30 pm Tuesday 2 March 2027 - County Hall, Dorchester.

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

1.30 pm Tuesday 8 September 2026 - County Hall, Dorchester.

1.30 pm Tuesday 1 December 2026 - County Hall, Dorchester.

1.30 pm Tuesday 2 March 2027 - County Hall, Dorchester

All meetings to be preceded by training for committee members 10am to 12.30pm.

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.