Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director Corporate Services

This report updates the employer register for all the admitted bodies in the Pension Fund and relevant data for the Committee to review in light of their funding positions and scheme status.

This report has an appendix which contains information exempt within the meaning of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 and is not for publication. The appendix has therefore been circulated to Committee Members only.

If the Committee wishes to discuss the contents of a closed exempt appendix it may pass the proposed resolution identified at the end of the agenda to exclude members of the public and the press from the proceedings for that discussion.

Consideration was given to a report of the Executive Director Corporate Services.

The report updated the employer register for all the admitted bodies in the Pension Fund and provided relevant data for the Committee to review in light of the funding positions and scheme status.

The Committee noted the latest available financial statement data and membership numbers, including triggers for each set of the traffic lights which were contained in the Appendix to the report. This was a Part II appendix, as it contained commercially sensitive and confidential information and was, therefore, not available to the public. Committee Members confirmed that they had read the appendix and would take it into account when making the decision.

The Committee was informed that the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), the second largest employer in the Fund after the Council, was an agency set up to support Councils and was treated as a Community Admission Body within the Fund. The IDeA had liabilities of £184m and assets of £158m as at March 2019 and was, therefore, 86% funded as at the last valuation. The IDeA was part of two funds: Merseyside and Camden and had been in provisional discussions with the Fund over the years about a possible substitution of Funds. The IDeA Company Board had recently approved the process to move forward on the transfer of the administration of the IDeA LGPS from Camden to Merseyside, with a target date of 1 April 2020. All parties including, both Camden’s and Merseyside’s Actuaries, both Funds and the IDeA were working together to make this process work.

The Committee noted that the transfer required that all active, deferred and pensioner members, which totalled 913, would be transferred to the new fund and a bulk payment of around £158m would be made from Camden to Merseyside. The process could take at least 6 months. The IDeA would need to consult their staff and the Secretary of State would need to consult affected bodies. The IDeA would be required to commit to fund all costs arising from this substitution, which would include legal, actuarial, investment consultancy and other costs, including any transition costs associated with selling any of the assets to liquidate cash to pay over to Merseyside. The timing of this did, however, fit in well with the Investment Strategy Review that Camden’s Fund investment consultant was conducting and they had been asked to consider this transfer as part of their work.

The Committee was, therefore, being requested to delegate authority to the Executive Director Corporate Services, in consultation with the Chair of Pension Committee, to make a decision on the final terms of the substitution.

Committee Members asked officers to track the payment of costs to ensure that the Fund was paid on time and when payments were due.

          ACTION BY: Executive Director Corporate Services

RESOLVED –

(i)          THAT the contents of this report be noted; and

(ii)         THAT the Executive Director Corporate Services be given delegated authority, in consultation with the Chair of Pension Committee, to agree the final terms of the substitution of funds for the Improvement and Development Agency.

ACTION BY: Executive Director Corporate Services