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No. | Item |
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APOLOGIES To receive
any apologies for absence Minutes: Apologies were
received from Councillors Goronwy Edwards (Conwy County
Borough Council), Simon
Glyn and John Brynmor Hughes |
|
DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST To receive
any declaration of personal interest Minutes: None to
note |
|
URGENT ITEMS To note any
items which are urgent business in the opinion of the Chairman so that they may
be considered Minutes: None to
note |
|
The
Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meeting of this committee held
on 24 June 2021 to be signed as a true record Minutes: The Chair accepted
the minutes of the meeting held on 24 June
2021, as a true record. |
|
GOVERNANCE POLICY STATEMENT PDF 259 KB To consider the report and adopt the new policies. Additional documents: Decision: DECISION: To accept the
report To approve the
Governance Policy Statement subject to including the following amendments ·
To add a
paragraph highlighting the powers delegated by the Council to the Wales Pension
Partnership ·
To amend sentence 4 (Main responsibilities
of the Committee) to note To make some
decisions in the context of administrating pensions, in exceptions e.g.,
appeals ·
To
update the responsibilities of the Chief Finance Officer to highlight the
interim arrangements for the period from 01/01/22 ·
To add a note highlighting the training
requirements of the Pensions Committee members (as has already been highlighted
for Pension Board members) ·
To continue with the statement 'partly
comply' while reviewing the statement if there are changes to the
management procedure Minutes: Submitted - the report of the Pensions Manager, highlighting the requirement for the Fund to publish a Governance and Compliance Statement under Regulation 55 of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013 (as amended) and to review that
statement on an ongoing basis.
The purpose of the statement
is to set out the Fund's Governance Structure, the scheme of delegation, and the terms of reference for its
Governing Bodies, the Pensions
Committee and the Local Pension Board. He stated that the current statement had been in force
since 2008 and that the service had been reviewing and updating the statement in preparation
for the Scheme Advisory Board's Good Governance Project that would come
into force in April 2022. He explained that the main changes included providing more information on the functions and responsibilities of pension fund staff and also introducing
a new part to the policy in relation
to the role and responsibilities of the Pension Board. It was reported that the Statement had been submitted to the Pension Board in
July 2021 and that the Board had made observations. Members thanked the officer for the report, and agreed with
the requirement to comply with the Regulations and report on
the current situation. During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were made by members: ·
That information should be included about the Wales Pension Partnership, considering that they were
responsible for the Gwynedd
Fund's activity. ·
That the responsibilities
of the Head of Finance needed
to be updated. ·
That the word 'some' in the sentence
'make some decisions in the context of administrating pensions' was vague - there was a need to use wording that
explained this better. ·
That reference was made to training for Pension Board
members, but not for the Pensions Committee In response to the observations that the wording 'broadly compliant' was an ambiguous statement,
it was noted that the current structure did not allow for full
compliance. It was reiterated
that the Wales Pension Partnership had considered the situation, and reported that it was possible to revisit the structure just before the 2022 Election, as well
as the likely introduction
of new regulations. It was suggested that the wording 'broadly compliant' should be kept, and for
it to be reviewed if any changes occurred RESOLVED: To accept the report To approve the Governance Policy Statement subject to including the following amendments ·
To add
a paragraph highlighting
the powers delegated by the
Council to the Wales Pension
Partnership ·
To amend
sentence 4 (Main responsibilities
of the Committee) to note To make some decisions in the context of administrating pensions, in exceptions e.g. appeals ·
To update
the responsibilities of the Chief
Finance Officer to highlight
the interim arrangements for
the period from 01/01/22 · To add a note highlighting the training requirements of the Pensions Committee members ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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VALUATION TIMETABLE 2022 PDF 237 KB To consider the report Decision: DECISION To accept and note
the information Minutes: A report was submitted by the Head of Finance, setting a timetable for valuating
the Pension Fund, based on the membership
as at 31 March 2022, with new
employer contribution rates coming into
force on 1 April 2022. The purpose of a valuation was to assess the financial position of the Fund, note the forecasts for inflation
and gains on investments in the future and
review the employer contribution rates. Following a discussion at a preliminary meeting with Hymans
Robertson, the proposed dates
were decided upon. As the exercise was one that took
place over a long period of time, it was resolved to set a timetable. Reference was made to the different steps that needed to be actioned, with a proposal for two
training days with Hymans so
that Members could receive full
technical information. It was noted that the period was a challenging and busy time
for the Pension Service, with additional work to be done to finish preparing and submitting clean and accurate
information in order to ensure that the outcome of the valuation was as accurate as possible for each
employer. Nevertheless, the
timetable was considered to
be achievable. The members expressed their thanks for
the report. During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were made by members: ·
That setting a timetable summarised the procedure effectively ·
That holding training was to be welcomed and that the suggestion
of holding training on the day of the valuation was useful, considering that the information was so technical. ·
Staff were thanked for their
professional attitude and for their
praiseworthy work In response, the Head of Finance noted that it was intended to hold one training session
after the final projections were completed (January 2022), followed by a session in October 2022 when publishing the employers' results and updating the Funding Strategy Statement. RESOLVED To accept and note the information |
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WALES PENSION PARTNERSHIP UPDATE PDF 138 KB To consider
the report Decision: DECISION To accept and note
the information Minutes: The Investment Manager submitted a report, providing a formal update to members on the developments of the Wales Pension
Partnership (WPP). It was reported
that the collaboration continued to go from strength to strength since it had been established in 2017 and by 31 March 2021, 81% of Gwynedd's
fund had been pooled with the WPP. It was noted that the performance was 'very satisfactory' with a number of developments in the pipeline, including the transfer of a proportion of Emerging Markets from Fidelity
to the WPP fund. This would bring the total of Gwynedd's pooled investments to 83%. It was noted that the Fund was performing substantially higher than the benchmark on a regular basis; that the Investment Panel meetings
were a good opportunity to question and challenge Managers;
and although the Covid situation had been a global crisis,
markets were performing strongly. The next step in the process would be to look at the options of pooling assets to the Private Market category, which was being undertaken with the support of Hymans Robertson, with ongoing discussions taking place to determine the appropriate structure and mechanism
to invest in. It was reported that a specialist appointing advisor had been appointed to assist WPP to appoint suitable investment managers to manage the private markets allocation and that a further
tender had been released to appoint a suitable manager for infrastructure and private debt. In the context of a member representative on the Joint Governance Committee, it was noted that each constituent
authority was currently submitting amendments to the Inter-Authority Agreement which required the approval of each Full Council - the amendments were approved by Gwynedd Council on 7 October 2021. Gratitude was expressed for the report and to all staff associated with the work The Chair noted that
the WPP was a successful and
effective fund with very acceptable
returns. It was reiterated that the position of the Wales fund, compared to others across the UK, was very strong and
that the good collaboration was an obvious part of the success. During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were made by members: ·
That the report noted performance that was 'safonol iawn' in the
Welsh version, but noted ‘very satisfactory’ in English, which
appeared to be a better description of the situation / performance - need to reconsider the Welsh turn of phrase. ·
That the transfers to date had been very
encouraging - the remaining
transfers would pose the greatest challenges. To accept and note the information |