Agenda item

This report presents the Haringey Pension Fund Annual Report and unaudited accounts for 2023/24 to the Pensions Committee and Board for approval, subject to the successful completion of the external audit exercise.

Taryn Eves introduced this report. This report presented the Haringey Pension Fund Annual Report and unaudited accounts for 2023/24 to the Pensions Committee and Board for approval.

The following was noted in response to questions from the committee:

• Cllr Bevan noted that this was a comprehensive report, he requested that the investors and staff admin fees be reported collectively as a percentage figure of the overall fund. Taryn Eves explained that the team would look at how best to provide this figure to the committee and would look to share this at a future meeting. Cllr Bevan noted that members had been previously informed that the investment fees disclosed in the annual report contained some hidden fees. He queried whether this issue had been resolved. Tim Mpofu explained that the Scheme Advisory Board had successfully launched the Cost Transparency Initiative and all the Fund’s appointed investment managers had completed the templates detailing these fees. It was further noted that the statutory guidance that the Scheme Advisory Board had issued, was expected to specify how those fees should be accounted for in the Pension Fund accounts.

• Cllr Hymas queried whether the pension fund drew down on the general council fund. Taryn Eves explained that these were two separate accounts and separate funds. There were two essential areas, one of these being the cost of the team, this would be fully funded by the pension fund. The second area was the employer contribution rates, which were reviewed at each triennial revaluation, the last one being carried out in 2022. When those contribution rates were being set, the fund actuary would look at the funding level of each employer; there were a number of employers with different funding levels within the scheme, this would all be taken into context when setting these rates.
• Taryn Eves noted that for the iteration of this report did not have any big changes. Officers had made changes that were the easiest to implement given the time when the Statutory Guidance was issued which came into effect from 1 April 2024. It was further noted that most of the required changes included in the Statutory Guidance had already been incorporated in the Fund’s Annual Report. In addition to this, it was noted that the Scheme Advisory Board was aiming for more consistency and one of the key elements of the guidance was to allow funds to publish the Annual Report without it to include an audited Statement of Accounts.
• Cllr Iyngkaran requested from officers the benchmark of administrative costs compared to other schemes. Tim Mpofu explained that this could be prepared for members. Normally, schemes used the SF3 report for benchmarking marking purposes, which included information that was slightly different to the disclosures included in the Annual Report. However, all local government pensions were required to complete the government return. The deadline for completion of the SF3 report this was the middle of September and officers expected the final report to be issued before the end of the year. Following this, officers could be in a position to report on how Haringey compared to other local authorities.
• Craig Pattinson queried where FOI information or responses to deputations from the team could be found. Tim Mpofu explained that most FOI responses were submitted via the Council’s website. Any responses to documented representations received were documented within internal files, these responses were only shared directly with the requestor.
• In response to a question regarding wider member engagement, Tim Mpofu noted that in the future this would be supported by the Pensions Dashboard which would enable members to use an identifier such as a National Insurance number to access a list of all their pensions data. Jamie Abbott and the team were currently working to make sure that the Fund this was going to be compliant with the regulatory requirements once launched.

RESOLVED

• To note the draft unaudited Haringey Pension Fund Annual Report for 2023/24 appended as Appendix 1 to this report.
• To approve the upload of the draft version of the Haringey Pension Fund Annual Report to the Haringey Pension Fund’s website by 1 December 2024.