Decision details

Feedback from Board Members on Recent Training Events and Conferences

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Decisions:

The Board considered a report setting out details of training events and conference attended by Board Members since the last meeting of the Board.

 

Board Members had attended the following:

 

-  An Introduction to the Virtual Reading Room - 29 April 2016

-  PLSA Local Authority Conference 2016 - 16/17/18 May 2016

-  Review of the Investment Characteristics of Traditional Assets and their Relevance and Appropriateness for Pension Fund Investing - 25 May 2016

-  Local Pension Boards - One Year On Seminar - 29 June 2016

-  Review of the Investment Characteristics of Alternative Assets and their Relevance and Appropriateness for Pension Fund Investing - 30 June 2016

 

The following points were raised/noted:

 

-  The PLSA conference in May had been better attended than ever before and it had been useful to share with other Pension Board Chairs and Members how Boards had found the first year of operation. It had been obvious that there was a wide range of experiences across Boards. Marcus Jones, the Local Government Minister, spoke about various aspects of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS);

-  The presentations made at the Pension Boards Seminar in June had been circulated to Board Members. The Pension Regulator had emphasised that it's role was to 'educate, enable, enforce' and that Boards should focus on administration and compliance and not be too distracted by the current Government proposals around pooling of funds. The Lancashire Local Pension Board appeared to be far more representative than a number of other Boards which did not have the same range of members and, in one case, appeared to operate a Joint Committee structure whereby members sat on both the Pension Board and the Pension Fund Committee;

-  The workshop on the review of investment characteristics in May had been useful in highlighting how different the Lancashire fund was to other funds within the LGPS;

 

The Board noted that it was disappointing that Part II reports and other confidential/sensitive information was no longer being uploaded to the Virtual Reading Room and that existing information had been removed. Abbi Leech, Head of Fund, reported that this was a temporary measure due to concerns raised by Internal Audit and Information Governance about the security of the information given the use of shared login details. Work was being undertaken to address this as soon as possible and, in the meantime, other information would still be uploaded as usual and any confidential information would be made available on request via e-mail.

 

Resolved: - That the report and updates, now presented, be noted.

Date of decision: 05/07/2016

Decided at meeting: 05/07/2016 - Lancashire Local Pension Board

Accompanying Documents: