Agenda and minutes

None received.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None declared.

To be confirmed, and signed by the Chair.

Resolved: - That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 June 2015 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

Andy Fox, Head of Service, Policy and Compliance, presented a report setting out further details of a mentoring scheme to be offered by the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF). This followed a report on the mentoring scheme considered by the Committee at its meeting on 5 June 2015.

Having consulted with the Chair, as agreed at the 5 June meeting, it was now proposed that feedback from officer participation in the first phase of the scheme be awaited prior to a decision being taken on participation by Committee Members in future phases.

Resolved: - That:

(i)  The Committee awaits feedback on the benefits of the mentoring scheme from an officer of the Fund who has volunteered to participate in the first phase;

(ii)  Subject to receiving positive feedback, the Committee seeks to facilitate member participation in future phases.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There was no urgent business to be considered.

In a change to the published Calendar of Meetings, the next meeting of the Committee will be held on Wednesday 30 September 2015 at 2pm in Cabinet Room 'D' - The Henry Bolingbroke Room, County Hall, Preston.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Wednesday 30 September 2015 at 2pm in Cabinet Room 'D' - The Henry Bolingbroke Room, County Hall, Preston.

The Committee is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, it considers that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972, as indicated against the heading to the item.

Resolved: - That the press and members of the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972, indicated against the heading to the item. It was considered that in all the circumstances the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

(Not for Publication – Exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.  It is considered that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interests in disclosing the information).

(Exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972. It was considered that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information)

The Committee considered a report on the creation of an Asset and Liability Management Partnership with the London Pension Fund Authority.

George Graham, Director, Lancashire County Pension Fund, responded to a number of points raised by the Committee.

Following consideration of the report, the Chair invited Damon Lawrenson, Interim Director of Financial Resources, to present the independent financial advice from PricewaterhouseCoopers on the outline business case.

Subsequently, the Chair invited Aoifinn Devitt and Eric Lambert, Independent Advisors to the Committee, to comment on the proposals.

In summarising, the Chair referred to the work which remained to be undertaken on the detail of the proposals, should the Committee decide to proceed to the next stage. This would include a further report to the Committee in November setting out a detailed business case covering areas such as risk, governance, staffing, the role of the Investment Panel, and the work undertaken around the United Nations Responsible Investment Charter. In the meantime, and subject to approval of the proposals, it was proposed that regular briefings and workshops be held to ensure that the Committee was involved in progress in advance of the November meeting. 

The Chair thanked all those Committee Members, officers and advisors who had been involved in the significant work undertaken to date.

Resolved: - That:

(i)  Approval be given to proceed further with the creation of the Asset and Liability Management Partnership;

(ii)  Approval be given to the preparation and submission of an application to the FCA for registration of both an operator and an Authorised Contractual Scheme, including identifying named individuals, from within those staff identified as being in scope, to perform specific regulated functions;

(iii)  Officers be instructed to prepare a 5 year business plan for the entire operation of the Partnership both in support of the FCA application, which requires a 5 year plan, and in order to facilitate a final decision on viability in November;

(iv)  Officers and the Joint Member Working Group be authorised to undertake the following actions in support of the above processes:

a.  The appointment through procurement of a depositary for the ACS;

b.  The appointment through a recruitment process undertaken by the Joint Member Working Group of an Independent Chair and 3 Independent Non-Executive Directors for the Partnership.

c.  The designation of individuals to carry out regulated functions within the FCA regulated business from within the staff in scope to form part of the new entities.

d.  To secure external advice in the following areas to support this work, in addition to the legal advice and FCA consultancy already commissioned:

  i.  Specialist advisors for the procurement of the depositary and associated asset servicing functions;

  ii.  Recruitment consultants to support the recruitment of non-executives to the Board.

  iii.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.