Decision details

Having received a presentation prior to the meeting on internal audit assurance for the Lancashire County Pension Fund the Board considered a report on specific role and responsibility of the Board in relation to internal audit reporting and assurances.

With regard to the Local Pensions Partnership the Board noted the assurances given by the Director of Strategy in relation to the existing governance model and recognised that the Partnership would continue to work in collaboration with the County Council to evolve its internal audit process.

The Board also acknowledged the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Fund at the start of the current financial year and the affect it may have on any planned audits of the Partnership. As a result it was suggested that the Fund should look to engage an External Auditor to undertake further audit work to complement any work done by the LPP internal auditors and provide additional assurance at the end of the financial year. It was noted that the commissioning of additional audit work would involve a cost to the Fund, however, this was considered to represent value for money in order to have additional assurance at the end of the current financial year. 

In the future it was suggested that the evolving internal audit process of the Local Pensions Partnership should be sufficient to provide the required level of assurance to both the Partnership Board and shareholders.

Resolved: That in order to complement any work done by the Local Pensions Partnership internal auditors the Head of Fund engage an External Auditor to undertake further audit work and provide additional assurance to the Fund at the end of the current financial year.