Agenda item

The Chair welcomed Denise Jones, Head of Change Management of Link Fund Solutions, to provide a presentation on Key Milestones and progress in respect of the Wales Pension Partnership.

Ms Jones provided the Joint Committee with a list of the provisional dates for the key milestones, progress to-date on Initial Funds (Global Equity), Tranche 2 (UK and European Equities) and Tranche 3 (Fixed Income), and the next steps.

Ms Jones advised that Tranche 1 had been successfully launched in January and post trade reports had been issued. Tranche 2 had received approval and a launch date was currently being agreed. With regard to Tranche 3, a final fund structure proposal would be provided later at the meeting (Item 11 refers). The first monthly reporting pack would be circulated this month. Key next steps were the agreement of fund structures for Tranche 3, the agreement of managers and an agreement on stock lending which was subject to approval from all constituent authorities.

Mr Anthony Parnell provided the Committee with the following update on the host authority’s responsibilities:

·         Staffing – Tracey Williams had been appointed as the Senior Financial Services Officer in February 2019. Mr. Parnell advised that the second Host Authority Officer role had been budgeted as a provision. It would become clear whether the role was required as the Wales Pension Partnership progressed over the next 12 months.

·         Communications – A communications policy had been drafted with Hymans and the website for the Wales Pension Partnership would be functional by early summer. The Officer Working Group continued to liaise on a regular basis.

·         Governance – Pension Board Chairs would receive a report on governance at next week’s meeting so as to clarify the responsibilities of the JGC, the Officer Working Group, LINK, Russell Investments and the Host Authority.

·         Reporting – Reports from LINK were expected soon. Mr. Parnell advised that an agenda item on reporting would be scheduled for the next JGC.

Mr. Parnell further advised that a preliminary meeting had taken place with Wales Audit Office (WAO) regarding the Wales Pension Partnership Audit. WAO would liaise with each of the eight fund auditors and regular meetings would be taking place over the next months. The JGC would receive an update on this in the near future.

A comment was made welcoming plans for a Wales Pension Partnership website and suggesting that this should be completed as soon as possible in order to support communication and transparency.

A query was made regarding trade union involvement in the Wales Pension Partnership and representation on the JGC. It was suggested that this topic should be tabled for a future meeting for a formal consideration and decision by the JGC. A Panel Member suggested that scrutiny and advice functions were taken up by Pension Boards at the level of each individual Pension Fund Committee and their representatives on the JGC, therefore such a role was not required at pool level. It was suggested that involvement and communication with all stakeholders was crucial but had to take place in the appropriate fora.

The Monitoring Officer advised that the Inter-Authority Agreement did not contain provisions for the representation of non-voting or co-opted members on the JGC. If the JGC decided in favour of trade union representation, the Agreement would have to be altered with approval from the eight Constituent Authorities.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the presentation from Link and the Host Authority on milestones and progress update be received.