Cost Transparency Roadshows

The Scheme Advisory Board has set up a series of free regional training sessions for Local Pension Board, Committee members and fund officers on investment cost transparency.

Sessions are being arranged in London, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Leeds, Manchester and Cardiff. These sessions will provide:

Sharia Compliance Report Commissioned

The Board received legal advice which said that before an opinion could be given on whether LGPS was consistent with anti-discrimination and public sector equality duties, it was necessary to instruct an expert in Islamic finance to provide evidence on a range of issues from an Islamic perspective. The Board has now commissioned expert advice on this from Amanah Associates and their report is expected in about three months’ time. Once that report is received, the Board will be in a position to seek and share Counsel’s opinion on this matter.

Reform of Board Scheme Cost Assessment (SCA)

DLUHC has issued the final regulations and published its response to the consultation on reforming the SAB’s own parallel process for reviewing scheme cost. This is the process set out in Regulation 116 of the 2013 Regulations, which runs during the HM Treasury-led quadrennial scheme valuation process. The changes take into account SAB’s response to the consultation and better align the SCA with HMT’s reformed cost control mechanism (CCM).

It helpfully re-iterates that the SAB process operates prior to the HMT CCM and gives the SAB greater flexibility in the making of recommendations to the Secretary of State where there is a breach. However, it leaves open for further discussion the link with the new “economic check” in the CCM.

Climate risk reporting in the private sector – Review of first year reports

TPR have published a review of climate-related disclosures by occupational pension schemes. The paper sets out TPR’s preliminary observations and feedback to industry, based on their review of a selection of climate-related disclosures published by occupational pension schemes. The review relates to private pension schemes but contains observations which may be useful for LGPS funds ahead of the implementation of climate risk (TCFD) reporting in the LGPS – which is now expected to commence from 1 April 2024, with first reports due in late 2025.