The Scheme Advisory Board has published its twelfth Scheme Annual Report. This report aggregates information supplied in the 86 fund annual reports, as of 31 March 2024 for the reporting year 2023/2024. The Board Chair, Cllr Roger Phillips said when publishing this report: 

'I continue to be honoured to showcase the work of the entire LGPS and share this important information. The report provides a single source of information collating data from the 86 administering authority fund annual reports. It shows the size, scale and work of the LGPS, for the LGPS. In its twelfth year, we are building upon key data to show the changing financial, membership, investment, and funding aspects of the LGPS over the years.

We are also pleased to see many funds following the updated annual report guidance, jointly approved by the SAB’s Compliance and Reporting Committee (CRC), the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). It replaced the 2019 guidance and I want to thank all those involved in the production of the new guidance which helps funds to produce this important document. As a result of this guidance, for the first time we have been able to include scheme-level data on administration, governance and training – something we intend to build upon in future years, as these are essential components of a successful LGPS. 

As this is first year that funds are reporting under the new requirements, they were asked to use their best endeavours to comply with them this time but they will be mandatory in future years. In compiling this report the Secretariat Team were pleased to report a high-level of compliance in the majority of areas and will continue to monitor this in future years.

In this latest report it is pleasing to report that LGPS membership, especially active membership, continues to grow and the total assets have increased by 10.1% in the reporting period. Importantly the scheme continues to be cash flow positive, when including investment income, in this reporting period.

When looking at costs, it is unsurprising, that with £354bn increase in totals assets, investment management costs have also increased. Costs for both administration and governance have grown which is again unsurprising as funds are dealing with an increasingly complex and growing workload in administering the pension records of 6.68 million members. This is at a time they are also delivering significant projects such as implementing McCloud remedy, preparing for Dashboards and ensuring compliance with The Pensions Regulators’ new General Code’

12 May 2025 Board letter to Pensions Minister and Local Government Minister on pooling decisions

The Board made an initial statement on 11 April in response to receiving the Government letters to the eight investment pools in LGPS outlining Ministerial decisions on the proposals submitted to Government as part of the Fit for the Future consultation. The Board managed to convene an urgent meeting on Friday 9 May and there agreed to send this letter to Jim McMahon MP and Torsten Bell MP, as the Ministers responsible.

24 April 2025 Government responds to consultation on Local Audit Reform  

In its response to the consultation launched on 16 December 2024 on the Local Audit Reform Strategy, the Government has outlined a commitment to separate pension fund accounts from administering authority main accounts. This is a welcome proposal which has been recommended by the Board for some time.  

The Board has established an audit working group, under its Compliance and Reporting Committee, which will discuss the implications of this change and MHCLG’s timeline to amend the necessary legislation and develop any additional guidance on the separate preparation and publication of pension fund accounts.