Decision details

The Assembly will be presented with a report on the performance of the Council’s Pension Fund

Received a report from the Corporate Director of Finance and Commercial Services setting out the Annual Report of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Local Government Pension Scheme for 2008/09 which provided an overview of the performance and detailed work of the Council’s Pension Fund throughout the financial year.  The detail was set out as an appendix to the main report.

In relation to the current performance of the Pension Fund questions were raised in relation to the potential effect on the fund of possible future redundancies brought about by the economic downturn, and the current performance of the Fund and the age profile of contributing staff.

The Assembly were informed as to how the Fund operates and that by law it has to ensure that its assets cover its total liabilities. The value of Fund is set every three years by the Council’s Actuaries and this includes assessing the age profile of the Fund and in turn reviewing the level of the employee contributions. 

The current age profile of the Fund indicates of those in the 40 to 50 and 50 to 60 age bracket are considerably less than the local government average.

In November 2009 the Assembly, in making a number of changes to the Council’s Constitution, agreed that all policy decisions relating to pension investments for all employees should be an Assembly rather than an Executive function in line with the requirements of the Superannuation Act 1972, the Local Government Act 2000 and subsequent Local Authority Function and Responsibilities) Regulations 2000. 

Under the regulations it is permissible to further delegate the pension functions to either an officer of the Council, a committee or a sub-committee.  Under the Council’s existing scheme of delegation day to day management of the pension fund is administered through Corporate Finance reporting through to an annually appointed Pension Fund Panel which in turn recommends decisions to the Assembly.

In view of the current frequency of the Assembly such reporting arrangements are neither practical nor efficient, and therefore in line with best practice adopted by most other local authorities we have agreed to:-

  (i)  delegate authority to the Pension Fund Panel to deal with all pension matters, on the basis the terms of reference set out in an appendix to the report;

  (ii)  the necessary amendments to the Council Constitution to facilitate the above; and

  (iii)  authorise the Chief Executive to arrange for the appointment of an additional member of the current Panel to accord with political balance requirements.