The LGPS Local Pension Board was scheduled to meet to discuss appointments, the pension fund's performance, compliance with regulations, and future work plans. The board was also expected to review the government's response to a consultation on the future of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

Pension Board Appointments

The LGPS Local Pension Board was scheduled to note the recent appointments of scheme member and employer representatives. The terms of office for board members are four years, staggered to ensure continuity. Councillor Mark Whittington and David Vickers' terms had ended. It was agreed at the March meeting that an additional representative for both scheme member and employer should be appointed, to improve the resilience of the Board.

David Vickers expressed his interest in retaining his position as Scheme Member Representative, which was accepted. Cherry Gilchrist was appointed to the additional position.

Vicki Sharpe, Deputy Head of People within the HR service, was approved as the Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) representative, as Mark Whittington did not retain his council seat. Debbie Holland from Boston College was appointed to the additional Employer Representative position.

Pension Fund Update Report

The board was scheduled to discuss the Pension Fund Update Report, covering fund matters for the quarter ending 31 March 2025, and any other current issues. This included:

• Breaches Register Update: A review of the reporting process led to an expanded register, providing further detail on breaches, and including some previously unrecorded, such as payments of refunds to scheme members. There had been no breaches requiring reporting to the Pensions Regulator¹.
• Risk Register Update: A review at the October meeting led to a change in the risk of Committee Knowledge, with the direction of travel increasing to improving, following changes to the Pensions Committee and introductory training.
• Asset Pooling Update: Officers had continued collaborative work with partner funds and Border to Coast² colleagues, including meetings with potential new partner funds. The multi-factor global equity sub-fund went live in May, with the Fund transitioning around £500m from the LGIM Future World mandate. Work continued on the UK direct property offering, with the Fund expecting to make its first investment during the summer.
• Pension Fund Outturn 2024/25: The Pension Fund budget is split between Administration Costs, Investment Management Expenses, and Oversight and Governance Costs. Investment management and performance-related fees were less than the original budget, as the Fund increased the percentage of its assets with Border to Coast, benefiting from reduced management fees.
• Annual Benefit Statements and McCloud Remedial Service Statements: The Fund had exercised its discretion to delay including remediable service information in the Annual Benefit Statement (ABS) issued to members for the 2024 to 2025 scheme year. All scheme members that could be impacted by the McCloud remedy³ had been made aware of this within their annual statement, and a statement was also published on the shared service website.
• Committee Paper Comments: The Board had the opportunity to discuss any aspects of the Administration and Governance Pensions Committee's papers where further clarity was required.

Pensions Administration Report

The board was scheduled to receive a quarterly report from West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF), the fund's pension administrator, on current administration issues. This included discussion of key performance indicators (KPIs), scheme information, member and employer contact, internal dispute resolution procedures, a shared service update, regulatory updates, and web registrations.

Some KPIs had not been met, including death grant to set up, dependant pension to set up, interfund linking in actual/quote/out actual/quote, monthly posting, transfer in actual, deferred benefits set up on leaving, and life certificate.

Membership numbers in the Lincolnshire Fund were:

Over the quarter January to March 25, 708 survey forms were emailed to Lincoln members; of those, 16 (2.3%) were returned.

The Employer Relations Team delivered a series of webinars designed to prepare employers for the upcoming year-end and valuation responsibilities.

WYPF had conducted a review into the practice of paying unpaid refunds and deferred pensions into temporary bank accounts, and would no longer be using temporary accounts for the payment of future refunds or deferred pensions.

Progress on the LPF member statements was going well and 22,822 (94.70%) of statements had been produced so far.

TPR Data Quality Report

The board was scheduled to receive an update on the data quality scores for Lincolnshire Pension Fund, which are reported to The Pensions Regulator (TPR) each year in November. The current data scores for LPF which include current and legacy data are:

Data issues included missing addresses, missing earnings, missing career average revalued earnings (CARE), start date inconsistency, no national insurance contributions or GMP, missing benefit crystallisation details, missing annual allowance calculation, no total exit guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) (Deferred), and no post 88 GMP on record.

As a result of the data scores, WYPF had devised a Data Improvement Plan.

Annual Report and Accounts 2024/25

The board was scheduled to review the draft accounts for the Pension Fund, receive an update on the audit for the financial year 2024/25, and consider and approve the draft Pension Board Annual Report for 2024/25.

The draft accounts set out the Fund's income and expenditure for the year, alongside Fund investment assets at 31 March 2025.

External audit work on the Pension Fund accounts was underway, and KPMG would provide a verbal update on this work and the findings to date at the meeting.

TPR General Code

The board was scheduled to receive an annual update on the Fund's compliance against the General Code from the Pension Regulator.

The AON compliance checker model enables funds to respond to all areas of the code, but it specifically highlights those relevant to the LGPS. The report sets out for each of the five areas the levels of compliance by RAG rating, where green is compliant, amber is compliant in some but not all areas, and red is not compliant.

Workplan and Training Plan

The board was scheduled to consider its work programme and training, and review and approve the training policy for board members for the next twelve months.

The mandatory minimum training within the policy covers:

• Following appointment, new members to the Board are expected to attend new member induction training before the date of their first Pension Board meeting
• Complete the on-line training program set out within the Hymans Robertson LGPS Online Learning Academy (LOLA) within twelve months of joining the Board
• Undertake regular training as appropriate and as agreed at Board meetings.

Board members are encouraged to attend external training events, including conferences, and details of these are shared in the weekly update e-mails.

The work programme outlines the items for consideration at future meetings of the Board, covering both reporting and training items.

LGPS: Fit for the Future Consultation Response

The board was scheduled to be made aware of the government's response to the Fit for the Future consultation and Border to Coast's pooling strategy response to feedback from the government.

The government had confirmed that March 2026 remains the deadline for the new minimum standards. Funds are to set a local investment target and engage with their relevant combined authority on growth plans. Shareholder governance is up to the pool and Funds to decide but needs to ensure views of both fund and member representatives are reflected somehow. The Good Governance review of Funds is to be triennial. The Procurement Act 2023 is to be amended to enable LGPS pools to collaborate. The Pensions Bill will reinforce the existing power that the Secretary of State can wind up a Fund or direct Fund merger, and will also introduce new powers to direct a Fund to join a pool.

Border to Coast's 2030 Strategy explicitly contained a strand of activity to prepare to capture the benefits of greater scale for Partner Funds .