Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Finance which provided various updates and recommendations (if applicable) to changes to the North East Scotland Pension Fund.

The report provided an update on the Pension Fund Annual Benefit Statements;

amendments to the Local Government Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2018; sought approval for officer travel to various Advisory Committees over 2026; and further sought approval for an overpayment write-off request. 

The report advised that the following documents had also been updated as follows:-

·       Breaches of Law Policy (information on tPR’s Traffic Light System included within the main body of the Policy for greater clarity when determining material significance, updated example breaches register)

·       Data Quality Improvement Plan (The DQIP had been reviewed for the period to 31 March 2026. It included updated quality scores for 2024 and 2025 and an update on the intention to carry out a tracing exercise for “gone away” members in early 2026. The Plan was due to be reviewed again at the end of 2026.

·

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note the final outcome of the annual benefit statement project, which was completed successfully, for assurance (item 4.1 of the main report);

(b)      approve the recommendation to write-off the amount of overpaid pension benefits as detailed in the confidential Appendix III (item 4.3 of the main report);

(c)      approve the updates to the Fund policy documents as set out in 6.2 of the main report;

(d)      approve the travel for one Advisory Committee Officer (Pension Fund Manager or suitable Officer substitute) to attend the following Advisory Committee meetings (item 6.3 of the main report):

·       Partners Group, 14-17 May 2026 – Abu Dhabi

·       HarbourVest, 11-13 May 2026 – Boston

·       RCP, 13 May 2026 – Chicago

·       Blackrock, June 2026 – New York

·       Unigestion, 24-26 June 2026 – Zurich

·       Blackrock, September 2026 – Europe

·       IFM, 19-21 October 2026 – Houston;

(e)      delegate authority to the Chief Officer – Finance, following consultation with the Convener of the Pensions Committee, to approve travel for one Advisory Committee Officer (Pension Fund Manager or Suitable Officer Substitute) to attend the following Advisory Committee meetings once locations and times have been confirmed:

·       Capital Dynamics, Date and Location – TBC; and

(f)       note the remainder of the report for reassurance.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       in relation to section 1.2 of the Pension Administration Strategy (Appendix I to the report) and the ‘Address’ data, to note that officers had advised that there were no comparator Funds, but that they would ascertain if any data was available which could be shared with Members;

(ii)       to note the request that information be included in future reports on the statistics for how many members had actually viewed their Annual Benefit Statement;

(iii)      in relation to the Fund’s response to the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) on amendments to the Local Government Pension Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2018, to note that officers would consider how best to share such responses with Members prior to submission, where possible, noting that timescales could often be challenging;

(iv)      to note that Councillor Gordon had advised that he had completed the TPR training as of 22 September 2025 (section 6.4 of the main report);

(v)      in relation to the expenditure on travel to Advisory Committees, to note that officers would request that the information on this be provided to the NESPF by Fund Managers and would share this with Members if available, potentially through the Annual Report and Accounts; and

(vi)      to approve the recommendations contained in the report.