Contact: David Wilson (01962) 847407; [email protected]

1 Introduction

1.1 In the autumn of 2004 the Government published draft Local Government Pension Scheme and Management and Investment of Funds (Amendment) Regulations. At its meeting in June 2005, the County Treasurer reported that these regulations had been placed in abeyance by the Government to allow further time for consideration of the changes and the development of best practice advice.

1.2 The draft regulations would have introduced requirements for local authority funds to prepare a Representation Policy Statement as part of their Statement of Investment Principles (SIP), and a separate Communications Policy Statement.

1.3 Notwithstanding the deferral in the introduction of these regulations, the Panel considered and approved a Representation Policy Statement as part of the SIP in June 2005.

1.4 The Government have now implemented the regulations as the Local Government Pension Scheme (Amendment) (No 2) Regulations 2005 issued last November.

1 The new regulations

1.1 The new regulations are very similar to the original draft regulations, but differ slightly. The need for a Representation Policy Statement was changed to a requirement for funds to prepare a Governance Policy Statement by 31 March 2006. The Governance Policy Statement need no longer form part of the SIP, so can be a separate document. The requirement for a Communications Policy Statement was unchanged, and the deadline for preparation was also 31 March 2006. Both documents were sent to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) by that date as required by the regulations.

2 The Governance Policy Statement

2.1 The Governance Policy Statement should cover the following:

· Arrangements for the delegation of responsibilities by the County Council as administering authority to committees, sub-committees, panel and officers.

· The frequency of Panel and other relevant committee meetings.

· The Panel's terms of reference, structure and procedures.

· The policy on representation of other scheme employers, scheme contributors and pensioners.

2.2 A Governance Policy Statement is highlighted in the attached SIP at Appendix 1 by shading and italics starting at page 6, and was sent to the ODPM as required. It remains part of the SIP, as it seems directly relevant to the SIP and there seems little benefit in generating too many separate policy statements.

3 The Communications Policy Statement

3.1 This should cover the Fund's policy and procedures for communications with the Fund's members, representative groups, prospective members and employers. In particular, it should set out the policy on:

· The provision of information and publicity about the Fund and the Local Government Pension Scheme.

· The format, frequency and method of distributing such information.

· The promotion of the Scheme.

3.2 A Communications Policy Statement is attached at Appendix 2, and was sent to the ODPM as required. It has been written in a more informal style than the Fund's other policy documents, as it is a document that will be useful to a wider audience. It has been awarded the Clear English Standard by the Plain Language Commission.

Recommendations

1 That the Panel endorse the Governance Policy Statement as set out in the Statement of Investment Principles at Appendix 1.

2 That the Panel endorse the Communications Policy Statement as set out at Appendix 2.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

TITLE FILE

None.