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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Online Meeting

Contact: Ellen Ghey  01225 718259

Media

Items
No. Item

233.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence or substitutions for the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence received.

 

234.

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

 

235.

Chairman's Announcements

To receive any announcements through the Chairman.

Minutes:

The Chairman highlighted the purpose of the extraordinary meeting; to inform members of the Committee of the recent work undertaken to develop the Fund’s approach to potential responsible investment issues and how these could impact on the Fund’s Investment Strategy.

 

236.

Public Participation

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public. During the ongoing COVID-19 situation the Council is operating revised procedures and the public are able participate in meetings online after registering with the officer named on this agenda, and in accordance with the deadlines below.

 

Guidance on how to participate in this meeting online.

 

Statements


Members of the public who wish to submit a statement in relation to an item on this agenda should submit this is electronically to the officer named on this agenda no later than 5pm on Tuesday 12 January 2021.

 

Statements should:

 

·       State whom the statement is from (including if representing another person or organisation)

·       Clearly state the key points

·       If read aloud, be readable in approximately 3 minutes

 

Up to three speakers are allowed for each item on the agenda.

 

Questions

 

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions electronically to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on Thursday 7 January 2021 in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on Monday 11 January 2021.


Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent. Details of any questions received will be circulated to members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website; they will be taken as read at the meeting.

 

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

A public question and a public statement were received and read out by the Democratic Services Officer, Ellen Ghey.

 

Firstly, in response to a question from Jane Laurie, Jennifer Devine, Head of Pension Fund Investments, gave a verbal response; the details of which can be found attached to these minutes.

 

Secondly, in response to a statement from Sigurd Reimers, Jennifer Devine gave a verbal response that reiterated the answer given to the above question, and noted that the minutes of the previous meeting on 17 December 2020 had not yet been published due to employee annual leave over the Christmas period delaying the finalisation of the document.

 

The Chairman highlighted the duty of the Wiltshire Pension Fund (WPF) to ensure that assets and liabilities were balanced in order to achieve investment returns and subsequently pay members’ pension benefits. It was confirmed that the Funding level as of 13 January 2021 was 98.3%, which was noted as being a strong position considering the far-reaching impact of the events of 2020.

 

237.

Date of Next Meeting

To note that the next ordinary meeting of the Committee will be held on 25 March 2021.

Minutes:

It was noted that the next ordinary meeting was originally due to be held on 25 March 2021 but that it had been postponed, with permission of the Chairman, and was now scheduled to be held on 30 March 2021.

 

238.

Urgent Items

Any other items of business which, in the opinion of the Chairman, should be considered as a matter of urgency. Urgent items of a confidential nature may be considered under Part II of this agenda.

 

 

Minutes:

There were no urgent items.

 

239.

Exclusion of the Public

To consider passing the following resolution:

 

To agree that in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public from the meeting for the business specified in Item Number 8 because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 & 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information to the public.

 

Minutes:

One member of the Committee raised concerns and questioned why Agenda Item 8 was under Part 2 of the agenda. Officers reiterated that the topic of responsible investments, and the actions taken by the Fund, would be shared publicly at a later date. It was confirmed that the report itself contained proprietary information that was commercially sensitive and confidential and could not be disclosed to the public at this stage. A vote was undertaken to decide the resolution to exclude the public. After which, it was:

 

Resolved

 

To agree that in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public from the meeting for the business specified in Item Number 8 because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 & 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information to the public.

 

Councillor Christopher Newbury requested that his vote against the motion be recorded.

 

240.

Responsible Investment Issues

To receive a report highlighting the recent work done to develop the approach in tackling responsible investment issues.

 

Further Agenda Supplements to follow.

Minutes:

Jennifer Devine, Head of Pension Fund Investments, introduced a report that highlighted the recent work done to develop the approach in tackling responsible investment issues, in particular climate change risk. The members received a presentation from Mercer detailing various responsible investment issues for consideration and debated the best way forward for the Wiltshire Pension Fund.

 

Resolved

 

The Committee noted the report.