Agenda item

An update by the Head of Wiltshire Pension Fund concerning the progress of the Fund’s new Risk Management a framework.

Jennifer Devine, Head of Wiltshire Pension Fund provided an update concerning the progress of the Fund’s new Risk Management framework. The update included, but was not limited to that SWAP had recommended that the Pension Fund align with this new framework as part of the key controls audit in June 2024. It was outlined that work had been successful however an issue had been encountered in assessing the impact of risk using the Wiltshire Council impact framework, which had been set out in relation to the Wiltshire Council financial structure. As the Fund was financially separate to the Council it had been impossible for officers to assess risk in the same way, therefore a new framework with minor deviations whilst adopting the same standards had been created.

A second issue relating to the Council’s proposed risk appetite score had been encountered as rather than scoring each risk, the Fund had badged each risk within a category and then applied the appetite gradings from the Council framework in order to create an overall risk appetite score akin to that of the Council.

The Committee discussed the update with particular reference drawn to risk appetite, and clarity was sought around the risks which had been added to the Council’s own corporate risk register, regarding funding and reputation.  To which it was clarified that the Council looked at these through a corporate lens, separate to the Fund’s own risk register with examples of funding and reputational risk cited as if the Fund was to invest poorly this might affect the reputation of Wiltshire Council as the administering body.

It was suggested by Members that it would be positive for there to be a training session on how to understand the risk management framework, with it agreed that this would be brought to the next meeting.

Further assurance was provided by Officers that the Fund had fully committed to producing a corporate risk management framework that was aligned to the Council’s framework and policies, whilst still retaining features of the Fund’s previous framework that were beneficial, such as mapping of controls to risks, mapping risks to the Fund’s own business plan, and mapping individual risks to risk areas so risk can be assessed by theme. In addition, the Section 151 Officer stated that she was happy with the framework that had been produced and that it would give assurance in a robust way, with the corporate framework being the backbone for how Wiltshire Council was conducted and that the aligned framework was important given that the Fund was administered by Wiltshire Council.

At the conclusion of debate, it was,

Resolved:

The Committee agreed to approve the recommendations in paragraph 12:

a)    To note the progress made so far and endorse the approach taken as outlined in paras 8 to 10.

b)    To approve the adoption of a Pension Fund specific impact framework as set out in Appendix 2.

c)    To approve the methodology for applying risk appetite to risk areas, and the resulting risk appetite scores as set out in Appendix 3.