Agenda item

This paper provides a summary of activity in key areas of pension administration for the HFPF.

Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) introduced the report which covered a summary of activity in key areas of pension administration for the Council’s Pension Fund. The number of complaints received had decreased to 1 at the end of Q3 compared to 12 at the end of Q1 and 10 in Q2 in 2024/25. The Q3 year to date pension administration costs were 1% above target at £416,262.00 due to increased resources cost. Q4 costs were expected to ensure the Fund ends the scheme year on budget.

It was noted that in Q3 a data breach occurred where 72 employee records were shared with a payroll provider. This matter was reported to the ICO and the Council’s Information Security, but no further action was required to be taken, and the Head of Pension discussed the matter and lessons learnt with the Head of Risk at LPPA and the Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance.

Michael Adam (Co-opted Member) asked for further clarification to be provided on how the contract management worked with LPPA and if there was any scope to reset the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) should this be required. Eleanor Dennis confirmed that the contract was a rolling basis, that will be reviewed in the future.  She emphasised the important of not putting too much emphasis SLAs to the provider when the service was already at a satisfactory level, except in areas where improvement should be made, such as quality and transparency. Additionally, she noted that LPPA would not be able to adjust SLAs for one client and this would require a collaborative partnership across all providers. Currently all clients operated under the same SLA framework, with more flexible SLAs being introduced only for new clients moving forward.

Councillor Laura Janes recalled an earlier meeting with LPPA when their performance was not meeting expectations. During that discussion, LPPA mentioned adjusting their SLAs to be more realistic, which subsequently led to an improvement in their performance. She asked Eleanor Dennis if she was satisfied with their performance based on the current measurement criteria. In response Eleanor Dennis noted that while she was generally satisfied, she would like to see greater transparency and improved quality. Measuring quality issues remained challenging, though LPPA had made efforts to enhance reporting on customer satisfaction. She added that further work was needed to improve the member experience, and officers were actively reviewing this in collaboration with LPPA. Councillor Laura Janes requested that a brief list of any concerns in advance of the main meeting to assist with Committee’s scrutiny.

Action: Eleanor Dennis

Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier expressed concerns about LPPA’s delay in disclosing the data breach, noting that while it should have been reported within 72 hours, it instead took four days. He acknowledged that while the breach was not critical and council officers had taken all the correct actions in response, it was still troubling that LPPA did not appear to take the matter seriously. He asked whether officers had the opportunity to discuss this issue with LPPA. Eleanor Dennis agreed stating that the lack of transparency and the way LPPA handled the situation were both disappointing and concerning. She confirmed that she had spoken with them and had made it clear that their response had not met expectations. She also felt that LPPA should have held an open meeting with all their clients to provide full transparency of the breach. Additionally, she expressed that it would be important to develop a policy outlining the Fund’s expectations for how LPPA should respond and act in the event of future data breaches.

Members requested that LPPA bring their cybersecurity experts to the next meeting, allowing the Committee to question and scrutinise them for further information regarding the data breach.

Action: Eleanor Dennis

Councillor Adam Peter Lang asked whether anything further needed to be done before the next meeting to support officers. Eleanor Dennis explained that she would be working on outlining roles and responsibilities for handling such incidents in the future and once drafted this would be shared with the Committee.

Action: Eleanor Dennis

Councillor Adam Peter Lang followed up with a question, recalling that officers had previously informed the Committee that the member satisfaction survey had received a low response rate. He wondered if there was an alternative way to gather feedback and suggested expanding efforts by forming a focus group to collect more meaningful insights.

Eleanor Dennis noted that LPPA already had a small focus group in place and that members could also provide comments and feedback through a section on the website. However, she explained that her team had limited resources, and while she was open to exploring this idea in the future this.

 would not be feasible in the short term.

RESOLVED

The Pension Fund Committee noted the report.