Apologies, welcomes, declarations of conflicts of interest
The Chair of the Board, Sarah Smart, welcomed everyone including David Taylor, General Counsel, Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and the Next Generation NED. Nicola Parish gave apologies. Alison Hatcher declared an interest but it was agreed it was not material to the meeting.
Chair's update
Pensions dashboard change request (28 July). The Board had, by correspondence:
- agreed that the current phase of the project be extended by 6 months; and
- approved an associated increase in budget for the Discovery Phase.
Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) update
The Chair of ARAC presented a verbal update to the Board on the work of the Committee over recent months.
CEO report
The CEO highlighted the key points of her presentation which included:
- A Private Members Bill to extend Automatic Enrolment would bring in 18-year-olds and those on lower income by abolishing the lower earnings limit for contributions.
- The Autumn Statement was due on 22 November with a package of measures.
- TPR was working closely with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to prepare a response to the Bank of England’s (BoE) Financial Policy Committee on their recommendations in respect of liability-driven investment (LDI).
- The new Interim Executive Director of Digital Data and Technology (DDAT) had been appointed, and the new permanent Directors of Digital and Data would be starting in September and November respectively.
The CEO updated Board on the current industrial action.
The Board considered TPR’s current out-of-appetite risks.
Quarterly performance report
The Board considered the report.
Key policy updates
The Board was updated on the policy areas that are covered by the Mansion House reforms and the current thinking on how the work might be taken forward, as well as on the broad portfolio of policy work the team are engaged with.
Dashboard outline business case
The Board approved the predicted spend for the period Oct 2023 to Jul 2025. Board was advised that the resourcing of the project reflected the importance of reducing the risk of failed delivery and the associated impacts for savers, industry and TPR’s reputation.
Feedback from panels and key stakeholder discussions
The Board received an update on the above. The panels provide opportunities to test emerging thinking before it reaches Board and provide a consultative forum on issues such as where market intervention may be needed. Discussions have been thoughtful and challenging. Now that the panels had been running for 18 months the team planned to conduct a review and would bring recommendations to ExCo.
External risk framework
Following last autumn’s market volatility and concerns about LDI, a review of how external and systemic risk is managed at TPR had been commissioned. External risk was defined as risks to savers. Systemic risks were defined as risks arising from the way in which the pensions system operates. The Board noted the change of approach to external risk and discussed the question of how broad a view TPR should take in relation to tracking and alleviation of systemic risk.
TPR response to third party administrator cyber incident
The key points of the targeted data hack were explained along with TPR’s response to the rapidly evolving incident.
Culture diagnostic update
The Board was updated on a culture diagnostic that had been commissioned by the People and Culture team to better understand how to cultivate future culture.
Any other business
None.