Looking after our investments so we can pay all pensions in full, while working towards our net zero 2050 goal, are essential priorities for Avon Pension Fund. As we make good progress on reducing our investment portfolio’s carbon emissions, our innovative investment strategy has hit the news.

New applications for the Fund’s Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC) scheme with Legal and General can now be accepted.

There are important changes to the Fund’s Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC) arrangements being made from January 2023. These changes are applicable if you have paid or are currently paying using the current arrangement with Aviva (previously Friends Provident/Friends Life) or Utmost Life (formerly Equitable Life).

The Avon Pension Fund is pleased to publish both its latest Responsible Investment Annual Report and Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Report for 2022.

This year’s Responsible Investment Annual Report serves to update stakeholders on the progress we have made against our climate objectives. This report offers insight into the structural challenges climate-aware investors face and provides details of the Fund’s focus over the coming year as we seek to deliver on our financial and environmental, social and governance (ESG) obligations.

The Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013 require an administering authority to publish a pension fund annual report on or before 1st December following the Scheme year end. This annual report should contain an external auditor’s opinion on the pension fund’s statement of accounts, which is a ‘consistent with’ opinion referring to that given on the administering authority’s statement of accounts.

To coincide with COP27’s Finance Day, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) published their inaugural Paris Aligned Asset Owners (PAAO) progress report. The report, which includes 29 case studies, shows how asset owners are developing a range of strategies and approaches to fulfil the criteria set by the PAAO 10-point commitment (which is set out in the report).

The Avon Pension Fund is in the process of moving to a new AVC provider.

Aviva, our current AVC provider, will no longer accept new employer applications and we are therefore in the process of appointing a new AVC provider.

From 1 October 2022, we will temporarily suspend new applications to any of the existing Aviva AVC schemes. As soon as we have appointed a new provider, new AVC applications will commence again with the new provider. This is likely to be from December. Deductions in respect of existing AVC contracts with Aviva will continue during this interim period.

In April, Avon Pension Fund signed the 2022 annual ‘Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis’, alongside over 500 other investors managing nearly $39 trillion in AUM. This statement was made public on the IIGCC IIGCC website yesterday, ahead of COP27 in Egypt in November.

The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) has published a factsheet on McCloud. The factsheet sets out TPO’s views on what affected members and schemes can do now and TPO’s present approach to dealing with McCloud complaints.

TPO’s general starting position is that it would not investigate McCloud complaints. This is because it acknowledges that the Government is taking steps to address the discrimination with retrospective effect. TPO will, however, carefully look at the facts of each case before deciding whether to investigate.

We’re pleased to sign The Pension Regulator’s pledge to combat pension scams and protect our members.

Pension scammers wreck lives and anyone can be a victim. As part of the pensions industry, we play a vital role in protecting members and helping to fight the scammers.