The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) needs to have, and crucially be seen to have, good governance to challenge any public concern, Hymans Robertson governance, administration and projects consultant, Michael Burton, has said.

Speaking at the Pensions UK Local Authority Conference, Burton highlighted that “good governance is great, but we need to be seen to have good governance”.

“It's all well and good making the right decisions in the right way, but if people can't see us making those decisions in the right way, we can't challenge the perception that we're not doing that sort of stuff,” he stated.

Yet Burton noted that not all aspects of governance can be conducted in public.

“We will be dealing with commercially sensitive data, individual member’s data. We might be talking in a committee meeting about a particular area that we've got problems with, going into a lot of detail that's not appropriate for public access. However, as much we can, we put in the public domain,” he explained.

According to Burton, this is done because LGPS funds make decisions about “difficult and divisive topics, topics where there are winners and there are losers, or at least in certain people's minds they think there are winners and losers, even where that might not be the case”.

“So, if we can demonstrate we're sitting down before the process and we're looking at the factors… that we're going through it in a measured, structured way, thinking about everything in the realm. It really reduces those risks and challenges, which lead to further time, further resources, not preventing us from getting on with the job at hand,” he added.

Burton also referenced how The Pensions Regulator published a consultation in May on its updated five-year Corporate Strategy, which emphasised effective scheme governance and administration by independent and skilled trustees and scheme managers as one area that will drive the regulator’s work in the coming years.

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