A new provider brought in to oversee Barnet Council’s pension fund has made improvements despite inheriting “difficulties with data and records” from outsourcing firm Capita.

The West Yorkshire Pension Fund improved its performance month on month since taking over the administration of the fund from Capita in November last year, according to a council report.

Council officers have received positive feedback about the service provided by the new administrator from employers and members.

The findings were presented to a meeting of the council’s pension fund committee on Tuesday.

Pensions manager Mark Fox told councillors: “West Yorkshire Pension Fund have been administrators for over six months now.

“As previously reported to the committee, there have been various issues, mainly resulting from data, over that time. But gradually things are getting better, and things are going pretty well at the moment with them.

“If any issues do crop up, West Yorkshire are very proactive in bringing any new concerns to our attention.”

Mr Fox said a 97.7 per cent case completion rate was “a lot higher” than during the last few months of Capita’s tenure.

He told the committee 59 members’ pension records had gone missing between the transfer of data from Capita to West Yorkshire. Most of these were found to have been deleted for legitimate reasons, he added, but a small number needed to be updated on the West Yorkshire system.

Capita had now provided West Yorkshire with details of the members, and the system was being updated, Mr Fox said.

“Capita have been unable to provide any real explanation as to why these members were deleted, the remaining 13 or so,” he continued.

“The matter has been reported to the Information Commissioners Office and The Pensions Regulator, and once West Yorkshire confirm these records have been updated, we would regard this matter as closed.

“The Pensions Regulator have responded and advised they are going to take no further action regarding this matter.”

Mr Fox said West Yorkshire Pension Fund had produced a plan for fixing outstanding member case and data issues inherited from Capita, along with a timeline for doing so. The first stage of the plan had been completed, he added.

In response to a question from Cllr Anne Hutton (Labour, Woodhouse), Mr Fox said West Yorkshire Pension Fund was not charging the council extra money to complete the remediation plan.

The administration of Barnet Council’s pension fund, which serves more than 27,000 current and former employees, was outsourced to Capita in 2013.

It was subsequently hit by a series of problems, including more than 6,000 “critical” errors in member data, £1.7 million of late contributions and a failure to submit a scheme return on time.

Councillors voted unanimously to award the contract to West Yorkshire Pension Fund in February last year.

Commenting after the meeting, a Capita spokesperson said: “We take the protection and accuracy of all our data very seriously.

“Following a thorough investigation that has now concluded, Barnet Council, the Information Commissioners Office and the Pensions Regulator were all satisfied that no member data was lost when the scheme transitioned from Capita to West Yorkshire Pension Fund.”