Agenda item

Requests to speak at the Committee on a matter within its terms of reference must be made in writing to the clerk named on the front of this agenda by 5pm two working days before the meeting.

The Chair informed members that two deputations had been received and accepted, copies of the deputation statements were included in the supplementary agenda.

The 2 deputations related to ethical Pension Fund Investments and were from:

·       Liz Wheatley (Camden Unison)

·      Luca Salice – (Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign)

The following responses were given by the deputees to members questions:

• The Unison Observer on the Committee regularly attended Pension Committee meetings remotely but did not have voting rights and attended the meetings as an observer.
• Committee members could introduce themselves and meet the Trade Union representatives after the meeting.
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) had made it clear that genocide had probably occurred in Gaza.
• There was a strong debate about the actions of certain companies which were deemed illegal such as the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank as well as the activities of the arms industry, Unison strongly felt that Pension Fund money should not be invested in war, occupation and death.
• There was the feeling that investing in these companies made Camden Pension Fund complicit in these activities.

A member commented that along with the Vice Chair of the Pension Committee they had attended the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) conference earlier in the day at which one of the main topics of conversation had been about human rights and conflict dynamics. An outcome of the conversation was the proposal to send a letter to all Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 index companies asking them to answer certain questions which would provide Local Authority Pension Funds with a better understanding of the basis on which investments were made and maintained.in times of conflict. The member asked if the deputees could provide comments on the type of questions they would like to be put to the companies.

In response Liz Wheatly commented that she would like the FTSE companies to be asked about:

·       Their links financially supporting and investing in the occupation of Palestine and wars in Sudan, Yemen and the Democratic Republic of Congo given that United Nations experts and the Human Rights Council had asked nation states to cease the sale and transfer of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel; and

·       With regards to the Fossil Fuel Industry what the companies’ plans were for transition from fossil fuel and whether the transition was supported by training and developing people’s skills as well as adequate pensions and rights for workers involved in those transitions.

Nigel Mascarenhas Head of Treasury and Financial Services and Lara Blecher, Pension and Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) made the following comments in response to the deputations and members questions:

• Camden as the LGPS Administering Authority was under a duty to act in the best interests of scheme members, its investment powers must be directed to achieving what was best for the financial position of the funds with the precise choice of the investment being influenced by Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors so long as that did not materially risk the financial detriment of the fund.
• The Pension Fund had invested in a number of ESG aware mandates such as the Legal and General Future World Global Fund, and the Baillie Gifford Paris Aligned Fund both of which had looked to transition away from fossil fuels. The infrastructure fund had a 37% renewable element while the Affordable Housing Fund had a social housing objective.
• In taking account of wider ESG considerations, the Administrative Authority were required to ask and get the agreement of employers to its investment policy. The employers included not only the Council but 29 other employers.
• While individual members paid into the Pension Fund, the risks, assets, liabilities and deficits were the employers responsibility. Members of the fund had their benefits guaranteed by statue.
• In relation to ethical investments, policies and how the Council’s Pension Fund interacted with the London Collective Investment Vehicle (CIV), the Pension Fund spent a lot of time discussing and considering its investment beliefs as well as asking ISIO investment consultants to comment before Camden Pension Fund decided on its investment policy.
• A lot of time was also spent with Fund Managers talking in detail about non-performance related issues such as diversity, fossil fuels and carbon stranded assets, sustainable cities and communities, good health and wellbeing and reduced inequalities.
• From an engagement perspective, PIRC worked with the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum to understand the human rights and environmental impacts of companies working in conflict and high-risk regions. Part of the process involved companies undertaking heightened human rights and environmental due diligence and to conduct human right impact assessments and, on that basis, develop asks of companies.
• LAPFF policy was to engage with companies and never to divest, the intention was to use the heightened human rights and environmental due diligence process to set engagement objectives and expectations.
• As already indicated LAPFF was about to send a letter to FTSE 100 companies to ask how they were conducting heightened human rights, environmental due diligence and human rights impact assessments. PIRC advised that it would report back to the Committee on the responses received.

The Chair thanked the deputees for bringing this issue informing them that as a person who had led faith trips to Palestine and had also worked in Israel, he found it hard and a very moving issue and understood the emotions around this noting that it was important that these issues had been raised welcoming the questioning and challenge.

He also commented that when he first became chair of the Pension Committee about 10 years ago one of his first acts was to ensure that Trade Union voices were heard and represented on the Committee and furthermore at the London CIV it was Camden that had led the way in calling for Trade Union voices to be included at the Shareholders Committee, with trade union voices now being heard at the highest levels of the organisation.

He was happy for the Committee to look at ways in which it could share more of the data in its reports more transparently as well as the work it had done in championing climate action and equalities through its engagement activities with LAPFF.

The Chair thanked the deputees for their attendance.