Lord Harrison – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Harrison on 2014-03-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to encourage local authority pension schemes to take into account environmental, social and governance factors in their decisions.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston

These issues are matters for individual local authorities that administer pension funds to consider when deciding upon their investment strategies. Each administering authority is required to publish a statement of principles, which may address such issues. Statutory guidance states that the authority must report periodically to scheme members on the implementation of their policies.

Notwithstanding, local authorities need to focus on delivering a good rate of return for their fund and value for taxpayers, given local government pensions cost taxpayers (via employer contributions) almost £6 billion a year.