Paul Uppal – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Uppal on 2014-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to encourage local authority pension funds to become active owners or stewards of their assets as defined in the Financial Reporting Council’s Stewardship Code.

Brandon Lewis

Each local authority that administers a pension fund is already subject to statutory guidance that states that it should recognise the Financial Reporting Council’s Stewardship Code and ensure that the Code is adopted by their fund managers, investment consultants and advisers. The guidance also states that the authority should include a statement of its policy on responsible ownership in its statement of the principles governing its investment decisions and report periodically to scheme members on the implementation of the policy. Sixteen of the eighty nine local government pension funds in England and Wales are themselves signatories to the Stewardship Code as asset owners.