Arms firms could lose pension scheme investors
Local authority pension schemes are to review their investments into arms companies, based partly on how those companies win contracts. According to today’s Observer:
The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF), which represents 40 funds with invested assets totalling £70bn, is drawing up a series of questions to put to defence companies as it seeks to encourage responsible investment by pension funds.
Among the areas to be probed will be the conduct of companies in winning contracts, including the use of bribery. Both BAE and the government are at the centre of a political storm over the issue, following the abandonment of an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into bribery connected to the £40bn al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia in the Eighties and Nineties.
The group Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has used the Freedom of Information Act to find out how much local authority pension funds invest in BAE. They found that there is £311m invested in BAE across 75 local authority funds. West Yorkshire has the biggest investment, with nearly £28m, followed by the West Midlands, Strathclyde, Kent and Aberdeen.
Posted in BAE, CAAT, arms exports |
