One Scottish MP has said is is “absurd” that public pensions are invested in tobacco and arms manufacturing companies even though council’s must consider ethical factors surrounding their investments.
The information was discovered by a Freedom of Information request.
The Scottish Herald write:
SCOTLAND’S public-sector workers are unwittingly pouring hundreds of millions of pounds through their pensions into funding cigarette manufacturers and companies dealing in arms.
More than £220 million is tied up in tobacco firms – including those behind Marlboro, Benson & Hedges and Lucky Strike – despite guidelines that recommend ethical and social factors must be taken into account by councils administering the funds.
The Scottish Government requires the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) to “take ethical and social considerations into account when making investment decisions”.