Agenda item

11:30

This report will present the draft Responsible Investment policy to the Committee for feedback before it is put out for wider consultation.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to agree the draft Responsible Investment Policy as presented at Annex 1 to this report as the basis of a consultation exercise with key Fund Stakeholders. 

The Committee were in receipt of a report which set out the draft Responsible Investment Policy.

The Chair invited the speaker to address the committee.

The Speaker represented a Staff-led Climate Action Group who endeavoured to keep up to date with the work of Oxfordshire County Council and its Pension Fund to ensure that the Fund were investing in a sustainable and fair future.

The Group was impressed by the Climate Report which the Wiltshire Pension Fund has published to demonstrate its commitment to addressing the climate emergency. They felt that this report was clear, comprehensive, and easily accessible for its pension scheme members to understand. The report showed active scrutiny of the top 10 emitters and a clarity of vision when directing the Brunel Pension Fund to divest from specific companies, such as Suncore and MEG Energy, due to their lack of action in transitioning to, and their core business aims being incompatible with, a zero-carbon future. They were also impressed by Wiltshire’s focus on the positive case studies which showed where investments had been made in local and zero-carbon initiatives, such as delivering 226 modular houses in East Sussex and carbon neutral greenhouses.

The Group appreciated that the Oxfordshire Pension Fund was currently undertaking improvements on communicating with its members on its holdings and approach, for example with the quarterly list of holdings. They observed that the material available did not give the sort of accessible information presented by Wiltshire on ways in which the fund was addressing the challenges posed by climate change.

The Group asked that the Pension Fund reviewed the work it was undertaking in this area and that the Fund consider the benefits of the Wiltshire approach.

Due to the lack of accessible communications from Oxfordshire Pension Fund, the Group were unclear on what the stance was in relation to MEG Energy and Suncore investments, as well as other top emitters.

The Chair thanked the speaker.

Committee members discussed concerns regarding the lack of information on the Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund website pages and suggested that plans to improve it were added to the Business Plan.

Josh Brewer, Responsible Investment Officer, presented the report to the Committee.

The Fund had identified the following four priorities for its responsible investment activities: Climate Change, Nature and Biodiversity, Human Rights, including Supply Chain Labour Standards and Slavery and Governance.

If approved, the draft policy would go out to formal consultation to stakeholders.

Once approved, a more detailed strategy would be developed to monitor progress and ensure commitments were being met through this policy.

Committee members felt that the draft Responsible Investment Policy was a clear report that reflected the discussions from the workshop and an excellent starting point. It was felt that the Councils excellent Communications Team could be better engaged and used more effectively. Officers noted that whilst greater transparency was always welcomed, there needed to be care when discussing the Fund’s position in relation to individual company holdings to avoid breaching the Market Abuse Regulations.

Members enquired as to how public health was incorporated into the draft policy. The Responsible Investment Officer explained that public health was part of the human rights section – a very broad subject that needed to be narrowed down. The officer agreed to review the draft policy to see how public health could be integrated and shown more clearly.

The policy was a live document that would be constantly reviewed and any new issues that emerged would be integrated into the policy.

RESOLVED to agree the draft Responsible Investment Policy as presented at Annex 1 to the report as the basis of a consultation exercise with key Fund Stakeholders.