Issue - meetings

Purpose of the report: This report is a summary of various Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) issues that the LAPFF, Robeco and Surrey Pension Fund have been involved in, for the attention of the Pension Fund Committee.

Declarations of interest:

None

Witnesses:

Jane Firth, Head of Responsible Investment, Border to Coast Pension Partnership

Neil Mason, Head of Pensions

Key points raised during the discussion:

1. The Committee were informed that a resolution had been passed with BP shareholders in line with responsible investment and that a review of governance processes was being undertaken before further co-resolution with other funds would be put forward.
2. There was a discussion around the impact of responsible investment and voting by shareholders if this was undertaken as a group through Border to Coast. It was explained that this would make a substantial difference and that by appointing Robeco there was much better access to chairmen and chief executive officers. Committee Members were also informed that the Surrey Pension Fund were part of a sub-group which would look at climate change going forward.
3. The Board requested further detail on share voting and resolutions made on behalf of the Surrey Pension Fund be included in future update reports.

Actions/ further information to be provided:

The Board to receive further detail on share voting and resolutions made in future reports to the Committee.

Resolved:

1.     That the main findings of the report; the outcomes achieved for quarter ending 30 September 2018 by Robeco and LAPFF, by engaging with multinational companies on various Environmental, Social and Governance Issues (ESG) were noted by the Committee.

2.     That the findings from Surrey Pension Fund’s share voting process for the quarter ending 31 December 2018 were noted.

Purpose of the report: This report provides a summary of the Fund’s share voting process in Q2 of 2018/19 (1 July 2018 to 30 September 2018).

Declarations of interest:

None

Witnesses:

Ayaz Malik, Pensions Accountant Advisor

Key points raised during the discussion:

1. There was a discussion around bonus caps and it was noted that there was a wide range of policies that accepted multiple of salary within the Fund.

2. The Board requested further information from Manifest on what the impact of the Fund’s share voting was.

Actions/ further information to be provided:

The Board to receive further information on the impact of share voting from Manifest.

Resolved:

The Pension Fund Committee noted the report.