Investment duty amendment tabled to pension Bill

An amendment to the Pension Schemes Bill has today been tabled by the Chair of the Business and Trade Committee which seeks to add to the matters which pension scheme trustees and managers can take into account when selecting investments.

Those matters are:

• “system-level considerations”, defined as risks and opportunities that cannot be fully managed through diversification alone and which arise from sector-level circumstances, including environmental or social matters;

• the reasonably foreseeable impacts over time of investments on members’ and beneficiaries’ living standards; and

• the views of members and beneficiaries.

The amendment would also require trustees and managers to consider and manage the second and third of the above matters where they are financially material.

This amendment has not been tabled by Government Ministers, and so may not be incorporated into the Bill as it passes through Parliament.

The amendment can be viewed here: it is amendment NC17, on pp.15-16.