Rolls-Royce and GlaxoSmithKline, the drugs conglomerate, were slammed as among Britain’s most irresponsible workplace pension schemes by a new report.
The pension funds both scored zero out of 40 in the review of how well they kept members informed about their ethical policies , while Barclays, Tata Steel and BAE Systems also scored just six points between them.
Charity ShareAction scrutinised many of the nation’s biggest workplace pension schemes and scored them for how well they keep members informed about their investments and policies.
The survey also considered the social impact of the billions of pounds the pensions have under investments.
BT and the BBC came joint first with 35 points each. The Universities Superannuation Scheme was third, racking up 33.5 points.
The best rated workplace pensions
The BBC pension has 60,000 members and won praise for keeping them up to date with the scheme’s top 100 equity investments – including the controversial doorstep loan company Provident Financial.
The survey congratulated BT for giving the scheme’s 320,000 members comprehensive details of ethical and social investment policies.
ShareAction criticised nine of the 24 pensions surveyed for failing to disclose details of their equity stakes, while many others only provided information on their top five or 10 equity holdings.
Among other criticisms were five schemes had no public information about responsible investment policies, while 10 did not publish any indication of how they voted at annual general meetings of companies that they invested in.
West Yorkshire Pension Fund and British Airways made up the top five workplace pension schemes.
How ethical fund providers rate
ShareAction chief executive Catherine Howarth said: “These pension schemes have a lot of influence as investors but only a few seem to take this responsibility with any seriousness.
“One of the most interesting points is some of these often faceless organisations are making a social media effort to connect with their members to explain pension jargon but also to undertake member surveys.”
ShareAction has also ranked ethical pension fund providers.
“We uncovered a top five who ranked ahead of the rest,” said Howarth. “These providers take their work seriously and have a clear commitment to members and shareholders to support ethical goals. I would spur on the rests of the industry to learn from this leadership.”
| How pension providers rated as ethical investors | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | F&C Investments | 56 |
| 2 | Standard Life | 53 |
| 3 | WHEB Asset Management | 53 |
| 4 | The Co-operative Investments | 49 |
| 5 | Jupiter Asset Management | 48 |
| 6 | Rathbone Unit Trust Management | 41 |
| 7 | Ecclesiastical | 36 |
| 8 | Alliance Trust Investments | 35 |
| 9 | AXA | 32 |
| 10 | Henderson Global Investors | 30 |
| 11 | Kames Capital | 29 |
| 12 | Legal & General | 29 |
| 13 | Royal London | 29 |
| 14 | Scottish Widows | 29 |
| 15 | Aberdeen Asset Management | 27 |
| 16 | Seven Investment Management | 20 |
| 17 * | Family Investments | 17 |
| 18 | SVM Asset Management | 15 |
| 19 * | First State Investments | 14 |
| 20 * | Premier Asset Management | 13 |
| Note: * Family Investments, First State Investments and Premier Asset Management did not participate in the survey, and so their scores are based on publicly available information only. | ||
| Source: ShareAction | ||
