West Sussex County Council has declared that no further action is needed when it comes to reviewing its pension fund investments.
The decision was made on Friday (December 12) after a petition was presented calling on the council to divest more than £219million from ten companies which campaigners claimed were ‘complicit’ in Israel’s actions against Palestine.
Presenting the petition, which was signed by more than 3,200 people, Gill Poole, of West Sussex Divest, said: “Our campaign is part of a growing national movement that shows divestment is not only morally right but logistically feasible.
“We know, and are heartened, that our pension fund does not currently invest in any weapons manufacturers. It does, however, invest in ten companies enabling the Israeli assaults on Palestinian human rights in numerous other ways – principally through providing infrastructure, goods and services, and digital and financial backing.”
The county council is responsible for managing and administering the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) on behalf of its members and employers.
A briefing note shared with councillors said the portfolio does not include companies considered by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as supporting Israeli settlements impacting the Palestinian people.
It added that there was no publicly available information connecting companies within the fund to any weapons manufacturing involving the Israel-Gaza war.
Three propositions were tabled during the meeting. One from Jay Mercer (Lib Dem, Horsham East) asked for the pensions committee to consider the concerns of the petitioners and consult appropriate stakeholders during its review of its investment strategy statement.
Another from Alison Cornell (Lab, Langley Green & Ifield East) called on the committee to ‘consider carefully’ the contents of the petition.
But only the proposition from Pete Bradbury (Con, Cuckfield & Lucastes) – that no further action was needed – was put to the vote. It was carried by 32 votes to 20 with ten abstentions.
The monitoring officer advised that, due to the nature of the agreed proposition, no vote would take place for the other two – a decision Labour group leader Chris Oxlade later described as ‘a clear denial of democracy’.
Mr Bradbury’s proposition noted that the pensions committee already integrates ‘environmental, social and governance principles throughout its investment decision-making process’ and that investment managers adhere to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment when approving investments.
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