THE pension fund for Scotland’s MSPs is investing £3.2 million in weapons, tobacco and dirty fuels despite the dangers they pose to life, health and the planet.
New analysis reveals that the Scottish Parliament scheme is funding firms behind Trident, killer drones, cigarettes and climate polluting carbon emissions. It has prompted angry condemnations from some MSPs, who say that parliament’s moral integrity is being destroyed.
A multi-million-pound pension fund for 127 MSPs is run by private investment managers and overseen by a board of trustees, most of whom are also MSPs. In 2015 the fund gave £587,000 to three leading arms traders: Rolls Royce, Ultra Electronics and Meggit.
Rolls Royce makes the reactors that run Britain’s nuclear submarines, including those armed with Trident nuclear missiles based at Faslane. Ultra Electronics and Meggit help to make military drones used for lethal strikes. The University of Edinburgh withdrew its investment from Ultra Electronics in 2013.
The MSP pension fund also poured £474,000 into two big international tobacco companies, British American Tobacco and Japanese Tobacco. The firms are taking the UK government to court for hitting their profits by introducing plain, un-branded packaging for cigarettes.
The biggest slice of the pension fund - £2.1 million – went to 15 major coal, oil and gas companies, blamed for the carbon dioxide emissions that are disrupting the global climate. One of the biggest beneficiaries was BHP Billiton, the target of fierce attacks this weekend by Colombian environmental activists on a visit to Scotland.
The Independent MSP, John Finnie, is campaigning for the Scottish Parliament to end its “unethical” investments. He accused fellow MSPs of being “prevaricating, dis-interested, unaware and above all hypocritical” about the issue.
“MSPs' pensions should not be fattened further at the expense of our planet or its residents' health and well-being and I am ashamed that the overwhelming majority of my colleagues seem relaxed to benefit personally from socially and environmentally destructive companies,” he said.
The Green MSP, Alison Johnstone, pointed out that the Scottish Parliament was increasingly out of step with the growing divestment movement backed by universities, pensions funds and banks. Last month, the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, warned of the “potentially huge” financial risks of continuing to invest in fossil fuels.
MSPs should demand change, Johnstone argued. “Our parliament aspires to wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity – these words are carved into Holyrood’s ceremonial mace. Investing in unburnable fossil fuels and destructive arms and tobacco is incredibly unwise and damages our parliament’s integrity.”
The Campaign Against the Arms Trade called for the Scottish Parliament to put its money where its mouth is. “It must stop investing in destructive industries like arms, tobacco and fossil fuels,” said the campaign’s spokesman, Andrew Smith.
“Public money should be used for public good, not to support companies like Meggitt and Ultra Electronics that profit from war, instability and conflict.”
MSP pension investments were “shocking”, according to the anti-tobacco campaign, ASH Scotland. “There is no way to reconcile the Scottish Government ambitions for a healthier, wealthier and fairer Scotland with any financial interest in tobacco companies,“ said the group’s chief executive, Sheila Duffy.
The new figures were compiled by Friends of the Earth Scotland. “Pensions exist to sustain us for the future so MSPs should challenge their pension fund to contribute to a future that's worth living in,” urged the environmental group’s Ric Lander.
He is hosting a visit to Scotland this weekend by two activists from Colombia, who blame the oil and gas mining giant BHP Billiton for blighting their communities. “The story of coal mining in Colombia has been 30 years of destruction, 30 years of sadness, 30 years of pain,” said Samuel Arregoces, a villager from Tabaco evicted to make way for opencast coal mining.
BHP Billiton pointed out that it was only a one third shareholder in the mine. But it insisted that it listened to the concerns of the local community.
“There are many parts of the community that support the further development of the mine and the economic contribution and relatively high-paying jobs it brings – and there are others who are less convinced by that,” said the company’s chief executive, Andrew Mackenzie.
Mike Tholen, economics director at the industry body, Oil & Gas UK, stressed that daily life depended on ready access to energy. “Oil and gas will be needed to supply at least 50 per cent of global energy demand in 2035,” he said. “Divestment of oil and gas is not the solution and will only make the challenge of meeting global energy demand all the greater.”
A spokeswoman for the arms industry body, Aerospace Defence Security, pointed out that the industry made vital contributions to national security and national prosperity.
The Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association insisted that it ran a “legitimate” business. “Fund managers are free and indeed required to make the best financial decisions for their investors,” said an association spokesman.
“Many commentators would point to the tobacco industry's strong financial performance in recent years as a reason why its shares are considered an attractive buy for pension funds."
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Parliament said: “The parliamentary pension scheme is part of a pooled fund run by the independent manager Baillie Gifford which takes the investment decisions. The parliament is only one of a large number of investors in the fund and cannot therefore direct where investments are made.”
TABLE: Where MSP pension funds are invested
company / amount invested in 2015
Arms companies
• Rolls-Royce / £244,517
• Ultra Electronics / £188,090
• Meggitt / £154,234
Tobacco companies
• British American Tobacco / £372,419
• Japan Tobacco / £101,569
Fossil fuel companies
• BG Group / £357,371
• BHP Billiton / £270,850
• Royal Dutch Shell / £236,994
• Rio Tinto / £233,232
• Total / £229,470
• Wood Group / £195,614
• EOG Resources / £165,519
• Petrofac / £116,616
• Apache / £97,807
• Snam Rete Gas / £75,236
• CNOOC / £60,189
• Premier Oil / £48,903
• Alcoa / £17,408
• Peabody Energy / £17,408
• Linn Energy / £17,408
Total / £3.2 million
sources: Scottish Parliament, Friends of the Earth Scotland
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel