In an adjournment debate in the House of Commons today the Pensions Minister, Steve Webb MP, gave a warm response to a speech on responsible capitalism and responsible investment from Jon Cruddas MP.

During his speech Steve Webb talked about investors' misinterpretation of fiduciary duty:

"The extent of trustees' fiduciary duties is frequently misunderstood...Fiduciary duty does not simply mean someone must maximise short term return at all costs"

He went on to say that schemes can consider ESG issues and that there's no reason why they can't take these issues into account.

Steve Webb said that he has "...a great deal of sympathy for these issues. The coalition government supports the highest standard of corporate governance and ethical behaviour."

He also ‘recognised the importance of the issues raised by FairPensions' and noted that these issues chimed with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister's comments on responsible capitalism and shareholder power.

He commited to raising the lack of transparency to pension fund members of their fund's investments with the Chair and Chief Executive of The Pension's Regulator next month.

Catherine Howarth, CEO at FairPensions, attended the speech in the Parliamentary Public Gallery. She said:

"FairPensions welcomes Steve Webb's strong endorsement today of pension fund members' right to know what happens to their retirement savings. We hope that the era in which scheme members are kept in the dark about their pension fund's investments is coming to an end. Today's exchange between Jon Cruddas MP and the Government's Minister for Pensions has located responsible investment of pensions savings at the heart of the political debate about responsible capitalism."

Ends

Jon Cruddas' Speech is available here

The full response by Steve Webb MP will be made available here

For more information please contact Matthew Butcher