Global arms trade boosting North Wales council workers' pension pots

More than £100m of North Wales workers' pension pots have been invested in some of the world's largest defence and aerospace firms.

A Freedom of Information request has found that scheme that covers Gwynedd, Conwy and Anglesey council staff retirement funds has sizeable shareholdings in aerospace and defence companies, including BAE Systems, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.

The Gwynedd Pension Fund - which also manages Conwy and Anglesey workers' cash - has invested over £22m in companies supplying Saudi Arabia's ongoing conflict in Yemen.

Llandudno peace campaigner Chris Draper, who submitted the FOI, said: "I doubt whether local council workers would be happy to discover so much of their pension money is invested in weapons of war."

He continued: "Saudi-led attacks on Yemen are blamed for numerous war crimes including the bombing of a school bus, killing 44 children using a Lockheed Martin bomb.

"But it all generates profits for the pension scheme run by Gwynedd council on behalf of 40,000 employees of the three North-West Wales councils."

Gwynedd also invests over £50,000 in Chemring who supply the N225 CS Gas Grenades used by Hong Kong authorities against demonstrators opposing extradition to mainland China (Chemring grenades were similarly employed by the Egyptian government against Tahrir Square protestors).

A spokesperson on behalf of the Gwynedd Pension Fund said in a statement to North Wales Live: "The Gwynedd Pension Fund (which includes Gwynedd, Ynys Môn and Conwy councils) does not invest directly in 'arms' companies.

"However, like many other LGPS funds, we do invest in pooled funds and it is by way of our investments in these funds that we have indirect investment in so-called 'aerospace and defence sector' companies such as Airbus, Boeing, Caterpillar, Cisco, General Electric, Rolls-Royce, SAP, Siemens, Subaru, Volkswagen and Walmart."

"The Gwynedd Pension Fund (which is administered for over 40 other employers) and Gwynedd's scheme managers have a fiduciary duty to all those employers, their staff and pensioners.

"This duty primarily guides the Pension Committee’s decisions.  The Fund does not avoid companies for purely non-financial reasons, not least because this could lead to a legal challenge.

"The Pension Fund’s assets are invested to provide a financial return to ensure the financial security of its members and to reduce the costs to the employers, which then reduces the cost to the tax payers of the Gwynedd, Conwy and Môn.

"This is an important social responsibility of which the Pensions Committee is acutely aware."