Today the government published its response to the call for evidence on the effectiveness of occupational pension scheme trustees’ current policies and practices in relation to social factors.

Claire Jones, Head of Responsible Investment at LCP, commented: "We welcome DWP’s response to its call for evidence on consideration of social risks and opportunities by occupational pension schemes. It provides helpful analysis and commentary on the topic, highlighting issues of relevance to pension scheme trustees and practical actions they can take, whilst stopping short of imposing new requirements on them at a time when they already face a significant regulatory burden. The action that DWP has decided to take – setting up a Taskforce on Social Factors to improve the data available to trustees and monitoring international reporting developments – seeks to address one of the main barriers trustees face to more effective consideration of social factors. We support DWP’s focus on active ownership and its encouragement for trustees to recognise the linkages between different ESG factors."