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Public law update: Split decision on pensions

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15 October 2020 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7906 / Categories: Features , Public
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Nicholas Dobson reports on ethical investments & the Local Government Pension Scheme

In brief

  • Provisions in Local Government Pensions Scheme Guidance purporting to prevent an administering authority pursuing policies contrary to UK foreign or defence policy were ultra vires.

Law is an inexact science. While in simple arithmetic most will agree that 2 + 2 = 4, the answer to a legal question is rarely so straightforward. For, given the circumstances (and the constitution of any determining court), the answer to a legal 2 + 2 might vary considerably between say 3/3.5 and a generous 5 or more. As the old joke goes, two lawyers, three opinions. Law being a creature of human beings (and therefore a function of their ‘infinite variety’, the multifarious prevailing circumstances and the differing life prisms through which judges view issues and authorities before them), court decisions are always bespoke and often unpredictable.

The Supreme Court decision on the scope of ethical investments permitted to local government pension scheme administrators is perhaps

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