The Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board has requested a meeting with minister for local government, Jim McMahon, to understand the government's view on whether administering authorities might be legally required to divest from companies exposed to conflicts where international human rights law has been violated. 

The correspondence follows letters by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign sent to LGPS funds a year ago. They cited an opinion by lawyers at Doughty Street Chambers which claimed that local and central government have a duty to prevent and end assistance to violations of international law by Israel. Since then, Lawyers for Israel have also written to the LGPS Board, outlining their counterarguments.  

Earlier this year, SAB had asked the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government for guidance on the matter but it has now said the response it received "simply did not address the key point about whether the government accepts the legal arguments about the AA function being sufficiently connected to the state to require it to have regard to international human rights law duties engaged by the ongoing conflict in Gaza."  

In the recent letter to McMahon, board chair cllr Roger Phillips pleads for the government to come off the fence and not leave administering authorities to handle matters of international law by themselves.  

"While AAs have had many years’ experience in dealing with highly charged or contested issues, the Board is hearing that AAs are increasingly finding it hard to balance the significant legal, financial and reputational risk arising from uncertainty over the legal position in this area," Phillips wrote. "The Board believes that AAs should be able to rely on support from the UK government in navigating this novel and contested legal terrain."  

He said it is important that administering authorities continue to set and follow their responsible investment policies "in line with their understanding of the fiduciary duty and should not feel pressured into changing course solely because legal action is being contemplated or threatened". 

Last year, SAB advised funds to review their responsible investment policies in relation to human rights abuses to make sure they are satisfied with the content of those policies and confident they are being applied effectively in practice.
 
At the time, a government spokesperson said: “The government has published guidance to public authorities, stating that boycotts against foreign suppliers should not form part of public procurement and may be unlawful.”  

MHCLG did not respond to requests for comment.