Dundee City Council is to review the way it invests workers’ pension payments after The Courier revealed that millions of pounds were staked in cigarette manufacturers.
Mr Macpherson welcomed the decision, saying: ”I am very pleased that, having been made aware of the story regarding marketing to children, the council will now undertake a full investigation and review the investment position,” he told The Courier. ”It is only right that the council does so as ethical investment must be paramount in any investment decisions.”
Local government rules allow councillors to choose where pension payments are invested.
Convener of the council’s superannuation sub-committee, SNP councillor Willie Sawers, backed the probe into the pension fund’s big tobacco investments.
”I welcome the review and investigation of the reporting of cigarette sales to children. This is a practice which we utterly condemn.
”I look forward to the feedback from fund managers and would wish alternatives to this type of investment to be urgently examined.”
Leader of the opposition, Labour councillor Kevin Keenan, who sits on the local authority’s scrutiny committee, has also welcomed the review.
He said: I’m unsure whether there will be much change because they have a duty to act in the best interest of the pension fund, but it will be an interesting debate.”
A spokesman for Imperial Tobacco said: ”It’s not appropriate for us to comment on the investment decisions of others.”
British American Tobacco declined to comment.
In the last three years, Tayside Superannuation Fund ploughed £47 million of the £2 billion pension pot into British American Tobacco (BAT) and £15 million into Imperial Tobacco, according to audited accounts seen by The Courier.
A 2008 investigation into BAT found evidence that the firm broke its own marketing code covering the sale of cigarettes to children in Africa, but the firm has denied promoting ”single sticks” to youngsters.
Imperial Tobacco subsidiary Sinclair Collis last week lost a legal bid to block legislation banning cigarette vending machines, which won cross-party support in the Scottish Parliament.
The company sells more than 36 million cigarettes every year from about 6,500 vending machines in Scotland.
Contributors to Tayside Superannuation Fund include council workers in Dundee, Perth and Angus, employees at dozens of local organisations including Dundee’s two universities, the DCA, the Science Centre and the arm’s length trust set up by the council to run its leisure centres, as well as societies for the blind and day care committees.
Liberal Democrat councillor Fraser Macpherson complained to the council’s director of corporate services, Marjory Stewart, after The Courier published its findings. She has launched a full investigation and pledged to review investments.
In an email to the councillor, Ms Stewart said: ”Having been made aware of the story re marketing to children, we will ask the (fund) managers to undertake a full investigation and review the investment position and will report back to the investment sub-committee in November.”
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