4. Does the Commission have a strategy for disinvesting in fossil fuels as part of the Welsh Assembly's pension funds? OAQ53711

The Commission has no means to influence the allocation of the Assembly Members' pension scheme’s assets. The power to invest the scheme’s assets sits entirely with the pension board, which is independent of the Commission. The pension board as a whole will decide where to invest those assets, based on advice received from the board’s investment advisers. 

For Commission staff, the civil service pension scheme is an unfunded scheme and therefore has no assets to invest. Benefits are paid from tax revenues rather than from assets set aside to pay them.

Thank you for that. I just wondered what correspondence you have with the independent remuneration board about the investment strategy you wish them to pursue in relation to the Assembly Members' pension fund, because it seems to me it's impossible for us to encourage local authorities to disinvest from fossil fuels, in line with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, unless we put our own house in order. There must have been some correspondence, surely, in relation to that, even though I appreciate that Assembly Members and the Commission have no actual input into where investments are made.

Well, this is the responsibility of the pension board, not the remuneration board, and we do elect representatives from our midst, current AMs and former AMs, to represent and sit on the pension board and it's the pension board's independent decision, then, to look at its investment strategy. I'm not sure whether any of the Members present in the Chamber at the moment are members of the pension board, but that information is available to you should you seek to write to the pension board directly.

May I ask, therefore—? Clearly it's not a decision that the Commission can make, but I'm sure that the Commission has a view on this issue, or I'd like to think at least that the Commission has a view on the issue. Would the Commission be willing to co-ordinate correspondence from all Assembly Members, which they could co-sign, to the pension board, asking them to look at this and to look at the issue as a matter of urgency?

Well, the pension board, as I've said, is independent of the Commission, and we don't have responsibility and neither do we have a policy decision on this. It's not a matter that we have looked at, because the responsibility lies somewhere else.

As I've said, there are representatives from this Assembly on the pension board. I don't know their names currently, to name them here publicly, but I would think that it is an issue for every party, for every Member here, to be corresponding with the pension board directly themselves to draw their attention to these issues, which clearly are of interest and concern to Members. It's been raised during the Commission's questions this afternoon and also during questions to the finance Minister earlier this afternoon. So, may I encourage you all to consider writing directly to the pension board?

Thank you very much. Thank you, Llywydd.