United Kingdom

UK - Pressure group CAAT, the Campaign Against Arms Trade, has named and shamed 120 pension funds for their investments in British arms manufacturers that supply weapons to oppressive regimes and conflict areas.

UK - On March 15, 2002, the Department for Work and Pensions announced that it had laid legislation to reduce the administrative burden on pension schemes. The draft legislation was consulted on in May 2001 and has now emerged with few changes.

UK - Two shareholder meetings are of significance in the week beginning April 1, according to corporate governance specialists Institutional Shareholder Services.

UK - The Adam Smith Institute has seen its proposals on pensions privatisation condemned as "unthinkable" by the UK's largest trades union.

UK - Legislation has now been introduced that confirms the earnings cap for 2002/03 as £97,200.

UK - Amicus General Secretary Roger Lyons and John Monks, TUC General Secretary, asked for a "coherent" pensions strategy during a meeting this week with Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.

UK - Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a new pensions service as part of a comprehensive shake-up. The move is part of a series of targets set out this week by Work and Pensions Secretary, Alistair Darling in a bid to bring to bring...

UK - Industry criticism is in danger of damaging the institution of the non-executive, Coal Pension Trustees chief executive David Morgan told the National Association of Pension Fund's conference in Edinburgh last week.

UK - Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has launched the SWIP Global Liquidity Fund, which it expects to be the largest sterling institutional money market fund in the world, approaching £4bn, once monies are fully invested.

UK - The government is simplifying contracting-out rules in a bid to ease the burden on occupational schemes.