Imperial staff pensions invested in tobacco firms

After FELIX’s scoop last week on Imperial’s £2.4 million investment in the tobacco industry, the Guardian has revealed that a university pensions provider has £211 million invested in British American Tobacco.

The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is the pension fund for academic staff at Imperial, including PhD students.

There are multiple PhD positions funded by Cancer Research UK at Imperial, and by extension, some of that money is being invested by USS into the tobacco industry.

As we reported last week, tobacco firms are a pretty safe bet when it comes to large institutional investments, despite the fact that the government has been clamping down on the industry – most recently by introducing plain packaging in the supposedly the ‘world’s ugliest colour’ as well as graphic images of the effects of smoking.

The USS’ fund was worth about £49 billion last year, and the British American Tobacco investment is the company’s fifth biggest holding, coming after a £344 million investment in Shell.

It's not just Imperial academics signed up to this kind of pension – upper levels of professional, operational and technical service workers at the college are also contributing.

This is not just the case for staff at Imperial – university workers across the country found out this week that their pensions’ fifth biggest holding was in tobacco. Despite this news, Universities UK, which represents all of Britain’s Presidents and Rectors said USS was “a responsible and engaged investor”.

Cancer Research UK told the Guardian that it was now supporting Tobacco Free Portfolios – an Australian company founded by an oncologist that helps companies divest their funds from tobacco. Someone should probably give the Imperial endowment board their number.

This is not the first pensions controversy to have hit the college in the last few months. In late March, staff were notified that from April onwards, their pay packets would be getting double hit of increased National Insurance and pension contribution. Those on the USS pension scheme (as opposed to the SAUL scheme) would be taking home between 0.5% to 1.5% less. The combination of USS pension and NI changes meant all staff took a 0.7% to 2.7% pay cut.

The college was also forced to contribute more to both pension funds, including a 2% increase in its payment into the USS scheme.