Northern LGPS publishes latest stewardship report
Author: LAPF Investments | Published: June 15, 2026
Northern LGPS has published its latest stewardship report, and focused on its on engagement in areas such as climate risk and tackling modern slavery.
Another key focus area for the pool has been around AI governance, a field in which the pool sees as of increasing concern – particularly as an estimated 88% of companies have integrated AI into at least one of their business functions.
It has engaged with several companies it is a stakeholder of to improve practices on this front. Governance maturity varied considerably across the businesses engaged, but its engagement resulted in either a better understanding at an investor level as to how the businesses are engaging in AI governance, or in firms making active steps to structure oversight of its AI use.
The stewardship report also highlighted how Northern LGPS, through the work of its stewardship services partner PIRC, has also been focusing its engagement activities on modern slavery risks within the meatpacking and seafood industries.
Its engagement, among other things, highlighted weaknesses in oversight of labour recruitment practices – particularly in relation to the use of third-party labour brokers.
Across the board, PIRC asked for greater transparency and reporting – moving beyond process descriptions toward measurable evidence of impact.
All the businesses it engaged with showed some degree of openness to strengthening their disclosures, with some even committing to publishing their remediation approach – including aggregate non-conformance data for the first time – while others made meaningful pledges around spend transparency and Employer Pays Principle disclosure.
PIRC also engaged with 12 businesses in the food sector on behalf of Northern LGPS on the topic of climate risk.
It broadly focused on three areas: how companies are assessing physical climate risks through scenario analysis, how they are engaging suppliers on resilience, and whether they’re working with governments and industry bodies to address the issue at a systemic level.
Off the back of these meetings, some businesses made some improvements in public disclosures, while others have been in the process of conducting ESG assessments with selected suppliers and are developing a broader ESG strategy.
