Dear Cardiff Council,

I am researching the fossil fuel investments made by UK Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) for an upcoming report by UK Divest. On publication, the report is likely to receive substantial interest from press and the elected representatives sitting on pension fund committees across the UK. Therefore can you please ensure the investment data you provide is as accurate as possible as our analysis will be fundamentally informed by it.

To complete this research, I require data on each investment that was held by Cardiff & Vale of Glamorgan Pension Fund Investments on 31 March 2022, or the nearest possible date:

1. Investment names. Please provide the names of all investments held by the pension fund. For direct investments, please provide the names of individual investments such as specific stocks, bonds, and real estate units. For indirect investments (i.e. those held via a third party), please provide the names of investment vehicles, such as specific mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and real estate investment trusts (REITs) and anything else. Note we do not need to know what each indirect investment vehicle invests in as we will determine this in the data analysis.

2. Investment identifiers. For listed investments (i.e. those traded on public exchanges), such as bonds and equities, please provide the International Securities Identifier Number (ISIN). For any investments that do not have an ISIN number, such as some alternative assets, please provide the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). If an investment does not have an identifier, please provide an explanation.

3. Asset types. The asset type for each investment as reported by the pension fund, such as: real estate, cash, private equity, listed equity, sovereign bonds, corporate bonds etc.

4. Investment managers. The name of the entity which is responsible for the day-to-day management of each investment. For example, this could be the name of the entity which manages a specific investment fund such as Baillie Gifford, Legal & General, UBS etc. Note we do not need to know who is responsible for the overall governance of the LGPS or any pools it might belong to.

5. Investment values. The market value of each investment in pounds sterling (£) on 31 March 2022 or the nearest possible date. And please also give the total value of the pension fund.

We have created a read-only Google Sheet as a template for how we would like the data presented when you answer this request. You can view and download it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...

If possible, please use this Google Sheet when answering. Please note there are two tabs - 'summary' and 'data'. Please fill in both tabs. Using the template would help us accurately analyse the data provided.

If you respond promptly and to a satisfactory standard, we will willingly share our analysis with you prior to publication of our report, so you have the chance to comment and benchmark your pension fund against other UK LGPS.

I would like to receive this information in unlocked excel sheets without protected cells (.xls). If you have to password protect the excel sheets, please also provide the password to them. When considering the request for this data in excel format, please refer to Innes v Information Commissioner [2014] EWCA Civ 1086 (i), which allows a requester to express a preference for communication by a particular means, specifically: "an applicant's right to choose to have information provided to him in electronic form extends to a right to choose the software format in which it is embodied." (ii)

Please note:

Many public authorities release their contracts, minutes, and other information of interactions with private vendors in line with the Freedom of Information Act. The exemption for commercial interest under the Act (section 43) is a qualified exemption, which means information can only be withheld if it is in the public's interest. The public have an interest in knowing what the Pension Fund is investing in, the terms of contracts and the minutes of meeting with public authorities, whether or not public money changes hands immediately.

If you are relying on section 41 (the exemption for legal breach of confidence) then I would like to know the following:

* When these confidentiality agreements were agreed
* All correspondence and email in which these confidentiality agreements were discussed
* The precise wording of the confidentiality agreements.

I ask these questions because guidance issued by both the Lord Chancellor (draft guidance on FOI implementation) and the Office of Government Commerce (Model terms and conditions for goods and services) specifically state that public authorities should not enter into these types of agreements; they go directly against the spirit of the laws of disclosure. I would also point to the Information Commissioner's guidance on accepting blanket commercial confidentiality agreements: 'Unless confidentiality clauses are necessary or reasonable, there is a real risk that, in the event of a complaint, the Commissioner would order disclosure in any case.' (iii)

Finally, within the law of confidence there is also a public interest test. Therefore, the information should be disclosed in full. If any parts are redacted, they must be for information that can be proven to be a legal breach of confidence in court, and only then where secrecy can be shown to be in the public interest. These are difficult positions to argue when public money is at stake or where a public authority is offering a private company a monopoly to charge its stakeholders.

I reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information or to charge excessive fees, and understand that under the act, I am entitled to a response within 20 working days. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request.

Yours faithfully,

Edward Jones

(i) Innes v Information Commissioner [2014] EWCA Civ 1086 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/...

(ii) Section 11 FOIA and the Form of a Request
https://panopticonblog.com/2014/08/01/se...

(iii) 'Freedom of Information Awareness Guidance 5: Commercial Interests' Office of the Information Commissioner, Page 10 https://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/pr...

Dear Cardiff Council,

Many thanks for your response and help with this.

I am hoping that this can be dealt with as a clarification, and not as internal review, to ensure a quicker response. Please let me know if an internal review is necessary.

You say:

"We have considered your request and enclose the following information:

"Response/Exemptions
1&2) The City of Cardiff Council does not hold this information therefore under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 this acts as a refusal notice.

"Under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 we have a duty to advise and assist our customers. The Fund does not directly invest in equities and bonds, but via Pooled Funds so the request for ISIN numbers is not relevant in this case.

"3-5) This information is available by other means; we therefore will not be providing the information in the format requested under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The information you have requested can be accessed via the below link:

"Cardiff-and-Vale-of-Glamorgan-Annual-Report-and-Accounts-2021-22_FINAL.pdf (cardiffandvalepensionfund.org.uk) https://www.cardiffandvalepensionfund.or...
"In accordance with Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and for the reasons stated above, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice."

My response:

The link you provided does not provide the information we requested in the original FOI request. It gives a list of top pooled holdings, but not all the pooled holdings. It also does not provide identifiers

You say: "The Fund does not directly invest in equities and bonds, but via Pooled Funds so the request for ISIN numbers is not relevant in this case."

If this is the case, can you provide, as originally requested, a full list of the pooled funds that the pension fund invests in? And for each pooled fund, please give for 31 March 2022 as requested in the original FOI, its full name, investment identifier (ISIN or LEI), asset type, the investment manager, investment values.

You say that "ISIN identifiers are not relevant." I don't think that is the case. For example, some of the Wales Pensions Partnership (WPP) sub-funds you are invested in have ISIN identifiers. See WPP's full release of all of their investments, where they make clear their sub-funds have ISINs: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w... (Specifically see the document at that link 'LGPS Fortnightly Update 10032023.xlsx ' which gives the ISINs for the sub-funds, some of which you invest in).

With all pooled funds you invest in, can you please provide LEI identifiers for these investments if no ISIN numbers are available? If necessary, can you go back to the investment managers for the ISINs/LEIs? As stated in the original request: "For any investments that do not have an ISIN number, such as some alternative assets, please provide the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). If an investment does not have an identifier, please provide an explanation."

We really need either the ISIN or LEI identifiers for all pooled funds you invest in to help us accurately analyse the data and ensure there are no mistakes. Please note that other pension funds have provided both ISINs and LEIs for all investments, including for pooled funds (e.g. Gwynedd Pension Fund https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/g...). I can provide many more examples of other pension funds providing both LEIs and ISINs on request.

If necessary, if the information is not held by the investment managers, can you request that they (or can you) use this LEI lookup tool (or other tools) to find the identifier information for the remaining investments: https://www.lei-lookup.com/record/ The problem with us using such a tool is that it is easy to make mistakes as many investments have several variations/similar names. So ideally someone who is familiar with the pension funds investments would do this to prevent mistakes and ensure we have the correct identifier for each investment. This would really help us accurately analyse the data provided, and fairly portray to what extent the pension fund invests in fossil fuels.

A good example of two Welsh Pension funds which have provided the data we requested in the template we sent in the original FOI is:

* Gwynedd Pension Fund https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/g...
* Powys Pension Fund https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

I am sending that to you so you know how we would like the data presented, and to show other pension funds have provided it.

As I said in the original FOI request:

"We have created a read-only Google Sheet as a template for how we would like the data presented when you answer this request. You can view and download it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...

"If possible, please use this Google Sheet when answering. Please note there are two tabs - 'summary' and 'data'. Please fill in both tabs. Using the template would help us accurately analyse the data provided.

"If you respond promptly and to a satisfactory standard, we will willingly share our analysis with you prior to publication of our report, so you have the chance to comment and benchmark your pension fund against other UK LGPS."

Many thanks again for your help with this. I am happy to speak with you on the phone if that's helpful?

Yours faithfully,

Edward Jones

Dear Cardiff Council,

FOI19225 / Reference: REV00346

Thanks for your message just now, where you say: "We have received a request to review the handling of your case number FOI19225"

I just want to make clear, as I said in my original message: "I am hoping that this can be dealt with as a clarification, and not as internal review, to ensure a quicker response."

If an internal review is absolutely necessary, I would want to make additional arguments. I am hoping this can just be dealt with as a clarification request at this point, which is what other pension funds I am in contact with have done.

I also just wanted to add a refined point about investment identifiers:

In your response you do not provide ISIN or LEI identifiers for the pooled funds you invest in. We really need this data to accurately analyse the data. Without the identifiers, it is difficult to compare investments across pensions funds and to match them with other datasets that we will use to research your fossil fuel exposure. Please can you provide the identifier for each investment or an explanation of why the identifier does not exist.

If you do not hold ISIN or LEI identifiers internally, you can request them from your investment manager(s). If needed you can also find ISINs and LEIs online. For example, Trustnet (https://www.trustnet.com/) and LEI Lookup (https://www.lei-lookup.com/record/) are useful tools for finding ISINs and LEIs from investment names. The issue with our research team using these tools is that it is easy to make mistakes as there are sometimes several investments with similar names. So, ideally someone who is familiar with the pension funds investments would do this to prevent mistakes and provide the assurance that the data has been approved.

Please note that other pension funds have provided both LEIs and ISINs for all investments. For example, see the response from Gwynedd Pension Fund: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/g...). Finally, note that you could likely reuse the ISIN and LEI identifiers for other applications such as financial reporting and data analysis.

Yours faithfully,

Edward Jones