- within Corporate/Commercial Law topic(s)
- in United Kingdom
- within Transport, Antitrust/Competition Law and Employment and HR topic(s)
Pensions UK (formerly the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association or PLSA) has published its Stewardship & Voting Guidelines 2026, which set out its views on how pension schemes can influence corporate governance, and its voting recommendations on key issues.
The 2026 guidelines retain the broad structure of previous years but include expanded narrative, updated voting recommendations and a new section on key emerging themes from the 2025 voting season.
Other key revisions in the 2026 guidelines include:
- AI and cybersecurity – more detail on what good company behaviour looks like and strengthened voting recommendations, to reflect the increasing number of cybersecurity incidents and their impact, as well as the significant increase in AI‑related resolutions during the 2025 season;
- Climate and sustainability – revised narrative to reflect the global political backlash against ESG, while reaffirming the importance of acting on financially material environmental risks; and
- Pass-through voting – discussing pass-through voting where schemes seek to allow asset owners to exercise voting rights on shares held in pooled accounts or index funds, recognising the challenges it brings.
Pensions UK has also published a stewardship fundamentals document and a summary of its voting recommendations.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
