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The Universities Superannuation Scheme is to recruit specialist advisers to monitor the companies in which it invests for socially responsible behaviour. As Britain's third largest pension fund, it will be the first major investor to take practical action in support of calls for companies to become more accountable.

The Liverpool-based scheme will recruit "one, possibly two" specialist advisers in its London office to be exclusively responsible for identifying companies in which the fund invests that "do not meet best practice on social, environmental or ethical issues and may have an adverse financial impact on the value or the return on that investment".

Companies invested in by USS include British American Tobacco, Rio Tinto and British Aerospace.

Opinion, page 14,Why I, page 16