Our rules of engagement
- We prioritise engagement where we can help make a difference in addressing systemic ESG challenges.
- We are prepared to escalate our engagement activity or reduce our holdings in companies that continue to present an ongoing ESG risk.
- We don’t outsource any engagement services.
- We see engagement as fundamental to our duty to manage our clients’ investments to their benefit.
Engagement: our escalation framework
We may not use the escalation tools in sequence and will determine the appropriate escalation approach to use based on specific circumstances.
How we choose what to engage on
In deciding whether to engage, we consider:
Our engagement plan
2026-9
Previously, our engagement plans covered just one year.
In 2026, for the first time, our plan stretches out over several years, and covers every part of the business. This reflects the fact that our programme of thematic engagements is long-term. It addresses risks and opportunities that require sustained commitment over a number of years, to achieve our desired objectives.
Our focus areas for 2026-2029 are climate change, nature, human rights and governance.
Our engagement numbers
In 2025, Rathbones Group engaged with companies 743 times.
Many of these engagements covered a number of topics.
Please click though to see further pages of this fully interactive table.
A few topics we engage on
Executive pay
When we engage on executive pay, it’s often about calling for a clearer link between pay and performance. We’re happy to approve higher executive pay if our clients, for whom we hold shares in companies, are benefiting because management is doing well.
Modern slavery was the commonest social issue we engaged on. This reflects our involvement in Votes Against Slavery, an investor coalition we created to encourage UK companies to meet their legal requirement to set out the steps they’ve taken to prevent modern slavery. Two years after we set it up in 2020, it won the ‘Stewardship Initiative of the Year’ award from the Principles for Responsible Investment, a body backed by the United Nations.
Climate risk
Climate risk includes the physical risk to companies’ earnings and assets from climate change, such as damage to their infrastructure because of extreme weather. It also includes the ‘transition risk’ that companies may be harmed by the global economy’s move to net zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Company Boards
Reflecting on how well Boards work is an important part of responsible investment. We think diverse Boards might be less prone to groupthink. This is where a team of people don’t challenge decisions because their similar backgrounds and experiences mean they tend to think the same way. We’re also wary of ‘overboarding’. This is when directors sit on the Boards of too many companies, making it hard for them to devote enough time to doing a good job at all these businesses.
Engagement case studies
AstraZeneca
UK pharmaceutical company
What’s the issue?
- Our economy and society depend on nature and its services, so depleting natural capital creates significant risk for investors and businesses alike.
- AstraZeneca is one of 100 companies benchmarked by Nature Action 100 (NA100), a global investor initiative tackling nature and biodiversity loss.
What did we do?
- As part of NA100, we met AstraZeneca in June 2026, alongside six other investor group members, to question the Director of Investor Relations on a range of nature-related metrics.
- Questions covered topics from biodiversity to emissions.
- Some questions followed up on earlier engagement and on the company’s latest reporting against the NA100 indicators.
What happened?
- Over the past year, AstraZeneca has improved its reporting and simplified its water strategy for priority sites.
- They acknowledged they need to be clearer about which environmental targets are chosen and why, and to show these reflect both its impact on nature and nature’s impact on the business.
What next?
- We’ll reconvene as an investor group to shape future priorities and assess the company’s answers.
- Rathbones will take a leading role in the next phase of this engagement.
- The NA100 assessment opens for company feedback in July, with results published at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17) in Armenia, in October.
Modern slavery
What’s the issue?
- Around 50 million people are trapped in modern slavery, and forced labour generates some $236bn in profit a year.
- Modern slavery is a growing, system-level risk to society and our investments.
- UK companies must publish an annual modern slavery statement under the Modern Slavery Act, but the 2015 Act is now outdated.
What did we do?
- We co-led a major policy engagement alongside CCLA and the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner. The engagement urged the Government to introduce mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) legislation.
- An investor letter backed by 32 other investors, with over £1.6trn in assets, went to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in April 2026. It made the business case for a proportionate HRDD regime.
What happened?
- In June 2026, we received a response from Chris Bryant, Minister of State for Trade.
- He confirmed that our views and evidence would be considered as part of the ongoing Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) review.
What next?
- For now, we await the outcome of the RBC review.
- We’re also continuing our flagship Votes Against Slavery initiative, now in its seventh year.
Zoetis
US animal health company
What’s the issue?
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing systemic risk with implications for public health, the environment, and long-term investment returns.
- Animal pharmaceutical companies such as Zoetis influence antibiotic use in agriculture and the environmental impact of manufacturing.
- Disclosure remains inconsistent, particularly around antibiotic residues in wastewater.
What did we do?
- As part of FAIRR’s AMR campaign, we wrote to Zoetis alongside two other investors, recognising its recent progress on wastewater management.
- We set out targeted questions to strengthen transparency and align the company more closely with leading standards on responsible antibiotic practices.
What happened?
- Our questions probed how Zoetis is preparing for emerging regulation, including the EU’s updated potable water directive.
What next?
- We await Zoetis’s response and will use it to inform our next engagement steps.
- We’ll continue trying to strengthen transparency and alignment with leading standards as emerging regulation develops.
Why engage on climate change?
We believe that engagement on ESG issues with companies in which we invest forms part of our wider responsibility, as a business, to society. One example is our engagement with companies on their plans for net zero.
Climate change threatens to affect a wide range of assets adversely, so mitigating it is in the interests of our clients as well as society as a whole.
Like other financial institutions, Rathbones has a responsibility to understand how climate change and other factors can have an impact on portfolios.