KENT County Council is facing calls to adopt a more ethical investment policy after it emerged its pension fund invested more than £8million in arms manufacturers in 2005.

The figures were disclosed in a survey conducted by the Campaign Against The Arms Trade (CATT) using the Freedom of Information Act.

It revealed that Kent is one of 67 of the country’s 99 local authority pension funds that holds shares in BAE Systems, the UK’s largest arms manufacturer. Its products include fighter aircraft, warships and submarines. BAE-made Hawk Jets have, according to CATT, been sold to Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe.

In 2005, Kent had shares in the company valued at £7.6million. It also had £1.1million of shares in Cobham, whose military products include parts for the US Hellfire missiles used in the invasion of Iraq.

A far smaller sum of £191,000 was invested in American arms companies.

Kent Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucas said: "It is totally unacceptable that local authority pension funds are investing millions of pounds of public money in some of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers without any consultation or scrutiny by either democratically-elected representatives or the pensioners whose cash is being used in this way."

In a statement, KCC said it had decided not to restrict investments on ethical grounds.

"Nearly 70 per cent of the £2.3billion Kent Pension Fund is invested in equities and the management of the equity investments is undertaken by external investment managers.

"The council has taken the decision that it will not restrict what the investment managers can invest in on ethical grounds. However, we expect our investment managers to ensure that companies we invest in do have good corporate governance and we monitor this closely," the council said.

CATT said many councils were involved in activities like supporting refugees and asylum seekers that were in "basic conflict" with a trade that profited from killing and destruction.