Actuaries from the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) have discussed climate change risk with students from a school in Merseyside.

This was part of GAD’s support for the Department for Education’s (DfE) Schools Commercial Programme Board.

Climate change risk

The Board met at Rainhill School in Merseyside. Two of GAD’s actuaries Matt Kirkpatrick and Sara Joslin joined them for their discussions, with Sara being there on the day.

They spoke to members of the school’s ‘Eco Committee’ about GAD’s work to help DfE consider climate change risk within its Risk Protection Arrangement. This is an alternative to commercial insurance for public sector schools.

The day’s events were part of wider work which the government is doing as part of its climate and sustainability strategy. GAD has been part of this work by supporting DfE with other climate-change related issues such as, for example, decarbonising the school estate.

Future improvements

GAD actuary Sara Joslin who attended the school said: “The students asked thought-provoking questions and spoke about their own initiatives to improve their school’s environmental footprint. “It was great to see how engaged the students are on this issue which is so vital for their future.”

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey has confirmed the reappointment of  Peter Judge MBE and David Lyall to the Board of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO).

Peter Judge has been reappointed for four more years until 31 October 2026 and David Lyall has been reappointed for three more years until 31 October 2025. Peter and David were both initially appointed to the MMO on 1 February 2019.

The reappointments have been made in accordance with the Ministerial Governance Code on Public Appointments published by the Cabinet Office. All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. Marine Management Organisation Board members receive remuneration of £11,804 per annum, based on a time commitment of three days per month.

There is a requirement for appointees’ political activity (if significant) to be declared. Neither of the re-appointees has declared taking part in any significant political activity in the past five years.

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) established in April 2010 and given powers under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. The MMO has a wide range of responsibilities, which include implementing plan-led marine management, licensing marine works and managing UK fishing fleet capacity and UK fisheries quotas.

Biographical details

Peter Judge MBE

• Peter is a solicitor with considerable executive leadership experience, including as Chair of the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute (SAERI) and Senior Independent Governor of Northumbria University.
• He is also the Group Chief Legal Officer of the Tees Valley Combined Authority and previously held a similar role for the North East Combined Authority.
• Previously, Peter was the Attorney General of the British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands from 2014 to 2017.
• He was awarded an MBE for services to Economic Development and the North East region in 2012.

David Lyall

• David is the Chair of Trustees at the Action Foundation and is part of the Senior Leadership Team at City Church, Newcastle.
• David is also a Board member of North Star Housing Association.
• He is the former Chief Information Officer at Homes England, part of the Homes and Communities Agency.

The Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) has supported HM Land Registry as it seeks to estimate the cost of fraud and errors.

We estimated the cost of future claim payments to indemnify third parties who have suffered losses in their land registration documents.

Best estimate

HM Land Registry registers the ownership of land and property in England and Wales. It is legally liable to pay for instances of error or fraud when land registration documents are registered.

GAD provides actuarial advice, estimating how much will need to be paid out in respect of these liabilities. Our role in valuing this Indemnity Fund helps to ensure transparency of taxpayer costs as our work informs the disclosures in HM Land Registry’s latest annual report and accounts.

Indemnity Fund

GAD’s work includes sharing results of scenario and sensitivity tests that reflect the unpredictable nature of future claim numbers and costs.

HM Land Registry regularly provides GAD with data about all its claims, whether settled or not.

GAD uses this information to model how claim numbers and costs will develop in the future to estimate an Indemnity Fund to meet the cost of claims. This includes assumptions on:

This Indemnity Fund is the amount that HM Land Registry estimates it will need to settle claims in the future.

Estimating costs

There are 2 parts to this estimate, the outstanding claims reserve and the incurred but not reported reserve (IBNR).

The outstanding claims reserve is for claims that have been reported to Land Registry but haven’t yet been paid in full. The IBNR reserve is for claims where the fraud or error has occurred but hasn’t yet been reported to the Land Registry.

Accurate results

GAD actuary Nam Le said: “The discipline of a structured model assisted the GAD team in setting the reserves. It meant that we were able to provide the best estimate of what these figures may be.”

The Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) has published its Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) for the 2021 to 2022 financial year.

The ARA illustrates the work carried out across the department. It sets out key achievements over the financial year that align to GAD 2025 strategy.

Record year

Introducing the ARA, the Government Actuary Martin Clarke said: “The examples highlighted in this report for the 2021-22 ably illustrate how actuaries, analysts and business professionals at the Government Actuary’s Department provide valuable professional insights based on thorough analysis of complex data in what has again been a record year for both the scale and diversity of work we have undertaken.”

Key figures

Over the 2021 to 2022 financial year, GAD:

• generated more than £24 million in actuarial income as we are self-funded

• reviewed the records for more than 16 million members of 20 public sector pension schemes

• supported 16 of 23 ministerial departments (along with other public bodies)

• was awarded an average star rating of 4.8 stars out of 5 by clients

• held events which were attended by around 950 people

• increased our learning and development investment in our employees by 33% (compared to the previous year)

The ARA provides detailed information about the main projects and successes of the year. GAD achieved all its parliamentary estimate targets and continued to improve the efficiency of its regular work. As an example, we rationalised the way we distribute our workforce by using analysts alongside actuaries.

Wide range of activities

There was increased demand for our services across a growing number of government departments and agencies.

Examples included GAD supporting:

• the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on third party liability insurance provisions for nuclear operators

• a project to estimate the impacts of droughts in sub-Saharan Africa

• pension policy for both public and private sector pension arrangements.

Our public service pensions specialists supported our clients through the outcome of the McCloud judgment and the 2020 scheme valuations. We further supported the government on COVID-19 related responses. These included working on the assessment of clinical risk factors for severe cases and developing an event cancellation scheme.