LONDON, June 19 -- The government of the United Kingdom issued the following news:

The Government Actuary's Department (GAD) has worked with HM Treasury (HMT) on the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) which were published yesterday. This workincluded providingadditionalfigures for the largest government liabilities on an undiscounted basis and a National Accounts basis.

The WGA provides a view of the government'saggregatefinancial position and performance. It consolidates the UK public sector in line with International Financial Reporting Standards.

Financial planning

WGA is made up of over10,000bodies, across the public sector includingcentralgovernment departments,the NHS,local authorities, devolvedgovernments,academiesand public corporations.

Accounting standardsrequire liabilities to beshownin'present value'terms, discountingfuturepaymentssuchthatthey areshownin terms of their equivalentvaluetoday.This supports decision-making and financial planning,and it is standard practice in investment appraisal and financial reporting, in both the public and private sectors. 

Impact of discounting

Changes in discount rates can have a material impact on reported liabilities.ThePublic Accounts Committee requestedthat the WGA should include additional information for the largest liabilities so that readers can understand how the liabilities are changing from year to year,other than as a result of discount rate changes.

GADworked with HMTreasury'sWGA teamto improve transparency on the impact of discounting in relation topublic sector pensionsand clinical negligence.

Ourworkrelating to public sector pensionsmeant that the individual pension schemes did not need toundertakeadditional calculations,enabling the analysis to be deliveredefficiently.The corresponding figures on the provision for clinical negligencewere producedthroughclose collaboration with NHS Resolution and the Department of Health and Social Care.

The GADapproach to theanalysis ensured consistency across the major liabilities.

Audit and scrutiny

The WGA is independentlyauditedand the Public Accounts Committee examinesthe accounts each year.TheWGA isalsoused to support longer term fiscal analysis by other organisations such as the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.