News story

Whole of Government Accounts

GAD has marked its 10-year long association working on the Whole of Government Accounts, which was launched a decade ago.

Calculator and Pen

The Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) marked its 10-year anniversary and experts at the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) have been involved throughout that decade.

The latest WGA (for 2018 to 2019) shows audited accounts of more than 8,000 public sector organisations. This in turn has produced a comprehensive picture of the UK public sector.

GAD’s involvement

We have supported HM Treasury in the development of the WGA since its inception in 2008. GAD has contributed reports, expertise and analysis in a wide range of areas.

These have included:

  • public service pension liabilities – where financial assumptions, mortality rates and projected salary increases are used to determine the value of scheme liabilities
  • provision for clinical negligence – where GAD, appointed by NHS Resolution, undertakes regular reviews to identify movements in the value of likely future settlements
Report and Pen

Long term

GAD actuary Sarah Waters said: “Our work is integral to the overall picture of the WGA especially as we now mark 10 years since it began. We have been involved since the start as we helped with the original design. We undertake detailed and long-term analysis of these aspects of public sector finances. It means that these aspects of the report are fully supported by GAD.”

Audit and scrutiny

The WGA is independently audited which provides greater confidence in the figures. The Public Accounts Committee also examine the accounts each year. Further the WGA is used to support longer term fiscal analysis by other organisations such as the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Published 12 November 2020