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21 December 2007

Gender as a factor in the assessment of insurance risks

The Gender Directive specifies the circumstances in which insurance companies will be able to charge different premiums or offer different benefits to men and women for contracts after 21 December 2007. The Government consultation on implementing this provision closed on 3 September 2007.

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Amendment) Regulations 2007 were laid before Parliament on 28 November 2007 to give effect to the Directive in Great Britain. However, the Government is now considering whether laying draft UK-wide Regulations would be a more effective way of ensuring that the UK meets its European obligations. While this means legislating after 21 December 2007, the Government is committed to ensuring that the UK complies with its European law obligations as quickly as possible. Work is well advanced to achieve this early in the New Year.

The Government is still proposing to amend the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 to provide that data relevant to the use of sex as an actuarial factor must be compiled, published and regularly updated in accordance with guidance issued by the Treasury. UK-wide Regulations would amend the Northern Ireland Sex Discrimination Order 1976 in the same way. The Treasury published guidance on 17 November 2007 setting out how insurance companies should meet their obligations. The guidance is available below.

The changes to the law referred to in the Treasury’s response to consultation and the guidance note therefore remain proposals only. The guidance will be updated to reflect any changes that may be made to the implementing Regulations which are now expected to come into force early in the New Year. In particular, all references in the guidance to the application of the Regulations to contracts entered into after 21 December 2007 will need to be updated to refer to contracts entered into after the date on which the implementing Regulations come into effect.

The documents below are available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from the Adobe website. For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.

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