Submission to BEIS

In 2016, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issued a regulation known as TAS 100, which governs certain activities that are open to anyone to undertake. But the regulation applies only when the activity is carried out by an actuary. This has created the anomalous position that:

• an activity is governed by the FRC’s regulations when the activity is carried out by an actuary;

• the identical activity is not governed by the FRC’s regulations when it is carried out by an accountant, even though the FRC has regulatory powers in relation to accountants; and

• the activity is not regulated by – and not capable of being regulated by – the FRC when it is carried out by a person who is neither an actuary nor an accountant.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is now consulting on a range of proposals which include placing the regulation of actuaries on a statutory footing. I have responded to the consultation with the suggestion that the Government should end this anomaly, rather than enabling it to become enshrined in law.

There are two ways that the Government might reasonably wish to proceed: either (a) legislating that actuarial regulations be limited to activities which are reserved, in law, to actuaries; or (b) legislating that actuarial regulations be applied regardless of who undertakes the activity governed by the regulations.

My response to the government’s consultation is publicly available.

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