Gender as a factor in the assessment of insurance risks

On 1 March 2011, The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) decided that, with effect from 21st December 2012, the use of gender as a factor must not result in differences to individuals’ premiums and benefits for insurance and related financial services contracts. We are currently working with the Association of British Insurers who are seeking to ensure that the insurance industry and customers gain sufficient clarity in relation to any unclear provisions of the judgment. We will post further updates on this website when these become available. In the meantime, we can confirm that we're operating as normal and that there is no immediate impact on any products that you have with us.


When underwriting insurance policies, insurance companies base their premiums on a wide variety of factors that may affect the claims cost they observe among their customers. One factor is gender..

From 6 April 2008, the Sex Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations specify certain conditions under which insurance companies are allowed to differentiate premiums based on gender. One condition is that the use of gender as a factor in the assessment of risk for individual policies is based on relevant and accurate statistical data. A second condition is that this data must be compiled, published and regularly updated in accordance with guidance issued by HM Treasury.

Data in respect of the following types of insurance can be found by clicking on the links below:

Life assurance and annuities
Critical illness insurance
Income protection insurance

This data is supplied by the Continuous Mortality Investigation, which carries out research into mortality and morbidity experience on behalf of the UK Actuarial Profession. This includes people covered by long term insurance policies issued by life insurance companies in the United Kingdom.

---