1. This Order may be cited as the Government Annuity Tables Order 1977, and shall come into operation on 19th October 1977.

2. The Interpretation Act 1889 shall apply for the interpretation of this Order as it applies for the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.

3. For the tables set out in Schedule 1 to the Government Annuity Tables Order 1973(1) (which show the purchase price of an annuity when the average price of £100 2½ per cent. Consolidated Stock is less than £29⅜ but not less than £19¼) there shall be substituted the tables set out in Schedule 1 to this Order.

4. The rules observed in framing the new tables substituted by article 3 above are set out in Schedule 2 to this Order.

Article 3

SCHEDULE 1

Tables showing the sum for which an immediate life annuity of £1, payable quarterly, could have been bought under Part II of the Government Annuities Act 1929 (c. 29) if the power to grant such annuities had not been terminated by section 33(1) of the Finance Act 1962 (c. 44).

In the tables below "age last birthday" means the age in completed years, at the time of the notional purchase of the annuity, of the person upon whose life the annuity is to depend.

Article 4

SCHEDULE 2

Rules observed in framing the new tables set out in Schedule 1

The tables set out in Schedule 1 to this are based on an investigation into the mortality of life office annuitants during the period 1921-�1948 by the Joint Continuous Mortality Investigation Committee of the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries and published in their Journal and Transactions respectively. Subsequently the rates of mortality for ages 20 and above, allowing for improvement of mortality related to an annuity purchased in 1955, together with monetary functions at various rates of interest were published on behalf of the Institute and Faculty in a series of separate volumes entitled "The a(55) tables for annuitants". The tables set out in Schedule 1 have been adapted from the a(55) tables to allow for the payment of quarterly instalments of annuity; no loading has been added to provide for any expenses that might have been incurred by the National Debt Commissioners in connection with the grant and payment of each annuity if the Commissioners were to resume the granting of such annuities.

The rates of mortality at ages below 20 have been calculated by reference to the relationship between the mortality of life office annuitants above that age and that of the population of England and Wales in 1950-�52; the latter was investigated by the Government Actuary in a report dated 13th September 1956 and published as a Stationery Office publication.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Section 33 of the Finance Act 1962 terminated the power to grant annuities under the Government. Annuities Act 1929 except in special cases, but the government annuity tables, which had been used primarily to calculate these annuities, and were also used to determine certain other payments, were kept in force, and the Treasury was given power to add and substitute new tables.

The tables set out in Schedule 1 to the Government Annuity Tables Order 1973, which apply when the average price of £100 2½ per cent. Consolidated Stock is less than £29 ⅜ but not less than £19 ¼, have been found to give rise to certain anomalies and, accordingly, this Order substitutes for them the tables set out in Schedule 1 to this Order.