In paragraph 27 of the Parmoor Report (Cmd. 614/1920) it is stated that an investigation into the methods by which different Industrial Assurance Companies ascertained their actuarial liabilities revealed the fact that among nineteen such Institutions no fewer than eighteen different methods were found to be in use. That the methods in use were practically as numerous as the Offices adopting them was a fact worthy of being recorded, and one which would appear to require some explanation, but I submit that, surprising as such a revelation may be, it would have been even more remarkable had the investigation disclosed that all these Offices used a similar Valuation basis. The views of the Parmoor Committee on this very important matter are summed up in the following extract:

‘The business of all the (Industrial) Companies is practically identical, their Tables of Rates are strikingly similar to one another and the adoption by all of an identical method of valuing the liabilities might reasonably be expected.’