Legislation enacting European law prohibiting sex discrimination in insurance contracts came into force in the UK on 21 December 2007. It is now unlawful to use sex as a factor in the calculation of premiums and benefits unless the underlying actuarial data on which the premiums and benefits are based are reliable, regularly updated and available to the public.
At this stage, it is difficult to see what difference this may make to premiums for the relevant policies (life, medical, sickness and critical illness for example), but in principle it may mean that some policies for women become less expensive and some for men become more expensive.
Partner Note
The change was effected by amendment of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 to implement both the EU Gender Directive (2004/113) and parts of the EU Equal Treatment Amendment Directive.