Investment consultants advise many pension funds on investment strategies, asset allocation and fund manager selection. As well as giving advice, some investment consultants also manage investments on behalf of the pension scheme (“fiduciary management”). A number of investment consultants also advise employers on the design of pensions and operate them via in-house “master trust” arrangements.

Following its recent market study into the asset management sector, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has concluded that it has reasonable grounds to suspect there are features of the sector which prevent, restrict or distort competition.

The FCA estimates that the 12 largest investment consultants advise on around £1.6 trillion of assets. They found:

• signs that the buyers of investment consultancy may not be best placed to judge quality or value for money of the service they receive

• evidence of the biggest firms holding a large share of the market

• barriers to expansion restricting smaller, newer consultants from developing their business

• some potential conflicts of interest relating to the other services offered by a number of firms

The FCA has now referred investment consultancy and fiduciary management services in the UK for examination by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA’s independent investigation will determine whether there are any adverse effects on competition in this sector. If any are found, it will decide whether – and if so, what – remedial action should be taken to address these.

During its investigation, the CMA will gather a large amount of information on the market, including running a bespoke market survey. It will engage with key participants and it will undertake significant economic analysis before coming to its conclusions.

Requests for information have today been sent to the main companies involved to allow this work to begin. An issues statement setting out the proposed focus of the investigation and potential remedies – in the event that an adverse effect on competition is found – will also be published shortly, and all responses to this will be welcomed.

Information on how any organisation or individual can submit their views, together with supporting evidence, to the CMA can be found on the case page.

The CMA will shortly appoint independent panel members to the Group and publish a timetable setting out a schedule for the various stages of the investigation. The appointed Group act as the decision makers and are chosen from the CMA’s panel members, who come from a variety of backgrounds, including economics, law, accountancy and/or business.

The CMA will conclude the investigation by March 2019.

New data published by Public Health England (PHE) today (14 September 2017) shows a wide variation of premature mortality rates from liver disease across England.

Liver disease is almost entirely preventable with the major risk factors, alcohol, obesity and Hepatitis B and C, accounting for up to 90% of cases. The atlas will help health professionals to allocate their resources to improve patient outcomes.

The atlas shows premature mortality rates – dying before the age of 75 – ranged from 3.9 per 100,000 in South Norfolk clinical commissioning group (CCG) to 30.1 per 100,000 in Blackpool CCG, a 7.7 fold difference.

The atlas paints a mixed picture, with 10 indicators showing improvements including a reduction of premature deaths and fewer alcohol-specific hospital admissions for under 18s.

Nine of the indicators have become worse over time, including a doubling of hospital admission rates for cirrhosis from 54.8 per 100,000 to 108.4 per 100,000 people over the past decade. This indicator also varies significantly across the country with an 8.5 fold variation across CCGs and this gap has widened over the past decade.

Liver disease is responsible for almost 12% of deaths in men aged 40 to 49 years and is now the fourth most common cause of ‘years of life lost’ in people aged under 75, after heart disease and lung cancer.

Professor Julia Verne, Head of Clinical Epidemiology at PHE said:

Chronic liver disease is a silent killer of young adults, creeping up and showing itself when it’s often too late. However, around 90% of liver disease is preventable.

We hope local health professionals will make the most of this rich data source to inform how they reduce the burden of liver disease in their areas.

The atlas also lays bare the impact of the stark health inequalities in England. Inequality plays a role in the significant variation in risk factors of liver disease – excessive alcohol consumption, obesity, and hepatitis B and C.

For example, there is a 7.4 fold difference in the rate of alcohol-specific hospital admissions across the country, with the majority of the higher rates being clustered in the more deprived areas. Also, in the most deprived fifth of the country, people with liver disease die 9 years earlier than those in the most affluent fifth.

These data will underline the importance of developing a strategy to tackle the rising burden of liver disease, especially in younger adults and even children. Liver disease can take 20 years to show up as symptoms.

The atlas is made up of 39 indicators, 19 of which show trend data over time. It shows the degree of variation across the country, a national figure for comparison and commentary providing options for action and a list of evidence based resources for local health systems to improve.

For further information contact PHE:

Public Health England exists to protect and improve the nation’s health and wellbeing, and reduce health inequalities. It does this through world-class science, knowledge and intelligence, advocacy, partnerships and the delivery of specialist public health services. PHE is an operationally autonomous executive agency of the Department of Health. Follow us on Twitter: @PHE_uk and Facebook: www.facebook.com/PublicHealthEngland.

The 2nd Atlas of Variation in risk factors and healthcare for liver disease in England will be published on the PHE fingertips website.

The 2nd Atlas of Variation in risk factors and healthcare for liver disease in England has been prepared in partnership with a wide range of organisations: