Nobody owns the state's long-tail liabilities, and balance-sheet data arrives late and qualified

The Whole of Government Accounts is the only consolidated view of roughly £1.4tn in unfunded pension liabilities, £107bn of nuclear decommissioning provisions with UKGI projecting £115bn crystallising, clinical negligence, and the contested £295bn student loan asset. It is published roughly fifteen months after year-end and qualified, partly because disclaimed council audits corrupt the consolidation. UKGI's Contingent Liability Central Capability advises on new guarantees and does not manage legacy provisions. The OBR analyses sustainability and manages nothing. DfE's student-loan valuation model is not open to independent replication, and the Treasury Committee's 2026 report on student loans criticised the system's opacity. No single institution is accountable for the liability side of the state's balance sheet.

Decisions with hundred-billion-pound balance-sheet consequences, pension uprating, tuition terms, decommissioning pace, are made without a timely consolidated picture or contestable models. Parliament scrutinises an accounting artefact published two budget cycles late.

A Treasury balance-sheet management mandate extending UKGI's contingent-liability capability to legacy provisions, a statutory nine-month publication deadline for the accounts, and open-sourced valuation models for the major liabilities, starting with the student loan book so IFS and others can replicate it.

// State-led: Instrument: Treasury balance-sheet mandate extending UKGI CLCC plus statutory nine-month WGA deadline.

Hundred-billion-pound decisions on pensions, decommissioning and student loans rest on accounts published fifteen months late and qualified, with no institution owning the liability side.