Report and Accounts 2018/19
Presented to the members of the Staple Inn Actuarial Society at its Annual General Meeting on 8 October 2019
SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
SIAS: Who We Are
History & Role The Staple Inn Actuarial Society was originally founded in 1910 as the Institute of Actuaries Students' Society. Its original objectives were to assist students in preparing for actuarial exams and to provide a forum to practice public speaking. Over time, SIAS has evolved to become a body with over 5,000 members around the world, to both:
• Support the professional interests of junior members of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (“IFoA”), particularly students and those with up to five years post-qualification experience; and • Act as the regional actuarial society for London and South East England.
Objectives The objectives of SIAS are: • To provide opportunities, particularly for junior members of the IFoA, to: o attend and participate in open discussions of professional interest; o prepare papers and/or presentations on topics of professional interest; o encourage social contact with each other; and o share experiences of the IFoA’s education program. • Help members in their professional development. • Represent the interests of SIAS members.
Social & Programme SIAS arranges a wide variety of activities, both professional and social events, allowing members to develop professionally and network with fellow actuaries and members of the actuarial community. Highlights of the year include the Jubilee Lecture, Annual Ball, and the mortality improvements talk that is also hosted live online. View the complete upcoming list of events on our website here.
Charity SIAS members have the opportunity to give back to the community through introducing a career within the actuarial profession to both school and university students. A charity fun run is also held where SIAS members have the chance to raise funds for charities close to their own heart.
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
SIAS Committee 2018/19 The Committee for the 2018/19 Year are:
Natanya Roelofse Margret De Valois Role: Honorary Secretary Role: Chair Status: Fellow Status: Fellow Employer: Direct Line Group
Yuming Mei Nay Wynn Role: Honorary Treasurer Role: Marketing Convenor Status: Fellow Status: Fellow Employer: Mazars Employer: Hannover Re
Thomas Leigh-Eldredge Emma Hutchinson Role: Social Convenor Role: Programme Convenor Status: Fellow Status: Fellow Employer: Willis Towers Watson Employer: Milliman
Antri Theodosiou Jonny Boardley Role: Charity Convenor Role: Marketing Subcommittee Status: Student Status: Student Employer: Mazars Employer: Aon
Motunrola Oyebolu Kishan Patel Role: Marketing Subcommittee Role: Social Subcommittee Status: Student Status: Fellow Employer: Zurich Employer: Prudential
Omer Sheikh Mohamed Anique Buddhdev Role: Social Subcommittee Role: Social Subcommittee Status: Student Status: Student Employer: R&Q Employer: ERS
Saanya Jain Sameer Sheth Role: Programme Subcommittee Role: Programme Subcommittee Status: Fellow Status: Student Employer: Markel Employer: Mazars
Jon Spain Luke Dangerfield Role: Programme Subcommittee Role: Charity Subcommittee Status: Fellow Status: Student Employer: Rothesay Life
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
Entertainers at the SIAS Ball
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
Chair and Secretary Report
On behalf of the SIAS Committee, we are Ball with the theme ‘A Night in pleased to present the Report and Accounts for Hollywood’. the 2018/2019 year. The SIAS Committee continue to focus on improving the SIAS Looking into the future, our long-term strategy website to serve members better and providing remains the same. SIAS started as a society better accessibility for members not just in where actuaries could share their research with London to the quality events we organise. challenge provided from members. We are looking to come back to our roots, using our new We have delivered some key initiatives this website as a platform for sharing research and year: providing networking opportunities not only to our London based members but also to our • Some SIAS programme talks are now members based in the rest of the UK and hosted live online, providing our overseas. overseas members with more opportunities for professional We would like to thank the IFoA for its ongoing development; support, with special mention to Sevim Hartley • SIAS has now embedded a refreshed who manages SIAS’s day-to-day accounting long-term investment strategy; function efficiently and Kirstie Smith who • A new best exam mark competition that provides a vital broader link between the two rewards SIAS students for their hard organisations. work has been launched; and • We have continually worked on small We could not have delivered all these benefits improvements to the SIAS website to our SIAS members without the extra-ordinary throughout the year. commitment from each SIAS committee member. The SIAS committee members have SIAS members continued to enjoy core spent endless voluntary hours working towards benefits: delivering new initiatives but also maintaining existing SIAS activities. Margaret and Natanya would like to thank every SIAS committee • Eleven SIAS talks were hosted at the member personally for all the hard work and Staple Inn with drinks, sandwiches and enthusiasm over the past year. With this a networking opportunity provided after committee, we have a track record of delivery every talk; which gives us confidence to continue • The annual Charity Fun Run was delivering going into the new year. successfully hosted in Hyde Park and followed by drinks and nibbles; and
• Ten SIAS social events were hosted for members including our flagship Annual
Margaret De Valois, Honorary Chair & Natanya Roelofse, Honorary Secretary
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
Treasurer’s Report
Income commentary This year we carried out three actions which we believe will act as pillars of SIAS's financial Income from subscriptions increased from stability in years to come. £83,916 to £87,497 thanks to an increase in membership numbers over the year. Other First, as a result of a tender process we have sources of income were broadly stable. set up a Unit Trust with St James' Place. We have deposited £300k into this Unit Trust that invests in a wide range of assets including Expenditure commentary equities, bonds, property and alternative assets. In the current era of low returns, we Expenditures increased this year due to the cost believe this ensures that, in the long run, we will of providing additional services to members: achieve higher investment returns for the the use of video equipment to enable live benefit of our members. This investment is streaming of some of our Programme Events; highly liquid, allowing us to draw upon these new Charity initiatives such as the exam prize funds if required. competition and the Fun Run; and the one-off costs of setting up the Unit Trust this year. As Second, we have invested the rest of the assets we continue to invest in providing services to in cash and short-term deposits via a platform our members, we expect expenditures to called Flagstone. This gives access to interest continue to increase over the coming year. rates of up to 2% risk-free via a wide range of options for fixed-term cash deposits, each with Investments commentary full FSCS protection. Holding assets in this way provides higher returns than using a current Our investment income was comparable to the account and maintains liquidity, providing SIAS previous year. Going forward we expect income with access to funds to implement new to increase as we now have a corporate Unit initiatives over the next few years. Trust invested in a diversified portfolio of growth assets. Finally, we have taken the decision to increase subscription rates by £2 per member, as there Expectations for 2019/20 are several ongoing investments and long-term initiatives that require additional funding. For Going forward we plan to provide more and example, the increased use of live streaming at better services to members, which will require Programme Events which will support members further increases in expenditure. We have that are not always able to attend Staple Inn therefore taken steps this year to build the talks in person; the improvement of the SIAS foundations of SIAS’s financial stability. Next website so that members can access material year a key expenditure item will be further easier; and the increased Charity opportunities. development of our website. We plan to make further developments and improvements to the website to make it easier for members to engage with SIAS.
Yuming Mei, Honorary Treasurer
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
Marketing and Communications Report
SIAS has around 5,000 members worldwide, with a slow and steady growth in numbers over We have progressed our work with streamlining the last half of the membership year. our membership process so that prospective members can join quickly and sign-up to events. Marketing continue to work hard liaising with the We hope to implement this by the end of 2019. other sub-committee groups to communicate our events to our members. We work closely Our monthly newsletter has been a great way of with our website developer to improve our keeping our members informed of the latest website and with the IFoA to maintain our programme, social and charity events we have membership list. planned. It also gives us an opportunity to get members involved in our monthly polls and Our main focus has been on streamlining the some may even have a chuckle at our SIAS membership process so that it is easier for new sketches. members to join and on enhancing our social media presence. Social Media
Membership We have increased our social media engagement with more posts from the Two-thirds of our members are qualified Committee on upcoming events. Our LinkedIn actuaries with half of those qualifying in the last group has around 1,750 members, our Twitter decade. The rest of our members are mostly account has around 800 followers and our students. We have international students and Facebook page has around 200 members. qualified actuaries from other international professional bodies, but most of our We would like to continue to improve our social membership are IFoA members with 93% of our media presence over the coming year. membership based in the UK and the rest abroad. Thank you
Website and newsletter We would also like to thank Gillian Ozer and the membership team at the IFoA and Si Root and We continue to update our website functionality the team at The Hideout for the invaluable help in order to improve user experience and reduce in delivering our ongoing and future marketing the time we need to spend to maintain the services for SIAS and its members. website. One update allowed us to quickly identify those attending our events so we can Finally, I would like to thank Jonny Boardley and email them with event instructions. Rola Oyebolu (SIAS Marketing sub-committee) for their support in delivering our objectives.
Nay Wynn, Marketing Convenor
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
Programme Report
4 September 2018 “A Ramble Through In line with our strategy to serve our members Risk Appetite”, Roelof Coertze (IFoA Risk across a wider range of disciplines and Appetite in Life Offices Working Party) geographies, 2018/2019 saw the Programme team pushing our boundaries in terms of both the subject matter and delivery of our events. 2 October 2018 “Can General Insurers Generate Better Investment Returns?”, Simy Prakash (EY) Online webinar 6 November 2018 Jubilee Lecture on The annual April talk on mortality “The Future of the Actuarial Profession”, Nick improvements, given by the CMI Mortality Reily (Royal London), Hilary Salt (First Projections Committee, is one of SIAS’s most Actuarial), Michael Tripp (Mazars) successful and well-attended Programme events. Considering the typically high demand and in order to expand our reach to SIAS 5 December 2018 “Income in Retirement members located outside of London, we ran a - The Equity Option”, Ian McKeever live webinar in addition to the usual set-up at the Staple Inn Hall. Based on the large numbers 15 January 2019 “Annuities of individuals who attended in person and Reinvented”, Marie-Lise Tassoni and Kyle signed in online (from various locations Tassoni (Milliman) including a number of countries in continental Europe, Africa and the US) and the lively 6 February 2019 “How vaping can save participation from the audience (both during the 1 million years of life”, Daniel Pryor (Adam Q&A session and at networking drinks Smith Institute) afterwards) the event was a huge success on all accounts. As such, we are planning to host 4 March 2019 “Challenges and opportunities further online webinars in the future. for actuaries working in data science”, Lisa Balboa (Bupa), Alexander Hanks (Price Topics covered Forbes)
Our evening talks at the Staple Inn Hall covered 2 April 2019 “Mortality Improvements a diverse range of traditional and emerging Outlook 2019+”, CMI Mortality Projections topics presented by industry leading experts Committee both within and outside of the actuarial profession. We experimented with talk 7 May 2019 “Hurricane Clustering: A New structures to shake things up and to increase Reality?”, Dimitris Papachristou (Bank of audience engagement where appropriate. England) From interactive panel discussions and informal workshop-style sessions to educational 3 June 2019 “Navigating Organisational presentations by IFoA Working Party members, Politics Positively”, Joanna Gaudoin (Inside Out there were styles to suit all subject matters and Image) tastes. Thank you Programme events On behalf of SIAS, I would like to thank all of Here is a summary of the Programme events the presenters, authors and collaborators for SIAS hosted in 2018/19: their time and effort in producing and delivering the material. Our thanks also go to the volunteer 3 July 2018 “Part VII Transfers Round chairpersons, those who contributed from the Table”, Philip Tippin and John Jenkins (KPMG), audience on the evenings, and the staff from Oliver Gillespie (Milliman), Michael Tripp IFoA and Staple Inn who are essential to the (Mazars) success of these events.
Emma Hutchinson, Programme Convenor
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
Social Report
players the chance to size up their opponents, SIAS has hosted several successful social and offer novices a chance to practice. Then events over the last year. The first event of the once the clock turned 7pm the tournament year was the ‘Welcome Drinks’ where new begun. After five hours of tireless playing, Jamie members met each other and enjoyed a night of Harding came out the winner of the night, cocktails, nibbles and a pub quiz! bagging the grand prize of £370.
Annual Dinner April was the inaugural Board Games night at Draughts Waterloo. Forty people attended and SIAS held its flagship Annual Dinner event in took advantage of the extensive games library November 2018 entitled ‘A Night In Hollywood’, available as well as the nibbles and tipples at City Central at the HAC. Seven hundred provided. No one was caught playing old guests were greeted with a sparkling wine and familiar board games such as “Monopoly” and cocktail reception and a photo booth before “Snakes and Ladders”; instead more being invited into the dining suite to enjoy a sophisticated board games were tackled such stunning three course meal. During the meal a as “Codenames”, “Avalon” and even group of fabulous entertainers performed a “Articulate”! mixture of acts from cabaret style numbers to circus acts. Following the dinner guests enjoyed In May SIAS hosted its mystery event; this year the dancefloor and unforgettable dodgems! The taking the form of crazy golf at Putt Shack. This night continued with an after-party at Amber Bar new technological take on crazy golf involved where guests exhibited their best dance moves players battling it out in small teams in courses to their fellow actuaries! including a pub quiz, beer pong and many more! Guests enjoyed plentiful pizza and drinks after Events throughout the year a fun golfing session!
In December SIAS held its first ever SIAS was proud to host its first ever LGBT+ bottomless event – and not only did it include event in June by way of networking drinks in prosecco but also decadent cakes. We Soho. SIAS was extremely grateful to have over welcomed forty cake-a-holics to try nine twenty-five guests show up to meet other different cakes and the promise that their actuaries in support of or identifying as LGBT+, prosecco glass would never be empty. From and the night was a huge success. While SIAS curly whirly cake to Bailey’s chocolate, guests is not an LGBT+ network in itself, please do left the night feeling rather full! reach out to us if you would be interested in more LGBT+ (or other Inclusion and Diversity) SIAS kicked the new year off with its ever- events being run. popular pub quiz event. Circa one hundred and thirty actuaries went head to head in the quiz to SIAS ended its busy year with the inaugural battle it out through various rounds and snap up boat party in July. Despite weather warnings in one of the many prizes up for grabs. From place for rain and wind, the night turned out to Netflix show downs to a scene acting tie-break be a huge success with over two hundred situation, ‘The Outstanding Reserves’ were guests enjoying drinks, a BBQ buffet and a victorious taking away the grand prize. boogie on the dancefloor (and very little rain!). The night also included a roulette table and February saw SIAS run its annual pool fancy dress under the theme ‘The 2010s’ to see tournament at Riley’s Sports Bar in Victoria. the decade out in style. Following the boat party, After a competitive group stage and an eight the night continued with drinks and more team play off bracket, the final was played boogie-ing in a local bar. between ‘Middle Pocket Matchplay’ and ‘www.HasThisTeamGoneInOffYet.com’, with Thank you the latter emerging victorious. Much appreciation and many thanks go to the In March SIAS hosted its annual poker social subcommittee for their tremendous hard tournament with sixty guests at the Grosvenor work and effort in organising the fabulous Victoria Casino. The evening kicked off with a events over the year at such good value for our small drinks and networking reception to give members – Anique Buddhdev, Kishan Patel and
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
Omer Sheikh Mohamed. We, the social team, to all those who attended for making our events have loved meeting, dancing, drinking and as enjoyable as they have been! We look chatting with you at our events this year– thanks forward to another year of festivities with you.
Tom Leigh-Eldredge, Social Convenor
“The 2010s” themed Boat Party, July 2018
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
Charity Report
SIAS continued to offer opportunities to our A special congratulations to our fastest runners, members to fundraise for their favourite Adam Hallgarth and Grace Xia, pictured below. charities through running, getting active and studying!
This year, we organised the second 5km Charity Fun Run and established two new SIAS charity-matching initiatives, giving our members the opportunity to raise donations for the charities close to their hearts. Firstly, following the success of the annual Charity Fun Run in Hyde Park, we organised a Parkrun initiative for members who would also like to join in but aren’t necessarily based around London. These members are able to run in their own time, engage with us on social media and fundraise. Secondly, we set up the Best Exam mark competition to reward our members’ hard work put into passing the IFoA exams and give them Best Exam Mark competition the chance to share their success with their chosen charities. We know that actuarial students spend a significant amount of their time studying for the We would like to thank our members who have IFoA exams, so SIAS decided to reward this year taken part in the Fun Run, the Parkrun members’ hard work and effort. initiative and the Best Exam mark competition! This year we started an initiative where SIAS A total of £4,864 was donated to members’ members can enter an exam mark competition. chosen charities this year. All entrants are considered and members with the highest marks for each of the IFoA Exams (except CT9) receive a £50 Amazon voucher SIAS 5k Charity Run and a £50 donation to their chosen charities. In August, we organised the second, annual This competition ran for the Winter 2018 and 5km Charity Fun Run followed by drinks and Summer 2019 results and SIAS has already nibbles sponsored by Star Actuarial. Despite donated £2,300 to our members chosen the rain, our runners ran the 5km course in Hyde charities including Shelter, British Heart Park and a few members even took it upon Foundation, Battersea Dogs & Cats home and themselves to complete the 10km! many others. We will continue running this competition and we wish all our members good Drinks and nibbles that followed were very luck with the next set of their exams! much enjoyed and well-earnt after a wet 5km SIAS parkrun initiative run! Our focus this year was to promote activities We would like to thank the thirty runners that and events that enabled our members participated and those members who created a anywhere in the UK and around the world to fundraising page. We are pleased to announce participate. that a total of £1,563 including £498 in matched donations by SIAS was raised for the chosen Members who complete any Parkrun are now able to post about their run on social media charities of the participants. These charities using the #IrunwithSIAS. Every member include the Social Mobility Foundation, receives a SIAS water bottle after their first run Alzheimer’s Society and the Cyprus Anti- with funds donated to their chosen charity after Cancer Society. the second and third run.
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SIAS Report & Accounts 2018/19
We want to thank all runners that have so far A further £708 was raised for charitable causes, participated in this initiative! SIAS has donated including Cancer Research and the British over £300 to members’ chosen charities and Heart Foundation through the raffle at the SIAS given over 30 water bottles away. Ball.
We will continue running this initiative and we hope to donate a lot more to our members’ favourite charities through #IrunwithSIAS.
Antri Theodosiou, Charity Convenor
SIAS Charity Fun Run, 2019
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Registration number: 10819518
Staple Inn Actuarial Society Limited
(A company limited by guarantee)
Annual Report and Financial Statements
for the Year Ended 30 June 2019 Staple Inn Actuarial Society Limited
Contents
Balance Sheet 1
Notes to the Financial Statements 2 to 5 Staple Inn Actuarial Society Limited
(Registration number: 10819518) Balance Sheet as at 30 June 2019
2019 2018 Note £ £ Fixed assets Intangible assets 3 11,446 17,169 Investments 4 506,692 200,000 518,138 217,169 Current assets Debtors 5 40,857 40,197 Cash at bank and in hand 102,838 403,735 143,695 443,932 Creditors : Amounts falling due within one year 6 (38,853) (41,346) Net current assets 104,842 402,586 Net assets 622,980 619,755 Capital and reserves Capital contribution reserve 602,136 602,136 Income and expenditure account 20,844 17,619 Total equity 622,980 619,755
These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relating to companies subject to the small companies regime within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006. These financial statements have been delivered in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime and the option not to file the Income Statement has been taken.
Approved and authorised by the Board on 15 August 2019 and signed on its behalf by:
...... Y Mei Director
The notes on pages 2 to 5 form an integral part of these financial statements. Page 1 Staple Inn Actuarial Society Limited
Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 30 June 2019
1 General information The company is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales, and consequently does not have share capital. Each of the members is liable to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 towards the assets of the company in the event of liquidation. The address of its registered office is: 7th Floor Holborn Gate 326-330 High Holborn London WC1V 7PP United Kingdom These financial statements were authorised for issue by the Board on 15 August 2019.
2 Accounting policies
Summary of significant accounting policies and key accounting estimates The principal accounting policies applied in the preparation of these financial statements are set out below. These policies have been consistently applied to all the years presented, unless otherwise stated.
Statement of compliance These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Financial Reporting Standard 102 Section 1A - 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' and the Companies Act 2006.
Basis of preparation These financial statements have been prepared using the historical cost convention except that as disclosed in the accounting policies certain items are shown at fair value.
Audit report The Independent Auditor's Report was unqualified. The name of the Senior Statutory Auditor who signed the audit report on 15 August 2019 was Lee Baker, who signed for and on behalf of Wenn Townsend.
Revenue recognition All incoming resources are included in the Income and Expenditure Account when the Society is legally entitled to the income.
Income is credited as income when they are receivable provided conditions for receipt have been complied with, unless they relate to a specified future period, in which case they are deferred.
Membership fees received in advance of the provision of services are included within current liabilities as deferred income, thereby recognising membership subscriptions over the membership period.
Investment income, including associated Income Tax recoveries, is recognised when receivable. All other revenue due to the Society, including the surplus on production of the Actuary magazine, is accounted for on an accruals basis.
Page 2 Staple Inn Actuarial Society Limited
Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 30 June 2019
Tax The tax expense for the period comprises current tax. Tax is recognised in the income statement, except that a change attributable to an item of income or expense recognised as other comprehensive income is also recognised directly in other comprehensive income. The current income tax charge is calculated on the basis of tax rates and laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the reporting date in the countries where the company operates and generates taxable income.
Amortisation Amortisation is provided on intangible assets so as to write off the cost, less any estimated residual value, over their useful life as follows: Asset class Amortisation method and rate Website 20% Straight line Cash and cash equivalents Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash on hand and call deposits, and other short-term highly liquid investments that are readily convertible to a known amount of cash and are subject to an insignificant risk of change in value.
Trade debtors Trade debtors are amounts due from customers for merchandise sold or services performed in the ordinary course of business.
Trade debtors are recognised at the transaction price. A provision for the impairment of trade debtors is established when there is objective evidence that the company will not be able to collect all amounts due according to the original terms of the receivables.
Trade creditors Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from suppliers. Accounts payable are classified as current liabilities if the company does not have an unconditional right, at the end of the reporting period, to defer settlement of the creditor for at least twelve months after the reporting date. If there is an unconditional right to defer settlement for at least twelve months after the reporting date, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised at the transaction price.
Page 3 Staple Inn Actuarial Society Limited
Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 30 June 2019
3 Intangible assets
Website Total £ £ Cost or valuation Additions 22,892 22,892 At 30 June 2019 22,892 22,892 Amortisation At 1 July 2018 5,723 5,723 Amortisation charge 5,723 5,723 At 30 June 2019 11,446 11,446 Carrying amount At 30 June 2019 11,446 11,446 At 30 June 2018 17,169 17,169
4 Investments
Investments Bonds Total £ £ £ Non-current financial assets Cost or valuation At 1 July 2018 - 200,000 200,000 Unrealised gains on investments 6,692 - 6,692 Additions 300,000 - 300,000 At 30 June 2019 306,692 200,000 506,692
5 Debtors 2019 2018 £ £ Prepayments 31,659 36,805 Other debtors 9,198 3,392 40,857 40,197
Page 4 Staple Inn Actuarial Society Limited
Notes to the Financial Statements for the Year Ended 30 June 2019
6 Creditors
Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 2019 2018 £ £ Due within one year Accruals and deferred income 38,853 40,916 Other creditors - 430 38,853 41,346
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