Ogden tables are a set of statistical tables and other information for use in court cases in the UK. Their purpose is to make it easier to calculate future losses in personal injury and fatal accident cases. The tables take into account life expectancy and provide a range of discount rates from -2.0% to 3.0% in steps of 0.5%. The discount rate is fixed by the Lord Chancellor under section 1 of the Damages Act 1996; as of 15 July 2019, this rate is -0.25%. The most recent edition of the tables (7th Edition) makes changes to the discount rate range (previously 0.0% to 5.0% revised to -2.0% to 3.0%) to allow for a revision of the discount rate by the Lord Chancellor (currently under consideration as at 24 October 2011) and to provide for the implications of the case of Helmot v. Simon. The Civil Evidence Act 1995 permitted their use in the UK and they were first used by the House of Lords in Wells v. Wells in July 1999. The full, and official, name of the tables is Actuarial Tables with explanatory notes for use in Personal Injury and Fatal Accident Cases but the unofficial name became common parlance following the Civil Evidence Act 1995, where this shorthand name was used as a subheading – Sir Michael Ogden QC having been the chairman of the Working Party for the first four editions Using the Ogden tables There are 28 tables of data in the Ogden Tables. Table 1 (Males) and Table 2 (Females) are for life expectancy and loss for life. Tables 3 to 14 are for loss of earnings up to various retirement ages. Tables 15 to 26 are for loss of pension from various retirement ages. Table 27 is for discounting for a time in the future and Table 28 is for a recurring loss over a period of time. How to calculate life expectancy To calculate life expectancy, you need to use Table 1 (for males) or Table 2 (for females) and use the data in the 0% column. So for a 45 year old female, using Table 2 you would look down the first column to find 45 and then across to the 0% column which gives a figure of 43.93. In cases where the age is not a whole number, i.e. female who is 45.75 years, then you use the figure for