§ Lord Tebbitasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they use valuation based on human life calculations in prioritising expenditure upon the road network. (HL4242)
§ The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Whitty)Safety is a key element of the Government's new approach to appraisal that is used to prioritise expenditure on road schemes and other road investment projects. Impacts of the scheme or project on fatalities, serious injuries and slight injuries8WA are expressed using monetary values. These are shown in the table below.
These values encompass all aspects of the valuation of casualties, including the human costs and the direct economic costs, i.e. an amount to reflect the pain, grief and suffering and the lost output and medical costs associated with road accident injuries. The human costs are derived from a statistical analysis of peoples' willingness to pay for small changes in the risk of a fatality or injury occurring.
These values are given in the October 1999 edition of Highways Economics Note No. 1, which is about to be published. A copy will be placed in the House Libraries as soon as it is available.
Average value of prevention per casualty by severity and element of cost £ (June 1998) Accident severity Lost output Medical and ambulance cost Human costs Total Fatal 360,000 620 686,620 1,047,240 Serious 13,860 8,400 95,410 117,670 Slight 1,470 620 6,980 9,070 Average, all casualties 6,790 1,600 25,240 33,630