HC Deb 01 March 1978 vol 945 cc223-4W
54. Mr. Greville Janner

asked the Secretary of State for Transport how much he proposes to spend on advertising his campaign to encourage the wearing of seat belts; and how many lives he hopes to save thereby.

Mr. Horam

The current seat belt publicity campaign will cost £705,000. It is impossible to predict how many people will respond to the campaign, but for those who do wear their belts and are involved in an accident, the risk of being killed is approximately halved.

Mr. Fry

asked the Secretary of State for Transport whether his Department has information about the percentage reductions of fatalities in road accidents shown by research or claimed to have been achieved by the introduction of compulsory wearing of seat belts in other countries; and how these compare with the percentage reduction of fatalities officially predicted if compulsory wearing should be introduced in Great Britain.

Mr. William Rodgers

The evidence available from other countries indicates that the wearing of a seat belt reduces the risk of death in a traffic accident by between 50 and 80 per cent. For Great Britain, the official estimate is for a risk reduction of at least 50 per cent.