§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the resources allocated to the Health and Safety Executive in each year of its existence stating them in (a) cash terms and (b) real terms; and if he will give the number of inspections carried out in each year.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe resources allocated to the Health and Safety Commission and Executive have been published each year in Supply Estimates. When these are deflated using the single index most widely used for such purposes, the gross domestic product deflator, the figures are as shown in the following table. When using the figures in column (3) it should be remembered that a number of elements within the Health and Safety Commission/Executive's budget have not moved in line with the gross domestic product over this period.
£000's Year (1) Supply Estimate (2) At 1983–84 prices (3) 1974–75 12,311 37,193 1975–76 27,972 67,565 1976–77 38,610 82,149 1977–78 44,647 83,609 1978–79 46,836 79,383 1979–80 55,757 80,807 1980–81 70,970 86,760 1981–82 80,816 89,996 1982–83 81,335 84,990 1983–84 87,873 87,873 1984–85 90,298 86,410 1985–86 93,283 85,035 The numbers of visits made by Health and Safety Executive inspectors in each year from 1975 (the first full year of the Executive's existence) to 1983 are as follows:
Year Number of Visits 1975 341,000 1976 307,000 1977 279,000 1978 281,000 1979 289,000 1980 291,000 1981 270,000 1982 254,000 1983 241,000 Visits may be made for a variety of purposes and vary greatly in duration. Care should also be taken in interpreting movements in figures for total visits because of changes in recording methods over the years and changes in the priority given to different types of visits with varying average duration.