Lord Lucasasked Her Majesty's Government:
What figures or estimates they have, for the most recent three years available, that might give some indication of the amount spent on health and safety measures, pollution control, and other measures to 64WA improve the environmental or human costs and risks of production or employment. [HL3248]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Whitty)Environmental spending by government, industry and households was estimated in 1990 to be £13,850 million, 2.5 per cent. of GDP. A survey of extraction, manufacturing, energy and water supply industries in 1994 suggested that environmental expenditure amounted to around £2,300 million. This survey is being repeated for 1997 and estimates will be published later this year.
No national figures are available for spending by industry on health and safety. Costs of implementing new regulations are estimated but no estimates are available for compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act and previous legislation, nor the costs of investments which may in part be for commercial reasons in addition to improving workplace safety.
Within government, the available information is:
£ million 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 Health and safety spending through the H&S Executive 217 219 218 Environmental protection and conservation spending by DETR (including the Environment Agency) 490 504 490 This does not include spending by other departments on health and safety and environmental protection.