Stephen O’Brien – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen O’Brien on 2014-06-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what monetary thresholds were applied to the cost-per-quality adjusted life year quoted in the evidence submitted as part of the Health and Safety Executive’s work with the Inter-departmental Group for the Valuation of Life and Health review in 2008.

Mike Penning

I refer my Rt. Hon. friend to the Written Answer I gave him on 2 July 2014 Official Report, col 643w.

HSE does not apply cost-per-quality adjusted life year (QALY) thresholds. In the Regulatory Impact Assessment described in the evidence submitted by HSE to the Inter-Departmental Group for the Valuation of Life and Health review in 2008, which is published in the Library, HSE used a value of £42,000 per QALY to estimate the benefits of the intervention. These were compared against the expected costs of the intervention in order to assess the potential net benefits to society.