Fatal flaws in UK Government’s price of a life

The measurement by which the UK Government attaches a monetary value to saving a human life is invalid and should be overhauled, according to Professor of Risk Management at the University of Bristol, Philip Thomas. In a new paper , published in the journal Measurement , Professor Thomas argues the UK Value of a Prevented Fatality or VPF is a flawed tool which considerably underestimates the value of a human life. The current VPF is used by at least eight government agencies, including the Department for Transport, the Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Health and Safety Executive, to determine the amount government should spend to prevent one death. Currently this equates to around £1.8 million per life saved (or prevented fatality). For comparison, the figure used by the United States Department of Transportation is $9.6 million (approximately £7.8 million). Professor Thomas explains that measuring a wealth-dependent economic good by opinion survey, namely the VPF, requires a minimum sample of at least 2000 people, to match the "three per cent margin of error"(plus or minus 6% of the measured value) that is customary in UK political opinion polls. "The current VPF used by UK Government agencies is based upon a 22-year-old survey of just 167 respondents.