Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's submission to the Inter-Departmental Group for the Valuation of Life and Health review and all evidence submitted to the series of interviews with his Department's staff conducted by researchers from the University of Leeds in 2008.

The Environment Agency did not provide an explicit monetary value for a quality adjusted life in the context of flood risk management as part of the 2008 review. It did provide a discussion of risk to life valuation in connection to flood risk in Boscastle, as referenced on page 10 of the 2008 Review.

The explicit monetary value per quality-adjusted life from air pollution reduction, as quoted as part of the Department's submission to the Inter-Departmental Group for the Valuation of Life and Health review in 2008 was valued using a “lost life years” methodology at £29,000 (in 2004 prices) for each additional year of life. This figure was informed by a 2004 Defra report entitled Valuation of Health Benefits Associated with Reduction in Air Pollution available here http://archive.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/air/airquality/publications/healthbenefits/airpollution_reduction.pdf). The 2004 study did not directly give the £29,000 figure but was instrumental in its adoption.

The lead economist working in health and wellbeing in the Department was a member of this group in 2008. His interview responses were formed from his experience within the Department. Records of the interviews conducted by the University of Leeds (other than what is incorporated into the report itself) were not kept by the Department.