Actually the consequences of financial foolishness are worse than
that. The NHS has a budget of about £10k per qaly, so each 6.7 million
spent saving one life with sprinklers eats up enough resources to save
670 lives. In that particular example, the money sources are to an
extent different, but when it comes down to household budget and
safety, there are plenty of things that could be done with that
6.7million that would save many more lives.


I think you have overlooked that a "qaly" is a year, not a life so you
need to multiply by average life expectancy of those saved. And NICE
now use £20~30,000:
http://www.nice.org.uk/newsroom/feat...stheqaly. jsp
So it works out around the same as the DfT figures - not surprisingly as
officials do try to maintain a degree of consistency on such things
(despite the pressures on their political masters to jerk knees when the
media are baying).

--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid