I doubt whether there is an 'average' spend on health and safety. The amount that an organisation will spend will vary enormously depending upon the nature of the activities. Consider the differences between a high risk tunnelling project and a solicitor's office. In any event, in my view an 'average' would not tell you a great deal. I would suggest that what you really should be looking for is the cost:benefit figure for the specific occupational sector with which you are concerned. Even here you will find considerable differences, due to differing management styles and priorities. As an independent consultant I find some organisations are willing to make substantial investment in health and safety in order to ensure best practice and maximum output from employees, whilst others will do the absolute minimum to avoid prosecution. Take the two extremes and average them and what would this tell you?

How do you define spend on Health and Safety? Is a service on a piece of equipment a health and safety spend because it may prevent ant accident and PUWER says you should do it - or is it an operational spend because you don't want it to break down and so have lost production time? Brian