The profit index currently used in the UK was designed in 1992 to combine production and longevity in an optimal manner. There have been no enhancements to this index for some years but during this period the industry has suffered wide-scale disruptions as a consequence of BSE and foot and mouth disease. The quality of data on reasons for culling has reduced, putting greater emphasis on prediction of longevity from type traits, and other issues relating to animal management have risen in priority. Increasing the emphasis on welfare associated traits such as lifespan and health in a widely used selection index will lead to both increased health and welfare of dairy cows and increased public confidence in dairy farming. The objectives of this project were to (1) enhance the prediction of lifespan by incorporating farmer-friendly composite type traits (2) re-evaluate economic weights of traits in £PLI to account for changes in costs/returns and (3) enhance £PLI by the addition of health traits (somatic cell count and lameness).