46. Colonel NEWMANasked whether comparisons of the present cost of living with the period immediately preceding the War are drawn up and published at stated intervals by the Labour Ministry; whether the accuracy of the results so arrived at have been gravely questioned; and whether, in view of the fact that the announcement of a rise in the cost of living by the Ministry of Labour is automatically followed by a rise in the wages paid to organised labour, he will have the whole question of comparison in food prices investigated by a select committee of experts?
§ The MINISTER of LABOUR (Dr. Macnamara)I have been asked to reply to this question. The average percentage increase in the cost of maintaining unchanged the pre-War standard of living among working-class families is calculated each month and published in the Labour Gazette. I am sending my hon. and gallant Friend an extract from the Labour Gazette for March last which explains in detail the methods employed 559 in making this calculation. I am aware that it has been asserted, on the one hand, that the actual increase is less, and on the other hand, that it is greater, than the published percentage; but the evidence adduced has, I am advised, generally been fragmentary, and no independent statistics have been compiled of a sufficiently comprehensive character to provide a justification for disputing the official calculations. As regards the suggestion that a select committee should investigate the comparison of food prices, my hon. and gallant Friend will no doubt be aware that the statistics compiled by the Ministry of Labour were the subject of an investigation in 1918 by Lord Summer's Committee on the Cost of Living, who reported that there was every reason to suppose that they were accurate and adequate for their purpose.