6. Major BARNESasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will appoint a departmental or other committee to inquire into and report on the method employed in arriving at the index figures of the cost of living?
§ Sir M. BARLOWI have been asked to reply. The methods employed in arriving at the index numbers relating to the cost of living which are prepared in the Ministry of Labour were fully explained in the "Labour Gazette" for March last, and I am sending my hon. and gallant Friend an extract from that issue of the Gazette, containing the desired information. As regards the suggestion that a committee should be appointed to inquire into the methods employed, I would remind my hon. and gallant Friend that a committee on the cost of living, under the chairmanship of Lord Sumner, made such an inquiry in 1918, and if he wishes I will have a copy of the report sent him.