§ 37. Mr. W. Hamiltonasked the Minister of Labour if he will take steps to collect, and publish at intervals, statistics showing price trends for specific food commodities, particularly those for which large deficiency payments are made from public funds.
§ Mr. GreenOn the advice of the Cost of Living Advisory Committee, the Ministry has for a number of years published in the Ministry of Labour Gazette at quarterly intervals indices for ten groups of related food commodities included in the Index of Retail Prices.
§ Mr. HamiltonIs the hon. Gentleman aware that there is a considerable degree of dissatisfaction at the paucity of information particularly on the commodities on which, as I indicate in the Question, large deficiency payments are paid? Is he aware that every interested party denies having received this money? The farmers say that they are not receiving 206 it. The butchers say that they are not receiving it, and, speaking as a consumer, I know that I am not receiving it. Therefore will the hon. Gentleman tell us who is getting this money? We are having a debate today on the control of public expenditure and that information might help us in our deliberations.
§ Mr. GreenI am sure the hon. Gentleman knows that most of that supplementary question is not a matter for me, but perhaps I can help a little. There is another Question immediately following this one which bears somewhat on this point. The method used in calculating the retail prices index, which are the figures supplied by my Department, does not involve the calculation of average prices. If we went into this in great detail, an immense amount of labour would be required to compile them.