Colonel NEWMANasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware that the present index of commodity prices, which index governs the cost of labour and consequently the cost of the commodity to the consumer for the year 1920, is compared with a pre-War period on the assumption that the same quantities and qualities of each item are consumed by certain selected classes of manual workers; whether this assumption is only true of those individuals whose wages are raised to equal the cost of living; and will he have the monthly rise or fall in cost of living ascertained on some more reliable basis?
§ Sir M. BARLOWI have been asked to reply. The index numbers relating to cost of living, which are prepared by the Ministry of Labour, show the average increase in the cost of maintaining unchanged the pre-War standard of living of the working classes. In those cases 75W in which earnings have not been increased in the same proportion some re-adjustment of expenditure must, of course, have been made, but I am afraid it would be impracticable to collect each month the data necessary. I may add that the British Empire Statistical Conference, which assembled in London early this year, gave careful consideration to the question of index numbers of price-changes, and unanimously decided that such index numbers should compare the cost of a selected group of commodities at one date with the cost of the same commodities, in the same quantities, at another date. This is the method employed by the Ministry of Labour.