§ Mr. FINNEYasked the President of the Board of Trade whether arrangements can be made with regard to the index figure of the cost of living, so that workpeople whose wages are regulated by that figure may get the benefits of the Budget reductions in indirect taxation?
§ Miss BONDFIELDI have been asked to reply. The official cost-of-living index figures, which are compiled by the Ministry of Labour, are intended to show the effects of all changes, irrespective of their causes, in the retail prices of the principal articles purchased by working-class families. As the figures have always included the effects of increases in indirect taxation, it would be undesirable, even if it were not impracticable, to adopt a different method when taxation is reduced.