§ 44. Mr. A. Lewisasked the Postmaster-General by how much in the £ sterling the cost of general postal and telephone services has increased since October, 1951; and whether he will publish in HANSARD a table of figures giving the quarterly increases in each of the services provided by his Department from October, 1951, to date, on a basis of the £ sterling being worth 20s. on that date.
§ Mr. BevinsPost Office services which would have cost the customer £1 at the prices in force in October, 1951, now cost £1 11s. 6d., on average, in the case of postal services, and £1 12s.10d. in the case of telecommunications. I am sorry that quarterly figures are not 59W readily available but I give below the year-by-year variations in the prices I have just mentioned:
Postal Telecommunications £ s. d. £ s. d. 1951 (October) 1 0 0 1 0 0 1952 1 0 11 1 1 11 1953 1 1 1 1 1 11 1954 1 1 4 1 1 11 1955 1 1 4 1 1 11 1956 1 4 0 1 7 0 1957 1 8 2 1 11 10 1958 1 8 2 1 9 11 1959 1 8 2 1 9 11 1960 1 8 2 1 9 2 1961 1 11 2 1 9 2 1962 1 11 2 1 11 6 1963 1 11 6 1 12 10