§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection whether she will give as full and comprehensive a list as may be available of the price of foodstuffs on the date when the United Kingdom joined the EEC and at the latest available date; and to what extent these price rises were due to British membership of the EEC.
§ Mr. MaclennanAverage retail prices for a comprehensive list of foodstuffs are published each month in the Department of EmploymentGazette. I refer the hon. Member to Volume LXXXI No. 2 of the Gazette for prices on 12th December 1972, which was immediately before our entry into the EEC, and to Volume LXXXIV No. 2 for prices on 13th January 1976, the latest date for which information is available.
It is not possible to isolate the extent to which EEC membership has been responsible for food price increases, because it is not possible to predict how prices would have moved had we not joined the EEC in January 1973.