§ Mr. George Rodgersasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he has received from the Royal Commission on the Distribution of Income and Wealth the progress report mentioned in the terms of the reference on lower incomes which was announced on 22nd June 1976; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BoothThe Chairman of the Royal Commission, Lord Diamond, has written to me to report on progress under the lower incomes reference.
The Commission has received written evidence from members of the public at large and from a number of individuals and organisations who were approched, including Government Departments and local authority associations, the TUC and the CBI. The taking of oral evidence from selected witnesses, the timing of which has inevitably depended on the speed with which the evidence could be produced by the bodies concerned, has been completed very recently.
The Commission has put in hand an internal programme of research over a vide field, and has commissioned the Centre for the Economics of Education at the London School of Economics to carry out certain analyses. In addition, the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys is at the Commission's request engaged upon a follow-up survey among the respondents to the 1975 General Household Survey. The Commission has also had discussions with and has commissioned work from academics specialising in the subject matter of the reference.
All this work has been carried on side by side with the further work arising out of the quite separate standing reference. Under that reference, the Commission published a further report in October 1976, and has since been engaged on a number of research projects needed for the next report under the Standing Reference.
In the light of the progress which has been made the Commission hopes to present its report on the lower incomes reference early in 1978.