§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Emploment, pursuant to his reply of Monday 15 November to the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras, South, Official Report, c. 26, (a) taking the former national statutory charge for school meals as the base point, what has been the percentage increase in school meal prices used in calculating the retail price index in each school term commencing with the spring term in 1980, (b) what would the percentage in (a) have been if those authorities continuing to charge 35 pence had been excluded from the sample, (c) whether the figure based on the sample of 50 authorities has been checked against the figures in the Department of Education and Science's annual school meals census in each year and, if so, what adjustments were made, (d) what proportion of the national total of schoolchildren is represented in the sample of 50 education authorities and (e) what proportion of prices included in the sample from 50 authorities represents cafeteria meals; and how charges in cafeteria meal prices are calculated.
§ Mr. WaddingtonQuestions concerning school meals prices are the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science, but figures for the increases in school meals prices since the spring term of 1980, as measured in the retail prices index, are as follows:596W
Percentage increases in State school meal prices, based on spring 1980 1980 1981 1982 Spring (February) 0 30 43 Summer (May) 16 32 46 Winter (November) 24 38 51 The prices index is compiled by estimating separately the increases for fixed price and cafeteria meals in both primary and secondary schools and combining them with weights representing the respective proportions of expenditure. Increases in the charges for cafeteria meals are measured by collecting the prices each term for selected representative items. The weight for cafeteria purchase is about one-third of the total. The weights used in the RPI are broadly consistent with information in the annual census of school meals by the Department of Education and Science. The sample of local education authorities is designed to be representative of the position for schoolchildren throughout the United Kingdom; it covers just under half of all LEAs.