§ Mr. Ecclesasked the Minister of Labour what are the present composition and functions of the Cost-of-Living Advisory Committee and when it last met.
§ Mr. IsaacsThe composition of the Committee is as follows:
Sir Robert M. Gould, C.B., Chief Industrial Commissioner, Ministry of Labour and National Service (Chairman);
Professor R. G. D. Allen, O.B.E., Professor of Statistics, London University;
Mr. O. W. Cromwell, representing the British Employers' Confederation;
Representative of the Trades Union Congress General Council;
Mr. J. A. Hough, M.A., representing the Co-operative Movement;
Mrs. T. Cazalet Keir;
Sir Frederick Leggett, C.B.;
205WMr. A. H. Mathias, representing the Retail Distributive Trades Conference;
Mr. J. R. N. Stone, C.B.E., Director of Department of Allied Economics, Cambridge;
Miss D. S. Tomkinson, O.B.E., M.A., J.P., representing the National Federation of Women's Institutes;
Representatives of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, the Board of Trade, Scottish Office, and the Central Statistical Office.
The terms of reference are to advise the Minister of Labour and National Service on the basis of the official cost of living index figure and on matters connected therewith. The first task of the Committee was to advise whether a revision of the old cost of living index was practicable or desirable, and if so to advise as to the revision that might be made. At a series of meetings, of which the last was on 22nd May, 1947, they recommended that a new interim index of retail prices should be adopted. In July they approved the recommendations of a Technical Committee which had prepared the scheme which has been used for the calculation of the new index since June, 1947. It is proposed to ask the Committee to undertake the consideration of an index on a more permanent basis when the pattern of expenditure becomes more normal.