§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will consider including the costs of meals on wheels in the retail price index for pensioner households.
§ Mr. BoothExpenditure on meals on wheels is included in the expenditure pattern on which the retail prices index numbers for pensioner households are based. However, price quotations for a wide range of representative items of expenditure on food and meals are already collected and I do not consider that expenditure on meals on wheels is sufficiently substantial, taking pensioner households as a whole, to justify collecting additional prices specifically for them.