§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will express the married man's personal allowance for income tax purposes, adjusted for the effect of earned income relief, as an index, at constant prices, of the 1972–73 figure, showing the value of this index for the years 1973–74, 1974–75 and 1975–76.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonThe figures are as follows:
Year Married person's allowance (?) Value at 1972–73 prices (?) Value expressed as index (1972–73= 100) 1972–73 … 772 772 100 1973–74 … 775 702 90.9 1974–75 … 865 664 86.0 1975–76 … 955 603 78.1 The 1972–73 married person's allowance is shown after adjustment for the effect of earned income relief. Except for 1975–76 the price index used is the average general index of retail prices for the corresponding twelve month period, taken from Table 1 of "The Internal Purchasing Power of the Pound" published by the Press and Information Service of the Central Statistical office in November 1975. For 1975–76 the average price index relates to the first eight months of the financial year.