§ Mr. Lawsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish an index, using as a base 1970 = 100, of survey prices for each year from 1970 to 1978; and if he will indicate what value he provisionally assigns to the estimated out-turn prices for 1978–79 on the same index.
§ Mr. Joel BarnettThe table below shows the average of survey prices for expenditure programmes used in public expenditure White Papers from Cmnd 4829 onwards. It is expressed in the form of an index based on 1970–71 = 100, as information on a calendar year basis is not available.
Cmnd 4829 105 Cmnd 5178 115 Cmnd 5519 125 Cmnd 5879 145 Cmnd 6393 185 Cmnd 6721 220 Cmnd 7049 250 The average of survey prices currently in use in the 1978 survey is about 270 in terms of this index. 1978–79 outturn prices are likely to be a little higher than this.