HC Deb 14 April 1980 vol 982 cc441-2W
Mr. Marlow

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will consider removing tobacco and tobacco products from the retail price index.

Mr. Jim Lester

[pursuant to his reply, 3 April 1980]: No.

The construction of the retail price index follows the recommendations of the Retail Prices Index Advisory Committee which includes representatives of the TUC, the CBI and trade and consumer organisations together with leading academic experts and government statisticians.

On this matter, the committee has explicitly recommended that the index should reflect price changes over the whole field of goods and services purchased by households. I accept the judgment of the committee.

52 weeks and over of which: 156 weeks and over
Males Females Males Females
January 1976 163,524 18,824
January 1977 242,437 41,880
January 1978 272,539 61,378
January 1979 268,827 65,973
January 1980 264,204 70,924 87,006 14,926

As a result of changing the attendance and payment of benefit from weekly to fortnightly the unemployment figures for October 1979 and later dates were raised by an amount estimated for Great Britain

Mr. Higgins

asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether the weight given to tobacco and cigarettes in the retail price index reflects the fact that a high proportion of the population does not buy either.

Mr. Jim Lester

[pursuant to his reply, 3 April 1980]: The retail price index, as recommended by the Retail Prices Index Advisory Committee, reflects price changes over the whole field of goods and services purchased by households. The weights in the index are based on the pattern of aggregate expenditure of all households covered by the index. For individual households the pattern of expenditure may show some variation about the overall position, with a below average proportion spent on some items and an above average proportion spent on others.