§ Lord KENNETasked Her Majesty's Government:
On whose advice cigarettes were included in the cost of living index.
The EARL of GOWRIEThe method of construction of the retail prices index follows the recommendations of the Retail Prices Index Advisory Committee, the membership of which includes representatives of the CBI, the TUC and trade and consumer organisations, together with leading academic experts and government statisticians. As my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Employment said in reply to Mr. Rooker in the other place on 20th May 1980, the first essential purpose of the RPI is to provide an overall measure of price changes of goods and services bought by households in general. For various purposes, however, it is necessary to look deeper than one overall figure and consider the detailed information already available which enables separate allowance to be made for the effects of individual price changes, for example of tobacco, if required for particular purposes.
(Volume 972, col. 405).