Retail Price Index Advisory Committee

HC Deb 20 May 1980 vol 985 cc121-2W

Mr. Rooker

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the current membership of the Retail Price Index Advisory Committee indicating the organisations represented by, or nominating each member, the dates in the past five years when the committee has met, and the dates on which it discussed the inclusion or removal of tobacco products from the retail price index; and if he will publish its advice on this matter.

Mr. Prior

[pursuant to his reply, 25 April 1980, c. 205–6]: Details of the membership of the RPI Advisory committee were given to the hon. Member on 30 October 1979. The committee last met in November 1977 to consider certain changes in presentation and some technical improvements in the method of calculation of the index. Previous to that a series of five meetings was held in 1973–74. The question of tobacco was not raised at any of these meetings.

Tobacco has been included in the RPI and its predecessors since 1914. The principle on which the coverage of the index is presently based was reported on by the Advisory committee in 1956 and reaffirmed by the committee in 1968.

In its report in 1956 " Report on proposals for the new index of retail prices " (Cmnd. 9710) the advisory committee said: From time to time suggestions have been made that the retail prices index should take account of price changes only for those goods or services that could be regarded as basic necessaries. For example, it might be suggested that alcoholic drink, tobacco, entertainment, etc. should be excluded. In the past the index has never purported to measure price changes for necessaries only and apart from the difficulty of defining ' necessaries ' there would be many serious objections to a limitation of the index in this way. We are firmly of the opinion that, as in the past, the general design of the index should be such as to enable price changes to be measured for the whole field of goods and services over which households distribute their expenditure ".

The committee reaffirmed its view in 1968 in " A report of the Cost of Living Advisory Committee " (Cmnd 3677) that the index is designed to reflect price changes throughout the whole field of consumer goods and services.