§ 32. Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will consider introducing a reformed retail price index excluding the effect of alcoholic beverage and tobacco taxes.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 6 November 1980, c. 623]: Approximate estimates can be made of the effect of excluding taxes on alcoholic drink and tobacco from the RPI from annual information on the indirect tax content of consumers' expenditure, published in CSO National Income and Expenditure. The effect of excluding alcoholic drink and tobacco entirely from the RPI can be readily calculated from the detailed RPI information published in Employment Gazette.