§ Mr. Bowdenasked the Secretary of State for Employment if, further to his reply of 6 December, Official Report, c. 382, to the hon. Member for St. Pancras, North (Mr. Stallard), he will say at what level of weekly income the weights used in the general index of retail prices most closely correspond to a household's expenditure pattern.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe expenditure pattern used in compiling the weights of the retail prices index is an aggregrate based on a wide range of households and does not correspond to that of any particular group. As stated in the previous reply on 6 December—Vol. 33, c.382.]—poor pensioner households and those with the highests incomes, whose expenditure patterns differ appreciably from that of households in general, are excluded from the coverage of the index.