§ Mr. Andrew Bowdenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, in the light of the proposals in the Green Paper on social security, the uprating of the basic retirement pension will continue to be carried out on the historic basis; and upon which months' figures it will be based.
§ Mr. NewtonThe uprating of basic retirement pension will continue to be determined according to the historic method. The month in which the movement in prices will be measured will depend on the precise dates of the upratings in July 1986 and April 1987. Our provisional expectations is that the July 1986 uprating would be based on the retail prices index for January 1986 and the April 1987 uprating on the RPI for September 1986.