Alcohol and Tobacco Imports

HC Deb 17 June 1998 vol 314 cc209-10W

Mr. Mitchell

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if personal imports of alcohol and tobacco from France are taken into account in calculating the RPI. [46459]

Dawn Primarolo

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.

The FSA asked trade bodies and product providers to consider how they could help to ensure that, where appropriate, investors who had bought a personal pension through an IFA could receive speedy redress.

Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. Austin Mitchell, dated 17 June 1998: In the absence of the Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question on calculating the RPI. Personal imports of alcohol and tobacco from France are not reflected in the RPI either in the expenditure weights used to represent spending patterns or in the prices collected to form the index.