§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in what form his Department maintains records of prices of commodities and services(a) in different regions of the United Kingdom, (b) in urban and rural areas, (c) comparatively with other EU member states and (d) in the Republic of Ireland; and if he will list those categories of goods and services for which price information is monitored. [154560]
§ Dr. HowellsThe Department collects information on energy prices as set out; however it does not routinely collect information on the prices of other commodities or services.
Petroleum product prices
Average UK prices of lead replacement petrol, premium unleaded petrol, ultra low sulphur diesel, standard grade burning oil and gas oil are collected on a weekly basis by the Department. These figures are published by the European Commission in its weekly "Oil Bulletin" which contains comparable prices for the other EU member states. Average prices are also collected on a monthly basis for these fuels and for super-unleaded petrol. These are also published in the "Oil Bulletin", as well as in the DTI monthly publication "Energy Trends" and in the annual "Digest of UK Energy Statistics".
Industrial energy prices
The DTI collects average prices for fuel purchased by manufacturing industry in Great Britain on a quarterly basis. These figures are published in "Energy Trends" and in the annual "Digest of UK Energy Statistics". Average prices are published for gas, electricity, coal, heavy fuel oil and gas oil, broken down by size of consumer. The average prices for medium fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gases and hard coke are also published, however these are not broken down by size of consumer. The data are not analysed on a regional basis.
Certain elements of these data are also provided to the International Energy Agency (IEA) for inclusion in their publication "Energy Prices and Taxes" where information on prices paid by industry in other OECD countries is presented.
The DTI also collects data on industrial prices for gas and electricity for Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Communities), as part of the directive on transparency of gas and electricity prices. The figures are published by Eurostat in their series "Statistics in Focus". 437W The data are for certain sizes of consumers in specific towns in the UK and also for the UK as a whole. Comparable data for other EU member states are presented in the publication.
Household energy prices
Average household prices for gas and electricity are collected on a regional basis and on a UK basis. For electricity, the regions follow those of the regional electricity distribution companies. For gas, the regions follow those of Transco's local distribution zones. These figures are published in the annual "Digest of UK Energy Statistics".
Information on household electricity and gas prices for different consumption levels and in different towns in the UK is published in the Eurostat series "Statistical in Focus". Comparable data for other EU member states are presented in the publication.
Prices paid by households for other fuels are collected by the Office for National Statistics as part of the Retail Prices Index.
Non-energy prices
With the exception of energy prices, the Department does not routinely collect information on the prices of commodities, such as bread, or services, although from time to time prices may be collected as part of an individual investigation initiated by the Department. Most regular collection of price information in the UK is carried out by the Office for National Statistics. The main domestic measure of inflation in the UK is the Retail Prices Index (RPI) which includes 130,000 separate price quotations in compiling the index each month. The European Union member states compile the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HCIP) which provides similar information to the RPI across the member states of the EU. Average UK prices based on the RPI price collection are published each month for certain food items, petrol, tobacco and alcohol.
Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Communities) co-ordinate the European Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) exercise which compares prices of goods and services in each of the 15 countries in the European Union, and several other European countries. Results are published annually for groups of commodities and services, in the form of purchasing power parities expressed in national currencies and price level indices compared against the EU average. Detailed average prices for individual goods or services are confidential and are not published. No regional analyses for the RPI, HCIP or PPP are available.