asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the statement on Her Majesty's Treasury's 1972 publication "Public Expenditure White Papers: Handbook on Methodology" that the net effect of the retail price effect adjustment is to increase the growth rate of total public expenditure by some 0·6 per cent. per annum is still valid; and, if not, what the trend effect of the retail price effect is now reckoned to be.

I will let the hon. Member have a reply as soon as possible.