Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps he has taken to put in place measures to improve Government control over the rate of inflation.

Monetary policy is the responsibility of the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England. The MPC has the primary objective, set out in law, of maintaining price stability, which is defined as an inflation target of 2 per cent as measured by the twelve month increase in the Consumer Prices Index. The remit of the MPC is set by the Chancellor, reaffirmed yearly in a letter to the Governor of the Bank of England, and was last affirmed in March 2016.

The UK’s inflation targeting approach is part of a wider macroeconomic framework which has increased accountability and credibility and led to anchored inflation expectations.