Each month, the ONS collects about 180,000 prices for an imaginary basket containing about 650 goods and services on which people typically spend their money. Changes in the prices of these items form the basis of two of the main inflation trackers, the consumer prices index (CPI) and the retail prices index (RPI).

This basket already contains such contemporary culinary treats as frozen pizzas, dehydrated noodles, gammon and chicken kievs.

The majority of goodies in the basket remain constant from year to year – sausages, sliced bread and flour have been in since the exercise began.

But each year the compilers tweak the list a little to reflect changing consumer habits. Sometimes, the ONS explained, this might be because spending has reached a level that demands inclusion to ensure the basket remains representative or spending. It added: "In other cases, items may be included to improve coverage of categories with highly variable prices, or to diversify the range of products collected for a particular category."

While some items may be surprising, the ONS basket does offer insights into the way we live today – with the rise of food and environmental irritants, for instance, it is fitting that allergy tablets have been added to the basket. And several items are anything but retro: "computer games with accessories" make an appearance for the first time, reflecting the huge rise in popularity of entertainment consoles that are supplied with plastic guitars, microphones and steering wheels.

Blu-ray disc players have also been added, joining DVD players, Freeview boxes, flat screen televisions and digital radios. Disposable cameras, however, have been kicked off the list as digital cameras and mobile phone photography make older technologies increasingly defunct.

Sometimes the ONS adds new items to the basket at the expense of old ones. As well as lipstick and hairdryers, other items crossed off the 2010 list include baby food (replaced with powdered baby formula), bars of soap (replaced with liquid soap) and fizzy cans of pop (shoved out in favour of small bottles of mineral water).

The addition of water is timely: between 1993 and 2008, the UK bottled water market, including office water coolers, grew from just 580m litres to 2.06bn litres, according to the trade body the British Bottled Water Producers.

And sales of hair straighteners are likewise booming: Superdrug today reported a 20% increase in the amount of straighteners sold over hairdryers compared with last year.

But not all of the additions are borne out in the retailers' own figures. "We have 800,000 regular pitta customers each month compared to only 100,000 for garlic bread [which replace pitta in the basket]," said a spokeswoman for Sainsbury's.

"And as for soap, it seems whereas two years ago there were roughly the same numbers of customers buying bar and liquid soap, over the two years the number of people buying bar soap has remained constant at around 500,000 customers per month, whereas liquid has grown to approximately 650,000 customers per month."

The ONS doesn't just track the prices of consumer goods. For the RPI, it also looks at house prices and related issues. Today it said the way of measuring mortgage interest payments in its RPI was about to change.

It will now use the average effective rate of mortgage interest, which it says better reflects the many different types of mortgages – including fixed rate, discount and tracker mortgages – that were not covered in the standard variable rate measures of interest it previously used. The changes will be introduced in the February consumer price inflation data to be published on March 23.
source: guardian.co.uk

Students in the school competition were given the task to create a hair design and write a personal statement.

Second place went to Hattie Bayliss, aged 14, of Nailsea School and third place went to Karla Flynn, aged 15, of Wyvern School.