HC Deb 06 February 1957 vol 564 cc416-7
11. Mr. Edelman

asked the Secretary of State for Air in what circumstances Senior Aircraftman J. Williams No. 4084295, of Coventry, returned home on sick leave from the Air Force Hospital at Wroughton; and why his Department will not reimburse the cost of Senior Aircraftman Williams' travel.

The Under-Secretary of State for Air (Mr. Charles Ian Orr-Ewing)

The airman had applied for leave although he was still unfit to travel by ordinary public transport. Leave was granted because he said his parents would fetch him by car. Neither he nor his parents have made any claim towards the cost of the journey, but I have decided that it would be right to allow the cost of the railway warrant he would have been given if he had been fit to travel by rail.

Mr. Edelman

While appreciating the modification in the Minister's former attitude, when he declined to give any financial reimbursement to this airman, may I ask him whether it is not the case that this young man suffered multiple injuries while on service in Germany, that his parents flew out to him and used up much of their life savings in order to do so, and that, although he was encased in plaster, he was only offered a railway warrant, despite the fact that he was unable to sit in a normal sitting position? In view of these facts, is not the Minister being rather parsimonious in offering him only the equivalent amount of the railway warrant? Will he not extend his sympathy a little further and pay the whole amount of the cost of the car which was necessary in order that he could travel from the hospital to his home and back?

Mr. Orr-Ewing

I appreciate the point which the hon. Gentleman has made, but I do not think it would be right to use public funds in this way for an airman to travel back by means of his own choosing and at a time of his own choosing. I think it is fairer and better to use the normal procedure, by which he gets the cost of a railway warrant and can set it off against the petrol for the car which his parents used.

Mr. Edelman

In view of the very unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I beg to give notice that I shall raise this matter on the Motion for the Adjournment as soon as possible.