HC Deb 27 February 1967 vol 742 cc95-6
26. Mr. Peel

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs why the subsistence allowances paid to United Kingdom delegates to the Assemblies of the Council of Europe and Western European Union are much less than those paid by all other member-countries to their delegates; and, pending agreement between member-countries on the need to harmonise these and other allowances, whether he will bring the United Kingdom allowances more into line.

Mr. George Thomson

If the cost to public funds of the delegates' hotel bills and local transport is added to their subsistence allowances, these do not compare unfavourably with the expense allowances of other delegates.

Mr. Peel

Does not the Minister agree that the methods of calculation are very different in many cases, that it would be desirable to harmonise them more, and that in those cases where delegates choose not to stay at the conference hotel the full allowances paid to them should approximate more nearly either to those of the other delegations or to the total paid out by the British Government?

Mr. Thomson

As I think the hon. Gentleman knows, we have been trying, in consultation with both sides of the delegation, to carry out our need for reasonable economy in foreign exchange expenditure on conferences of that kind while meeting some of the needs of members of the delegation. We have proposed, for example, that daily allowances of spending money should be raised from £2 a day or £10 a week to £5 a day or £25 a week. We also proposed that entertainment allowances for the delegation as a whole should be raised from £370 to £500. We hope that in exchange delegates will not mind making short air journeys by tourist-class instead of first-class, and making use of a slightly more economical class of hotels.