HC Deb 01 May 1963 vol 676 cc121-2W
83. Mr. Shinwell

asked the Secretary of State for War what consideration he is giving to the payment of overseas allowance to troops stationed in Berlin.

Mr. Profumo

Local Overseas allowance is intended to compensate for essential extra expenditure incurred in living overseas as compared with living in the United Kingdom.

In Berlin, unlike the British Army of the Rhine, certain supplies and services are available at concessional rates to troops stationed there, and as a result when the need for local overseas allowance in Berlin was last examined in 1961, it was found that essential expenditure was no greater there than in the United Kingdom. However, I am at present considering whether there are now grounds for paying local overseas allowance to troops stationed in Berlin.