§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister for the Civil Service whether he will make a statement on the decision to increase the cycle allowance paid to civil servants to 2-lp a mile; whether this is tax free; and why it is not paid when a civil servant uses a pedal cycle for travel to and from his home and office or railway station, in the same way as Ministers and senior civil servants.
§ Mr. Charles R. MorrisCosts are reimbursed where civil servants use private transport for travel on official duty, and the pedal cycle allowance for journeys of under 100 miles a month was 23W recently raised to 2.1p a mile to take account of increased costs. These allowances are not subject to tax as they reimburse expenses necessarily incurred in the performance of official duty. As for the last part of the Question, I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to him on 1st December about the extension of tax-free transport facilities for home to duty travel by all civil servants—[Vol. 940, c. 290.].