HL Deb 01 April 1982 vol 428 cc1573-4WA
Lord Brockway

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will reconsider the decision not to refund deductions of payment to members of the Armed Forces while they were imprisoned during the Second World War.

The Minister of State for Defence Procurement (Viscount Trenchard)

Under the provisions of the Geneva Convention British officer prisoners of war and protected personnel were entitled to receive from the detaining power during captivity pay at a rate which was agreed between the belligerents. This amounted to about one-fifth of pay for prisoners of the Germans and about one-third of pay for prisoners of the Italians. In order to avoid double payment, corresponding deductions were made from home pay accounts. This was announced in Parliament on many occasions. After the War arrangements were made to credit home pay accounts with refunds to compensate for lack of payments in the camps. It is clear from contemporary evidence that substantial refunds were made to those who were prisoners of the Germans and Italians. It was decided and announced by the Government in 1945 that all deductions from the home pay accounts of prisoners of the Japanese should be refunded because of the special conditions applying to those prisoners and the knowledge that pay was seldom issued in Far Eastern camps.

In regard to Germany and Italy the then Government's policy was to refund monies which had not been received in captivity or credited to the prisoner's home account during captivity. The arrangements were commented on at length by the Public Accounts Committee and the Comptroller and Auditor General in 1947, copies are in the Library, so also is my letter of 22nd February to Lord Kimberley giving further evidence of credits and refunds. No maladministration has been established. Individual pay records including information on credits and refunds have been destroyed. The Government can find no case for or method of changing the policy at this date.