§ Mr. John Pageasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will give an analysis of the different items which add up to the £300,000 more which it costs to maintain a battalion in Malta than in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. ReynoldsAs my right hon. Friend informed the House on 2nd February, the budgetary saving from the withdrawal of the two battalions and the other Army troops to Britain would be almost £1 million. £600,000 of this saving derives from giving up the local headquarters, and local administrative support, which would not be needed at home; £150,000 represents the saving in local overseas allowances. The remainder comes from a number of miscellaneous items such as savings in movement costs. It would be misleading to use these figures to deduce the savings from the hypothetical withdrawal of a single battalion.