§ Mr. Roperasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a table showing the relative cost of living for those European countries with United Kingdom Diplomatic Missions with a base of 100 for the United Kingdom and a similar table on the basis of the allowance paid to members of the Diplomatic Service under Vote II.1 A.4 and A.5, in so far as they relate to the cost of living in those countries.
§ Mr. Anthony RoyleThe method of calculating the local allowances of Diplomatic Service Staff serving overseas is based not on a comparison between cost of living indexes, but on the application of local prices to an approved list of requirements substantially the same in all places but varying in detail from post to post according to local conditions, and thus not directly comparable. The system does not call for a similar pricing of the budget in the United Kingdom.
The representational allowances of Diplomatic Service Staff covered by Vote II.A.5 are calculated in relation to requirements for official entertainment. They vary according to the post and duties of individual officers and there is no common basis on which they can be related, either to each other or to any United Kingdom standard.