§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to the reply of 10 January, Official Report, column 528, concerning costs incurred by departments on boarding school allowances, whether he will give the number of children concerned in each case and any additional costs such as transportation home for school holidays.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe information related to 1983–84 is as follows:
Number of Children Additional Costs £M (estimates) Armed Forces 21,500 * Diplomatic Service 1,375 1.2 British Council 238 0.2 Overseas Development Administration 315 0.6 Ministry of Defence (Civilians) 133 * Other Departments 70 * * In the case of armed forces personnel, Ministry of Defence civilians and the staff of some other Departments, seats are made available wherever possible on service flights for children to join their parents for school holidays. The cost of this facility is not separately identifiable. The number of children of British supplemented staff employed by overseas Governments and organisations for whom boarding school allowances were paid from the overseas aid programme in 1983–84 was 750 and the additional costs were about £1.4 million.