§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to the reply of 10 January, Official Report, column 528, concerning departmental expenditure on boarding school allowances, whether he will provide similar information on guardianship allowances for children who remain at day schools in the United Kingdom together with the amount of that allowance compared with the boarding school allowance.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe numbers of children for whom a guardian allowance is payable and the costs of such payments to public funds in 1983–84 are as follows. Estimates have been made where precise details are not readily available.
Number of Children Cost (£ pa) Armed Forces 222 83,000 Diplomatic Service 8 1,760 British Council Nil Nil Overseas Development Administration 3 1,100 Ministry of Defence (Civilians) 11 4,070 Other Departments 10 3,680 Total 254 93,610 In addition, there were guardian allowance payments totalling £7,700 from the overseas aid programme for 21 children of British supplemented staff employed by overseas Governments and organisations.
128WThe amounts of the guardian allowance and boarding school allowance and the circumstances in which they are paid may be found in the following documents which are available in the Library of the House. For members of the armed forces, the basic relevent information is set out in paragraph 2796 to 2799 of "Queen's Regulations for the Royal Air Force." For Home civil servants, the details are in paragraphs 7701 to 7734 of the Civil Service Pay and conditions of Service Code." For members of the Diplomatic Service, comparable payments are made under sections 31 and 35 of "Diplomatic Service Regulations" The Diplomatic Service boarding school allowance maxima are:
Boys Girls Senior school £4,266 pa £4,096 pa Junior school £3,840 pa £3,686 pa The Diplomatic Service child elsewhere allowance—equivalent to guardian allowance—is £75 per annum for the first and £370 per annum for subsequent children.