asked the Minister for the Civil Service whether the travelling allowances ranging from 10·6p a mile up to 13·4p a mile and subsistence allowances of amounts from £1·20 up to £23·15 per night paid to Ministers are subject to tax.

I have been asked to reply.Any such allowances paid to Ministers are considered to be no more than a reimbursement of expenses necessarily incurred in the performance of their duties, and are therefore, as in the case of all other taxpayers, not subject to tax.