asked the Secretary of State for Defence why the overseas allowance due to some ships' companies who have recently been abroad has been reduced.

I refer my hon. Friend to my answer to the question by the Member for Halesowen and Stourbridge (Mr. Stokes) on 21 April 1982. No changes in the sea-going rate of local overseas allowance have been made recently apart from the introduction of a standard rate for military personnel serving with the Falkland Islands task force, most of whom would otherwise have received no local overseas allowance.—[Vol. 22,c. 111.]