Mr. Michael Howard:

We have a medium-term review and we will address it in this context. Travel and subsistence allowances apply generally to all public servants who must provide meals for themselves because of their work. The biggest danger from our point of view is that one must understand why and under what conditions it is paid because we do not want to create a more general problem by abolishing an allowance which is ring fenced. I ask people not to jump to conclusions about an allowance simply because it may have a rather archaic title.