Unfairness To British Servicemen In Former Yugoslavia

EDM number 500 in 1993-94, proposed by Nick Ainger on 01/02/1994.

That this House congratulates those British troops serving with the UNPROFOR mission in former Yugoslavia supporting and protecting aid convoys; but notes with concern that they receive the lowest additional allowances of any of the UN troops currently serving there; believes that the British total additional monthly allowance of $58 for a single serviceman and $229 for a married serviceman is miserly compared with Canada's $992, Norway's $1,178, Finland's $1,757, the Netherlands' $1, 810 and Belgium's $3,000, particularly as the British Government receives $1,058 per month from the United Nations for every serviceman who is serving with UNPROFOR; and is shocked that the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, in his written answer to the honourable Member for Pembroke, Official Report, columns 424-5, 28th January, stated he had no information on the additional allowances paid by other countries, when his Department had been provided with that information in November and December 1993; and calls upon the Secretary of State for Defence to end this unfair treatment of British troops and bring their monthly additional allowances up to the average paid by all other countries contributing troops to UNPROFOR and to explain to the House why information made available to the Ministry of Defence in November and December 1993 was not drawn to the attention of the Minister for the Armed Forces before 28th January 1994.

This motion has been signed by a total of 111 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.