Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-03-01.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will take steps to ensure that military personnel based in Cyprus have the cost of flights for them and their family to return to the UK on leave fully covered by the allowances provided, even at peak travel times.
Mark Lancaster
The Get You Home (Overseas) allowance enables eligible Service personnel and any spouse, civil partner or dependent children to return to the UK by assisting towards the costs of return journeys to the UK or, in the case of non-British passport holders, to their country of domicile. Get You Home (Overseas) is calculated by the Ministry of Defence based upon an average of economy class airfares obtained from Expedia three times per year – summer, Christmas and Easter. The flight route used is from the overseas location to the UK and prices are sourced from the internet one month prior to the date selected as the date of travel. The current rate for Cyprus is £337 per person. Analysis by British Forces Cyprus for the peak summer period indicates that the allowance fully covers the cost of a routine economy flight.
