Per diem allowances in the United Kingdom

Employees of UK companies travelling for business may be entitled to per diem allowances as set out below.

Domestic per diem

The scale rate payment allowances are set by HMRC.

Conditions

To qualify for these rates, travel must meet the following criteria:

• The travel must be in the performance of an employee’s duties or to a temporary workplace.

• The employee should be absent from their normal workplace or home for a continuous period of over 5 or 10 hours.

• The employee should have incurred a meal cost (food and drink) after starting the journey.

There are no benchmark rates for overnight accommodation costs.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim05231

Foreign per diem

Foreign per diem rates include:

• a 24-hour rate, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, other, drinks, and hotel to office rates

• overnight accommodation rate

If the employee is travelling to a place not shown in the table of overseas scale rates, the employer may pay or reimburse the employees using the rates for the closest city shown for the country they have travelled to.

If the country is not shown, the rates for the geographically closest city can be used.

Example below: Germany, Berlin

Source: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/expenses-rates-for-employees-travelling-outside-the-uk