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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION Eland House Stag Place London SW1
Telephone 01-834 2377 ext
G F Kinnear Esq
Hong Kong Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1
Your reference (HKK 14/30)
Our reference
SA 207/333/01
Date December 1970
36
Dear Kunear
AK/14/30
3
S
биб
Sub file
1. Will you please refer to your letter of 20 November about the problem of the pension arrangements which would be appropriate in the context of the proposition that in Hong Kong certain appointments might be made to the Supreme Court Bench from the local Bar.
2. Our researches in this matter have confirmed our view that although certain arrangements were made in Ghana and in India to provide special pension terms for similar circumstances, those which were made in Ghana are now regarded as unsuitable and, in fact, where similar arrangements were made elsewhere they were dispensed with as long ago as 1936, and that the scheme prepared for use in India was so parsimonious in its scale of benefits and contained such overlong minimum qualifying terms that it would not be appropriate to serve as a model for Hong Kong.
3. In his minute to Mr Carter of 18 April 1969 Mr West drew attention to the provisions of the West Indies, The Federal Supreme Court (Salaries and Pensions) Act 1960. When a similar question was raised by Kenya in 1962 we set out our view that the pensions problem could be met by the adoption of the formula which had been introduced in the West Indies.
4.At present Judges in Hong Kong are pensionable under the Pensions Ordinance, Cap 89, 1949, as amended. Pension is earned on a constant of one six-hundredth and, for a judge, is payable on retirement on or after the age of 55 or, with the approval of the Secretary of State, on or after the age of 45.
5. In the West Indies the Pensions Act 1958, as amended, provided for the public service to earn pension on a constant of one six-hundredth and for pension to be payable on retirement after the age of 55 or, in special cases, with approval, after the age of 50. The Federal Supreme Court (Salaries and Pensions) Act 1960 provided enhanced terms for all judges, whether elevated from the local bar or not, which produced pensions earned on a constant of one four hundred and eightieth with the qualifications that the first ten years carried double pensionability and that pension payable as a result of service of less than five years was limited to an amount of one-quarter of annual pensionable emoluments. Pension was payable on retirement after the age of 60, and was restricted to a maximum of two-thirds of the highest pensionable emoluments drawn by the officer at any time in the course of his public service.
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