CODE 18.77
Mr Livesey HK&GD
Room K248
Reference... HKG 025/...
24
PQS ON UK DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
1. The Parliamentary Question on which I advised in my minute of 15 February was "to ask Her Majesty's Government what territories now comprise the British Empire.
11 This seemed to me to give sufficient latitude to enable us to follow the precedent set by Mr Rowlands in 1976, thus omitting any reference to the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
2. Mr Darwin and I have discussed various possible alternative ways of answering similar questions in future, but we have concluded that the balance of advantage would probably lie in following precedent again, even though slightly awkward supplementary questions might be asked about the reasons why the precedent was set in the first place. The same would probably be true if we were asked to list our dependent territories, because I imagine it would be difficult to depart from the precedent set in Mr Onslow's written answer on 10 May 1982. Neither "British Empire" nor "dependent territory" are defined in the Interpretation Act 1978.
If we
3. However it should be remembered that each draft answer must be framed in the context of the question asked. were asked to list all our colonies the Sovereign Base Areas should be included, but not the Channel Islands or Isle of Man, and this would be consistent with the definition of "colony" in Schedule 1 to the Interpretation Act 1978. If we should be asked to list all territories for whose international relations the UK are responsible I think we should have to include the Sovereign Base Areas, and, possibly under slightly different introductory wording, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. In each case, however, the draft answer should be cleared with the appropriate legal adviser. If any specific question is raised about the particular status of a named territory (eg does Mauritius claim any part of the British Indian Ocean territory?) I think it would usually be more satisfactory in the first instance for the geographical department concerned to advise, in consultation with its own legal adviser.
11 June 1982
4. Burrows
F Burrows
Legal Counsellor
HKG 025/1
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AF 24/6