From The Minister of State
Richard Luce MP
108
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
30 January 1985
HKK 040/2
Dear Gense
୫
In my speech winding up the debate on the Second Reading of the Hong Kong Bill on 21 January, I said that I would write to those who had raised points that I felt I had not answered. You asked what provision was being made to assess the number of people who are entitled to passports in Hong Kong.
There are approximately three million people who hold BDTC status in Hong Kong, of whom slightly more than one million have BDTC passports. As you said in your speech it will indeed be a huge administrative task to issue passports to all of those who wish to retain British nationality after 1997, and it is one the Government has fully in mind. No decisions have yet been taken as to when the new "British National (Overseas)" passports will be issued, but the potential numbers involved do suggest that it would be sensible to make them available to those who want them well before 1997.
in
George Robertson Esq MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A OAA