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Those who consider
argue that HMG's intentions are not
and that doubts and uncertainty
that the provisions are not detailed enough may
sufficiently plain in the Bill,
therefore still remain. They
wish to know the contents of the Order in Council SO as to
satisfy themselves that Hong Kong's interests are properly met.
may
may
Ministers will wish to take the line that the detailed provisions of
the Order in Council have to be fully discussed with Hong Kong, and
that there was insufficient time to do this early enough to meet
the
need for the enabling Bill to be passed in time for ratification of
the agreement in June. The timing of the Order in Council has not
yet been decided, but the Government has undertaken
Order within one year of the passage of this Bill.
to introduce the
ORDER IN COUNCIL PROCEDURE
In the House of Commons an amendment was put down by Mr Enoch Powe 11
and the Opposition to remove the nationality provisions
from the
schedule to the Bill in their entirety, on the grounds that it was
not appropriate to create a new form of nationality by subordinate
legislation and that a separate Bill should be introduced dealing
with nationality.
The Opposition was particularly concerned about the fact that the
Order in Council containing the detailed nationality provisions
would be una mendable and would be debated so they said, only for one
and a half hours. In face of pressure from all sides of the House
Ministers agreed that a draft Order in Council would be introduced
with "green edges" for a preliminary debate. In light of that
debate the draft Order would, if necessary, be withdrawn, amended
in the normal way under positive
and reintroduced for debate
resolution proceedures.
This
would follow the precedent of the
Dairy Produce Quotas Regulation, 1984.
THE NATIONALITY PROVISIONS IN THE UK MEMORANDUM
Another likely area of difficulty will be the nationality provisions
set out in the UK Memorandum itself. Ministers could face criticism
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