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by Hong Kong to a machine readable passport (mrp) would in any event bring an end to the family passport and Mr Carter, Director of Immigration, Hong Kong, when we met him in October, saw no problem in ending the issue of these passports. Do we know whether the Chinese would object to the spouse being included, if for example, there was delay or a decision against producing the mrp?
10.
Fees
The intention is that given Hong Kong's abhorrence of the idea of registration, no fee will be charged for this element in the process which is to be presented as essentially a passport application. B4 will consult Treasury on their intention to forego fees. Can Hong Kong tell us under what Regulation they charge fees and what authority they have to waive them? Do they have to consult with anyone, as B4 need to with the Treasury?
11. There has been no suggestion that the ordinary fee should not be charged for the passport which forms part of the process. The Consular Fees Regulations 1981 permit (regulation 7) waiver of fees in a number of circumstances the most relevant being t
... on grounds of proved destitution' and 'where the Secretary of State with the consent of the Treasury so directs'. The usage of the former would be very rare and I cannot find that it has been used in the UK. More likely, it would arise at posts abroad and rather than waive payment, it would be deferred until the individual was home and in funds. I do not know of any precedents for obtaining special waiver in consultation with Treasury.
12.
We would not anticipate waiving any passport fees if we are to be involved in the registration/passport issuing process in the UK and when we met, Mr Kuo was rather amused at the idea of anyone in Hong Kong being so impoverished as to be unable to pay for a passport. Hong Kong does not operate under the Consular Fees Regulations, however, and fee receipts stay in Hong Kong. We have no responsibility for them. Though Mr Kuo expected that Hong Kong had similar powers, he could not give chapter and verse. It would be useful to have this now.
13. The passport format
The
Where are Hong Kong in the consideration of their passport format? Ministers, yours or ours, are surely going to be asked at some stage what the 'new style' passport will look like. As I understand it, all that is required as a consequence of the Agreement with China is a new style nationality status. passport issue in Hong Kong is, however, in any case likely to change in line with our own plans to introduce a common format (cfp)/machine readable passport (mrp). Our meeting with the Director of Immigration Hong Kong in October, indicated that the Governor would be likely to want the cfp look-a-like plus mrp. We have not, however, received from Hong Kong a definite decision.
14.
We had envisaged that Hong Kong would want a passport with on its soft burgundy cover, "British Passport", followed by the Royal Arms and "Hong Kong".
We assume that the resistance by the Chinese, however, to any reference to 'Hong Kong' in the proposed new national status means that they will also object to 'Hong Kong' on the cover. No doubt Peking will confirm. If there is no scope to argue the point with the Chinese then change of format is forced on Hong Kong, Might it be burgundy, machine readable, soft covered with 'British Passport', the emblem, but nothing else? Is it another possibility to include the description of the new status on the cover with the word 'Passport' and the Royal Arms? Once the new status for Hong Kong BDTCs is determined, we
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