9.
[Para 9 as in original draft]
DSR 11C
If any profit from the passports is to be credited to
HMG, equally any loss which might arise would have to be
borne by HMG and not by the Hong Kong Government and this
would have implications for the setting of the UK passport
fee, which is a Homg Office responsibility. At Treasury
insistence; this fee is set at a level which will produce
sufficient revenue to offset the administrative and other cost
of the passport-issuing operation in the UK and at posts
abroad, as well as the costs of providing non-feebearing
consular services abroad to British nationals). If the Hong
Kong Aperation is to be taken into the equation it will be
necessary for Hong Kong to provide detailed estimates of their
expected administrative charges. One complicating factor is
that it is at present not known how many of the BDTCs
eligible to apply for BN(O) will chose to do so. Of those
who do, and obtaining a passport is to be an integral part
of the acquisition of the new status, many are unlikely to
travel abroad, so it is most improbable that there would be
a corresponding rise in the call on our consular protection
services.
H