}
I understand that the numbers of United Kingdom passports issued through the Falkland Islands and Anguilla were considered to be insufficiently important for the establishment of a special account- ing procedure. In any event most of those issued in the Falklands will now be to persons who are British citizens. We do not have an agency agreement for our own missions overseas to issue and account for 'United Kingdom' passports: this is done as described in Miss Veale's minute of 4 July.
6.
To answer some of the specific points raised in Mr Escritt's minute under reference it is anticipated that between 1987 and 1997 a total of 2 million BN (O) passports may be expected to issue in Hong Kong. First issues must all take place before the end of June 1997 in order for the applicants to benefit from the new status, except for cases of children born in the period 1 January 30 June 1997 - on whose behalf application may be made up to 31 December 1997. The status of BN(0) is not transmissible. It is not easy to estimate how many BN (O)s will wish to continue holding BN(O) passports after the transfer of sovereignty: many of those expected to acquire BN (0) status (and the evidence thereof in the form of a passport) are likely to be people who have never held passports in the past and have no intention of travelling in the future. They may therefore be deemed unlikely to require replacement passports in the future, when their first ones have expired. I would think that we should regard the 10 year period 1987-97 during which these BN(O) passports are first issued as a one-off and not as setting a precedent for post-1997 arrangements.
7.
During recent meetings about the Hong Kong Order in Council it was possible to discuss the matter informally with the Assistant Director of Immigration, Hong Kong, Mr Stephen Kuo. On the basis of these discussions it would seem that a possible solution would be:
8.
(a) To obtain the necessary authority for the Governor to act as an agent of the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary for the issue of passports:
(b) For Hong Kong to order and pay for the blank passports they will require;
(c) For them to levy the fees as set out in the UK Consular Fees Order;
(d) For Hong Kong to remit to the FCO the balance of the Consular Fee remaining after deduction of the cost of passports and the administration charge.
There are, as I see it, no additional costs to the FCO during the period in the run up to 30 June 1997. Thereafter passport issuing will become a matter for the new FCO post to be established in Hong Kong and presumably the usual arrangements which we have with the Home Office will apply from that date. The new post to be established in Hong Kong will be responsible for documenting not only BN(0)s but all categories of British nationals, including those whose applications are currently sent to the United Kingdom through the bag scheme and those who will in the interim period remain the responsibility of the Hong Kong Government. would then be collected and remitted and the Home Office would be
Full fees
/expected