Answer to 8e
6. A request has been put to the Kenyan Government to pay an agency fee of £5 for every visa we issue on their behalf from 1 January 1981. It is also our intention to submit similar requests to the Governments of other comparatively wealthy independent Commonwealth countries for whom we issue sufficient visas to justify this. Instructions have been issued to our posta
to advise us of the level of this work with this in mind.
A copy of the instructions is attached. These are being followed by a further circular requiring posts to report details of visas issued for the remaining independent countries of the Commonwealth.
Answer to 8f
7. The Hong Kong Government estimate that the staff and other costs of issuing entry dearances on behalf of HMG were about £163,300 in 1979, of which
issued just under 30% was recovered in fees. The total of entry clearances for the UK in 1979 was 29,151. Of these, 10,855 were entry certificates issued to Commonwealth nationals who do not pay a fee. There is no formal agreement covering this reciprocal service between our two Governments: by long-standing Commonwealth convention the host Government of a Commonwealth country or、、 Dependent Territory generally issues entry clearances to foreign nationals or other Commonwealth citizens on behalf of an unrepresented Commonwealth country. As regards recovery of fees, however, the Dependent Territories should not be
The UK judged by the same standards as the independent Commonwealth states.
It would be is responsible for the external affairs of Dependent Territories. wrong in principle to ask them to pay for functions such as visa issues, for which we have a constitutional responsibility and which we are not prepared to allow them to undertake for themselves because they cannot be allowed to have their own official diplomatic or consular representatives in third countries.
8. It could be argued that Hong Kong is in a special position as one of our most populous and wealthy dependencies and that we can reasonably seek to
Even if the constitutional recover agency fees from its Government. objections are set aside, however, the advantages of claiming agency fees are dubious. For 1979 we would have claimed about £290,000 (our net costs of £400,000 less the Hong Kong Governments net costs of £110,000). On the other hand, services undertaken on our behalf by the Hong Kong Government include those in support of British shipping calling at Hong Kong (which we cannot readily quantify or cost) and the provision of unofficial trade representatives in 18 cities overseas to cover functions some of which we should otherwise have to take on. Moreover the Hong Kong Government pays 75% (£45 million) of the cost of the Hong Kong garrison. There appears no good reason to compare the costs of entry clearance work in isolation. A full costing seems as likely to reveal a balance against us as for us and would be difficult to undertake; the effort involved appears disproportionate to a shortfall of about £290,000 per annum on entry clearance work. We shall seek the Treasury's advice as to the relevance of these arrangements to the rules governing gross accounting.
9.
Ministers have recently confirmed the policies on which the answers to this Reference Sheet are based.