2
As a consequence the Hong Kong Act was passed and received
Royal Assent in April last year. Among other matters that
Act provided for the ending of British sovereignty and
jurisdiction over Hong Kong. Paragraph 2 of the Schedule
to the Act allows for provision to be made by Order in
Council for the ending on 1 July 1997 of British Dependent
Territories citizenship for those having such citizenship
through a connection with Hong Kong. Similarly it allows
for those who were such citizens on that date to acquire
as of right a new form of nationality, the holders of which
will be known as British Nationals (Overseas): for the
necessary arrangements for making applications for the new
status, and for the avoidance of statelessness.
The framework has therefore already been established by the
agreement and by the Hong Kong Act 1985. The Order in
Council which will follow must keep within that framework.
Its role is not to reopen questions already considered
and approved by the House, but to establish the detailed
arrangements which will be necessary to give effect to
the provisions set out in the Agreement and the Act.
Neither that Agreement nor the Act in any way alter
the decision initially taken in 1961, and confirmed in
subsequent legislation, that British nationals in Hong Kong
are subject to United Kingdom immigration control. It is
the Government's general policy to maintain the effectiveness
of that control and that the case for making concessions
to any particular group of people, whether in Hong Kong or
elsewhere, cannot be judged in isolation. It has to be seen
within the context of the Government's general policy and the
claims that many people seek to make to be allowed exceptionally
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