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J E Hayzelden Esq Finance Division 1
HOME OFFICE
A
QUEEN ANNES GATE
LONDON SW1
J
Dean
10 NOVEMBER 1988
ons
до
VIETNAMESE REFUGEES IN HONG KONG
Thank you for your letter of 8 November to
David Revolta asking
for comments on the draft minute to the Prime Minister.
I start from the agreement of Ministers that all policy proposals should make clear what is to be achieved, by when and at what cost and how that achievement is to be measured. I am particularly disturbed that the draft omits any reference to the resource implications of the proposal. A section should be added specifying the full public expenditure implications of the proposed commitment to settle a further 1000 boat people. This should cover social security payments, Employment Training programme costs, Home Office grant etc. It would be useful if this proposal could be put into context by specifying the number of Vietnamese refugees that have already been admitted to this country and any information about the public support still provided in these cases. I note that the Prime Minister requested similar information when proposals on the same subject were put to her early last year.
I am also disappointed that despite the emphasis that has been placed recently on the need for policy valuation that the paper makes no mention of what is intended in this respect. There would obviously be no difficulty in monitoring whether the proposed additional quota was met but it is not entirely clear what the longer term objectives of this proposal ́are. The paper suggests that the current rate of resettlement which if maintained would result in the resettlement of all 15,500 refugees taking 6 years is "unacceptability slow". I assume that one objective is to speed up the rate of settlement, but to what level and is there desired target date for total resettlement. The paper suggests that without a further commitment to resettlement from this country new commitments from other countries are unlikely to be forthcoming. Have we any estimation of the likely gearing effect that might be achieved. We also presumably hope that any refugees which are accepted will in due course become self-supporting by gaining employment and be fully assimilated into the community. The extent that this is achieved must have a bearing on the "success" of the resettlement programme. It would be helpful this might take for the
therefore
to
indicate
how long