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Mr Stone, HKD
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itKB 431
·ECEIVED IN
IND
S!
13 SEP 1990
14
Y
From:
Paul Fifoot
Legal Advisers
Date:
3 September 1990
сс Mr Paul, HKD Mr Fish, ODA Ms Barrett
MR MCINTYRE: HMOCS ON AND AFTER 30 JUNE 1997
1. You ask about Mr McIntyre's statement that "Should [an officer] report to the new Hong Kong China SAR authorities in the full knowledge that by so doing he irrevocably loses membership of HMOCS and probably
loses any right to compensation or
pensions protection follows.
2.
... •
The position as I understand it is as
The JD and the BL make provision for continuity of service (save for very limited cases where the office holder concerned must be a Chinese national) and the preservation of pension rights for HK civil servants, but no express provision is made for, and no express reference is made to, members of HMOCS.
3.
Nothing in Colonial 306 or Cmnd 1193 provides any ground for a belief that future service with the SAR would give rise to forfeiture of any right, entitlement or expectation which a person who is a member of HMOCS on 30 June 1997, or any earlier relevant date, may have as a member of HMOCS. Nor am I aware that any earlier arrangements for members of HMOCS provided for any such forfeitures. Such a person would be eligible for:-
(a)
(b)
compensation under any scheme devised to give effect to paragraph 6(6) of Colonial 306 as expanded by paragraphs 16 and 17 of Cmnd 1193. What is payable depends, of course, on the nature and terms of the scheme which is adopted; and such a scheme could provide for increases, or other payments, in respect of continuous service after 1997. However, there is nothing in either White Paper on which to base any expectations of a "second" scheme, if that is what
Mr McIntyre is getting at, related somehow to a circumstance occurring after, and not contemplated in, an initial general
scheme.
the protection of pensions provided by paragraphs 6(2) and 7 of Colonial 306. That protection is to be secured by an agreement with the successor government (in Hong Kong terms this effectively means the PRC or the SAR as empowered by the PRC). The JD itself provides such security. Whether it should be reinforced by something like a traditional POA
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