CONFIDENTIAL

established for issuing such passports locally. The work will

be done by the Hong Kong Immigration Department which will

recover its costs by retaining the passport fees, as it does

already in relation to the issue of BDTC and BN (0) passports.

There will therefore be no UK manpower or public expenditure

implications, apart from a small reduction in the workload of the

Home Office Passport Department as a result of the ending of the "bag scheme".

The cost of the UK team will fall to the appropriate Home

Office or FCO Vote, in the former event a bid will have to be

included in this year's PES.

6.

Introduction

7.

Three new operations will have to be mounted to give effect

to the Bill:

(a)

(b)

a selection scheme, ie arrangements for processing

applications, passing recommendations to the Secretary

of State and notifying other applicants that they have

been unsuccessful;

registration as British citizens by the Secretary of

State of persons recommended to him by the Governor;

and

(c)

establishment

of a facility for issuing British

citizen passports in Hong Kong.

(a) Selection

8. This task will represent the lion's share of the direct

costs of implementing the Bill.

It will be the sole

responsibility of the Governor and will not affect UK public

expenditure or manpower. Clause 3(1)(b) empowers the Governor to make regulations imposing application and registration fees.

The income will be retained by the Hong Kong Government, who

envisage setting the fees at a level sufficient to cover their

SUNFIDENTIAL

Share This Page