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subjective judgment is part of the criteria (as in Head D of the existing list), it is a subjective judgement of a defensible qualification; arbitrary decisions must be avoided. Any additional category should be agreed with ourselves and DTI before being included in the list. We have already added one change on this basis, in relation to accountancy partnerships.
We would not exclude from adding to the list a category which, at least at first sight, would apply to only one undertaking which had some uniquely British connection, but even in this case it would be necessary to set down the criteria in terms of objective elements or a mixture of objective elements and a subjective judgement of a defensible qualification.
The problem about "perception" of Britishness is that it may be neither objective nor a subjective judgement of a defensible qualification. It follows from this that it would be difficult to include as a British undertaking, undertakings which run franchises merely on the ground that they are "perceived" to be British, but this would not necessarily exclude the adoption of a further category in the list composed of a number of elements one of which was the exploitation of British goods or know-how. We and the DTI would be happy to consider such a category if the committee would like to propose it.
We agree that the Mass Transit Railway and Kowloon Canton Railway should not be considered as British undertakings. This is not because of local perceptions, but because both are Hong Kong statutory corporations and, even if they fall within the terms of Item D(i), they do not satisfy Item (ii) and it is difficult to imagine, however great their import of English goods, that such import forms a significant part of their objective in Hong Kong which, in both cases, is to run local transport operations."
5.
A particularly important point in this advice, which I would like to emphasise, is that it would not be defensible to rule out a company on the grounds that it is not perceived to be British if it meets the criteria in the guidelines.
6.
You also raised the question of public reactions once the list is published. This is an aspect which I am sure Ministers would wish to weigh up very carefully. At the end of the day, of course, some public criticism is probably inevitable. But the key requirement will be to ensure that, as far as possible, the decisions taken by the Committee are seen to be consistent.
Yours ever,
Alan
A R Paul
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