Background
CONFIDENTIAL
Approved Secondment Scheme (ASS)
1. In December 1989 when the Secretary of State announced
that a Nationality Scheme would be introduced, he said that
in addition to the 50,000 places under the main selection
scheme, there would be an Approved Secondment Scheme, enabling British companies in Hong Kong to offer 2 year secondments in the UK to their key local staff, which, together with 3 years' service in Hong Kong, would allow
them to qualify for naturalisation as British citizens.
While this did not feature in the final version of the
scheme which Parliament approved, some large British firms
strongly support some form of ASS. Ministers have agreed that we should review the situation later this year, in the light of experience with the first tranche of applications. But given that the Manager s'quota under the scheme is the
only one which is under-subscribed, it does not seem that
there is a strong case for reviving the idea.
TOYAKM/2
CONFIDENTIAL
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