Chief Secretary
HONG KONG HMOCS
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM: Secretary of State
DATE: 11 March 1992
1.
Thank you for your letter of 4 March.
Pensions
bone
2. We are still far apart on sterling safeguards. Let me again place my position on record. It remains my view that
HMG are under an obligation to ensure that the sterling value of Hong Kong HMOCS officers' pensions is safeguarded after 1997. In previous/cases where the government of the
territory concerned was unable to provide such a safeguard because the territory was too poor, HMG stepped in: it was
right in these cases to handle HMG's contribution as an aid
measure. In the case of Hong Kong the government of the
territory may be unable to provide such a safeguard because of insuperable political obstacles: if so HMG must step in here too, though, given Hong Kong's economic position
(confirmed by last week's budget speech), clearly not as an
aid measure.
3.
We agree that we must resolve the inequitable operation
of SPOS regulations for Hong Kong HMOCS pensioners. However I cannot accept that this would be a sufficient solution to
the sterling safeguard problem. It is true that in
some cases at present these UK pension supplements can amount to a substantial part of the total pension received,
JIFABG/1
CONFIDENTIAL