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CONFIDENTIAL
HMOCS OFFICERS AND DEPENDENTS: UK PUBLIC SERVICE APPOINTMENTS
(Passage for letters or for future discussions )
There is concern that service with the Special Administrative Region Government (SARG) might disadvantage some HMOCS members or their children from taking up jobs in the UK Civil Service, Police and the armed services. The following information is designed to clarify the situation.
First we wish to reiterate what Mr Maude, then Minister of State with special responsibility for Hong Kong, said in letters dated 3 and 4 April 1990 to Mr Scott and Mr Halliday of the Expatriate Inspectors Association and the Superintendents Association respectively : HMG will not consider service with the SARG as constituting service with a communist government.
In general most positions in the UK public service require no specific criteria other than those set out in the job specifications and qualification requirements. Former HMOCS officers and their children, who are British citizens, would compete for such posts on the same basis as any applicants from the
UK.
Residency
An exception to the general rule is the case of the armed services which have a rule requiring 5 years of continuous residency in the UK before they are prepared tto conser applicants for jobs. They tend to enforce this rule strictly. After 1997, it is therefore likely that someone from Hong Kong wishing to join the armed services would, like any other applicant from outside the UK, need to have resided in the UK for five years before applying.
Vetting
It should also be noted that some appointments in the public service require vetting, in some cases to establish "good character" and in others because of the grading of material that the post holder will handle. In these cases, former HMOCS members and their dependants will be in exactly the same position as other British citizens living and working abroad.
The present requirements for security vetting are as follows:
a) With regard to the recruitment ranks for the Police force, there is no security vetting. Police Forces do check on the good character of applicants. The level to which this is carried out varies from Force to Force. It will be clearly be easir for them to check on individuals who have been at school or worked in the UK. But in principle, the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police
security.vet.HMOCS.MVS
CONFIDENTIAL