CONFIDENTIAL
"
showing Ministerial pronouncements on numbers when the 1990 Bill
was going through Parliament. As you will see from these, the
emphasis was on the 50,000 being a ceiling figure. The 225,000
was described by the Home Secretary during the Second Reading
debate as "an estimate of the absolute maximum number of people
who might benefit. Long and very careful consideration was
given to the numbers issue in Cabinet and any proposal to change
the 50,000 now would require further Cabinet consideration and
amendment to the primary legislation, and would be highly
controversial. I see very little prospect of Ministers being
prepared to re-open the issue. I therefore doubt whether any
useful purpose would be served by the matter being considered as
part of your review of the Scheme.
6. Your letter of 17 July asked whether we should not aim to
Parliament simultaneously the proposed Orders in
submit to
Council for the second tranche and for the BN (0) cut-off dates.
This is indeed the way we
would look to introduce
March/April next year and have one debate covering both issues.
these Orders being handled. We
both at the same sitting in say
[7. The Foreign Office have been consulted and agree with our
views on these issues.]
IB.2/JM
CONFIDENTIAL
CJ KELLY