HKD 340/3
88
į
Mr Woodrow
HKD
・Spots with Mise Brocks. 8/9
per pope.
BRITISH UNDERTAKINGS
FROM:
Miss S Brooks Legal Counsellor
DATE:
1 September 1992
85
ов
1. I refer to your minute of 27 August.
This concerns various bodies which were on your list and which I did not think could qualify as British undertakings. The bodies in question are hospitals and health boards, universities and polytechnics, and the Milton Keynes Development Corporation. You tell me that hospitals and health boards are run by health authorities which are incorporated under the National Health Service Act 1977, Part III, Schedule 5 (and in the case of two hospitals, under the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990). Universities are set up under Royal Charter. Polytechnics are incorporated under the Education Reform Act 1988, section 121. Finally the Milton Keynes Development Corporation was set up under the New Towns Act 1967. The question is whether these amount to
'British undertakings' for the purposes of the British Nationality (Hong Kong) (Selection Scheme) Order 1990. Article 7 defines 'British undertaking' as 'a company or firm'. This definition is for the purposes of Article 16 (2) which defines 'relevant service' as including 'service with a British undertaking'.
2. None of the bodies referred to in paragraph 1 above are firms. I have already explained to you previously what constitutes a firm. The question is whether these are companies. These bodies are certainly bodies corporate but they are not companies in any normal sense. I attach an extract from Halsbury's 'Laws of England', volume 7(1). This explains that 'there are many other bodies corporate which, although they may largely or partially engage in trading or comparable activities are not commonly described as companies'. These include bodies incorporated under a general Act of Parliament, bodies created by royal charter or special Act of Parliament, and the particular case of insurance companies. I also attach a photocopy of a page taken from Pennington's 'Company Law', Chapter 1, page 3 which classifies companies and incorporation procedure. This makes it clear that the bodies we are considering are
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