salary levels in Hong Kong are far from uniform.
Administrative Officers receive salaries considerably
better than their UK counterparts. But this is less true
of the Police. They form the majority of HMOCS members
in Hong Kong, and will be crucial to our ability to administer Hong Kong in the next few years.
4. You suggest that under your scheme HMOCS officers will
enjoy retirement benefits that will never fall below those of
their UK counterparts. In fact, your proposal for the trigger
at 26:1 to operate only after taking account of all pension
income from Hong Kong and the ODA, would result in many
policemen's pensions being safeguarded at levels well below those of their UK counterparts.
5. You suggest that Hong Kong should contribute to funding
any scheme. This has been discussed exhaustively. It is
simply not an option: Hong Kong's Legislative Council would not approve the funds to discriminate in favour of
expatriates. To force Hong Kong to pay would provoke a
constitutional crisis as well as precipitate a further row with the Chinese, who would see this as asset-stripping by
the UK.
6. My proposal is for a traditional compensation scheme and a
sterling pension safeguard set at HK16: £1 (the exchange rate
is now HK$11: £1 and the average over the last twenty years has
been HK$12:£1). It is designed to meet our obligations to
this last group of HMOCS officers, and to take account of the
interests of the UK taxpayer. It is already significantly
less generous than previous schemes:
f