37-JUL-1993 18:38
B4 IND LIVERPOOL
44
851 038 3389
F.00
HONG KONG ORDERS IN COUNCIL
DRAFT SPEECH
I beg to move, that the draft British Nationality (Hong Kong)
(Selection Scheme) (Amendment) Order 1993 and the draft Hong Kong
De approved
AMSTEROTREN US
AmonGMANT
Subject to approval in this House and in another place, the first
Order will come into force on 3 January 1994 and the second on
21 July 1993.
SELECTION SCHEME ORDER
It may be helpful if I put the first Order in context. As its
title makes clear, it relates to the Selection Scheme which was
provided for by the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990.
The detailed arrangements governing the Scheme were introduced
by the British Nationality (Hong Kong) (Selection Scheme) Order
1990. This provided for applications for British citizenship to
be made in tranches. Quotas were set for four classes of applicant the general occupational class, the disciplined service class, the sensitive service class and the entrepreneurs
class. The Act provided for up to 50,000 places to be made
available to British nationals in these four classes and the
various groups of which they were comprised. The Scheme allows
for points to be given for various attributes such as age,
education, experience. Citizenship is given within the quota to
those scoring most points. 39,500 of the 50,000 places were assigned for distribution under the first tranche, which started
in December 1990 and finishes at the end of this year. Because
of an element of under-subscription just over 38,000 will be registered in the first tranche. The whole operation is running very smoothly and we are well on target to complete the first tranche by the end of the year. As at 3 July we had registered 31,568 principal beneficiaries together with 52,876 dependants.
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