have been registered up to mid January, plus 36,682 dependants (total of 57,662). Average family size is 2.75. Target for registration under first tranche is about 39,500 Principal
Beneficiaries, the remaining 10,500 to be allocated under the
second tranche due to open early 1994.
4. All BDTCs are eligible to compete under the British
Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990. The second tranche will
start early in 1994. Ethnic origin is not a factor in the scheme (and since information is not collected on such a basis
we have no figures to show the success to date of the ethnic
minorities in the scheme).
5. There will be some adjustments for the second tranche
which will require a new Order in Council. Home Office have
yet to submit on the details.
6. Ms Lau has complained that fewer people will benefit from the Scheme than originally estimated (Ministers announced the figure of 225,000 as an illustrative maximum), because the number of dependants is proving to be lower than that
estimated by the Home Office. Ministers always made it clear that the key figure was the maximum of 50,000 households to be
covered (and the 1990 Act spells this out). The figure of
225,000 was only ever intended as an illustrative, not a definitive, upper limit.
British Citizenship for Wives and Widows of Ex-Servicemen 7.
During the second reading of the British Nationality
(Hong Kong) Act 1990 the Home Secretary gave an assurance that the spouses of any British citizens who had died and who had
been resident in Hong Kong would be allowed to come to the
United Kingdom to settle and to apply for British citizenship in the normal way. The assurance was extended to the wives
and widows of those servicemen who served in the defence of
Hong Kong during the Second World War, irrespective of the husband's nationality. This is a small group (a few dozen)
and their call to be granted British citizenship without
having to travel to the UK generates considerable sympathy for