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6. We will know the pattern of BN (0) passport issuing for certain after the implementation of the phased registration
programme for BDTCs to register as BN (0) s and receive new
passports. This should come into operation this Autumn Parliament has approved the Order in Council which sets it up.
The phased programme should concentrate the minds of 3 million
or so Hong Kong BDTCs who have not yet registered just over 500,000 BDTCs have so far been issued with BN (0) passports on their opportunity to retain a form of British nationality
after 1997. (We are assuming a 75% take up rate). To put in context the scale of the passport issuing load; the number of passport applications during the busiest part of the cycle is likely to be greater than the total sum of applications received by all our other overseas posts (currently running at just under 300,000 per annum).
1.
The Consulate General Steering Committee had already put a considerable amount of work into achieving the right balance in terms both of the building and the staffing. The original design recognised the cyclical nature of passport renewal and consciously took a middle path; providing sufficient accommodation to cope with an expanded workload (and the need for more staff) in the peak years without seeking to provide
the space to meet the maximum possible demand, in order that the building would not be significantly too large in the years of reduced demand. In the light of MRS' findings and
suggested options, we considered again the question of
accommodating the passport operation. We recalled that the original brief which Ministers approved called for the passport function to be included within the Consulate General, in accordance with the policy of gathering under one roof all aspects of the official British presence in Hong Kong.
asked OED to look again at the financial calculations.
We
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