XN000022-1996-12-05 — Page 3

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Governor's Statement to Legislative Council

The following is the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's Statement to the Legislative Council today (Thursday):

Mr President, there has been considerable interest and a good deal of misunderstanding - about consular protection for British Nationals in Hong Kong after 30 June 1997. I wanted to come to the Council today to set the record straight and to try to clear up some of the concerns which Honourable Members may have.

Can I straightaway express my gratitude to the Council for, as it were, accommodating me at short notice. I have just come from a summit this afternoon on disability and transport - the fourth one we have held. That stopped me coming to the Council earlier this afternoon and I would just like once again to express my gratitude to the Council for making it possible for me to come here, which is the right place to come to deal with some of the anxieties which have been expressed in the last few days.

I want to deal with four of the myths which have, I think, arisen in the last 48 hours.

First Myth: that British passports issued under the British Nationality Selection Scheme are second-class documents, and will be treated differently by British authorities from British citizen passports obtained in other ways. This is completely untrue. All British citizen passports are identical. There is only one form of British citizenship - I am not talking here about BNOS and BDTCs, but British citizens. The British Government draws no distinction whatsoever between British citizenship acquired under the British Nationality Selection Scheme or acquired in

any other way. The BNSS is a means to a destination - British citizenship. Once you have reached that destination, it becomes utterly irrelevant how you got there.

Second Myth: that the British Consulate will not extend consular protection to holders of passports issued under the British Nationality Selection Scheme, but it will do so to those who have obtained their passports in other ways. That is not true. There are no differences between the documents. The British Government, and the future British Consulate-General, will offer consular protection to British Nationals in Hong Kong BNSS and non-BNSS irrespective of how that nationality was obtained, except in cases of dual nationality. Our consular officials will not be able to tell from a British citizen passport how it was obtained by its holder. Nor will China have any means of knowing.

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