TNAG-0314-FCO40-350-Appointments-to-judiciary-of-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 6

CONFIDENTIAL

7.

In favour of such an arrangement it has been argued

(a) The ordinary permanent and pensionable members of the

Hong Kong service could not reasonably object to the grant of a special pension at an increased rate if part of the cost of the pension were borne by the judge himself from his salary.

(b) Hong Kong judges receive generous salaries so the judge

concerned ought to be able to afford to pay a fairly substantial contribution to the enhanced pension without hardship, particularly if under the income tax laws of Hong Kong he could obtain tex relief on his contributions.

(c) The special contributory pension could be provided

either from Hong Kong funds or purchased from a suitable business firm specializing in life assurance, annuities and the like. The latter might be particularly apt where the judge had already made arrangements with a firm for a contributory pension while practising at the Bar. If a firm provided the pension the Hong Kong Government's matching

contributions would have to be paid to that firm while, if the provision were payable from public funds, they would only be a matter of book-keeping.

(a) It would presumably be possible to work into the

arrangements for a special pension an option of commuting all or part of the earned pension for a lump sum on retirement.

(e) The suitability of the arrangements to be made for any particular judge would obviously depend on his age at the time of his appointment, bearing in mind that the retiring age for judges is 62, as well as on his other income and commitments, including tax liabilities. If a judge had only a few years to serve, probably the gratuity would suit him best, but a judge with 10 or 15 years expectation of service would probably want a pension.

8. On the other hand, the pensions experts in the CDA consider that while there would be no objection in principle to a "local Bar" judge being allowed the choice of serving on pensionable terms as on non-pensionable but gratuitable conditions of service, the further option of pensionability by way of an exceptional contributory pension arrangement ought not to be pursued, especially if it were financed by way of a commercial life assurance or annuity device. They take the view that, even though the "local Bar" judges may well need special treatment the treatment accorded to them must have regard to the normal superannuation structure for the Hong Kong Government Service. In their view, it would be highly

/undesirable

3.

CONFIDENTIAL