1.
CONFIDENTIAL
SPEAKING NOTE
STANDING COMMITTEE TO MONITOR THE PLANNING PAPER
AGENDA ITEM (a): MATTERS ARISING FROM THE FIRST MEETING OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON 21 OCTOBER AND FROM
LORD GORONWY-ROBERTS' MEETING WITH THE GOVERNOR ON 9 DECEMBER
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Action has been completed on the following:
(i) Extension of Public Assistance Scheme to 15 to 55 Year-
old Unemployed Males (para 3(a) of the Minutes of the Standing Committee)
Ministers agreed to counter-proposals by the Governor - that the extended scheme should apply to those who have lived in Hong Kong for two years and who have been unemployed for one month. The new scheme was approved by the Finance Committee of LegCo on 19 January and will come into force on 1 April. It has been made public here in a Written Reply to a Question by Sir Anthony Royle MP on 3 February.
(ii) Confidential Note for the TUC (para 4 of the Minutes of
the Standing Committee
A revised version of the draft Note discussed at the
last meeting was approved by Lord Goronwy-Roberts and the Governor and sent to the TUC by the OLA on 14 December. The Secretary of State is due to hold one of his regular meetings on the position of the International Committee of the TUC on 25 February. Hong Kong may be raised in that
context.
(iii) Proposal to second an Expert in Social Welfare Matters to the Hong Kong Government (para 3(a) of the Minutes of the Standing Committee
After further prompting by us, the Hong Kong Government took the initiative and wrote to Mr Heppell, an Assistant Secretary in the DHSS, to ask him to help with the conduct of a comprehensive review of social welfare
CONFIDENTIAL
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