TNAG-0920-FCO40-1131-Inspection-of-Hong-Kong-and-General-Department-and-transfer--1980 — Page 16

ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE

(PART

II

One recommendation made by the last Inspectors which (like the painting of the corridor) seems never to have been pursued was that Heads of Mission Section should take over briefing and programme arrangements for Governors. Miss Walkeris confident that the extra work which this would entail would be manageable. I have consulted Hong Kong and General Department who see merit in the proposal. I recommend therefore that POD and HKGD discuss modalities and agree a convenient date from which the same service and facilities can be extended to Governors as are now provided for Heads of Mission. I doubt whether the change will greatly affect HKGD's workload but this is something which the Inspectors can assess when they look at HKGD early next year.

Senior Appointments Officer

DS7E

Miss D M L Taylor

18. The essential difference between Miss Taylor's work and that of Heads of Mission Section is that she handles all of the staff-in-confidence preparatory work relating to senior appointments. As soon as individual appointments of heads of mission are publicly announced, responsibility passes from Miss Taylor to Heads of Mission Section, all of whose work is "open".

19. The job is one calling for discretion and care in the handling of a well- established, but quite complex, chain of procedures. About 85% of the work is processing appointments in grades 1-3 once they have been boarded. 165 or so appointments are involved (of which 100 are resident heads of mission or equivalent there are also 18 non-resident head of mission accreditations, each involving full procedures). About 15% of Miss Taylor's time is spent giving similar assistance to the Deputy Head of POD in relation to heads of mission in grade 4 (handled by the No 2 Board), for which there are 28 resident posts plus 10 non-resident accreditations.

20. It is essential that the holder of the post should be located reasonably close to the Head and Deputy Head of Department and have ready access to the Indiv files of the senior officers whose appointments she handles. Miss Taylor's present location, in the room next to the Head of Indiv Registry, is thus ideal. What has not been ideal has been the lack, since the department surrendered a DS9 officer who used to share Miss Taylor's room, of any back-up for Miss Taylor (beyond a switch-through of her telephone to the Indiv Registry) during leave or other absences. This shortcoming will be remedied with the move which I am recommending (see below) for Mr Friston.

21. I think the post is correctly graded at 7E.

Interchange etc

DS7E

LJ Friston

22. Mr Friston had joined the department only a week or two before the inspection but was already concerned that his duties might not amount to a full job. His predecessor (Miss Kelly, a DS6 officer) had been responsible for other subjects (7E career management, now handled by Mr Piddington) as well as Interchange, the Special Promotion Scheme and supervision of the Operations Room which were the three main elements of his job.

20

ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE