TNAG-0997-FCO40-1222-Future-staffing-of-Dependent-Territories-1981 — Page 61

ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE

Mr Brighty (POD)

Reference N

нка 431) 13

• AMRY 60. 5) 12 JUN 1981

DMX OFFICER

36

17BR

PA

POSSIBLE ABSORPTION OF HMOCS OFFICERS INTO THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE

1.

There has been discussion between our departments and those to which this minute is copied on the future of remaining HMOCS officers (other than those employed in the Hong Kong Government) and the possibility of their absorption in the Diplomatic Service. It is not clear to me from the papers I have seen what obligation we have towards this residue of non-Hong Kong · HMOCS, and what advantage there would be to the Service in proceeding as proposed.

2.

130

Miss Brett Rooks in paragraph 2 of her minute of 18 May explains that only Messrs Russell, Dale and Lloyd are currently members of HMOCS on pensionable service; it is reasonable to assume that they will all retire in the next few years from their present posts. They are not therefore included in the group we are concerned with, who number five. I understand from Miss Brett Rooks that the latter are ex-HMOCS officers who now work only on contract. I am not sure that this status implies any obligation on our part towards them. Presumably their membership, or former membership, of HMOCS is a useful qualification when offering themselves, or being offered by HKGD, to administrations of Dependent Territories as candidates for contract jobs.

3.

It is suggested that some at least of these five might have experience which would make them useful members of the DS. I suggest that we should look at such papers as we have on them and try to reach a definite preliminary conclusion about this. We could then approach informally those we want and invite them to apply for transfer to the DS. They may not wish to. If they do, we should then run into the problem of whether we can take them on without having first put them through the Civil Service Commission. Mr Stark (in his minute of 14 April) has pointed out that the CSC's General Regulations 1978 provide for the case where "it is desirable that a person already holding office in another public service should be transferred to the civil service" (including for this purpose the Diplomatic Service). But is the rump of the HMOCS "another public service" within this meaning, and is an officer of the type we are considering "a person already holding office" in it? How did the five officers get into the HMOCS in the first place? Were they examined by the CSC and given a certificate which could be transferable, and is it still valid now that they are no longer in the HMOCS? If not, I do not see how we can absorb them into the DS without running a competition and inviting them to subject themselves to examination.

4.

*

(26)

It is suggested (eg in paragraph 1 of your minute of 8 April to Mr Morrice, HKGD) that what we are talking about is a package deal whereby absorption of these five officers would be requited by the DS being allowed to fill a larger block of posts in the Dependent Territories. Nowhere in the minuting are the mechanics of this deal set out. Are we proposing to strike a

/deal