There is no evidence to date that Hong Kong residents are being unduly careless with their identity cards; our loss rate is in line with experience elsewhere! Cases in which cards were deliberately lent or sold to facilitate illegal immigration have been few and far between. The potential threat to the success of Operation Champion lies elsewhere, i. e. in the inherent insecurity of the present form of identity card, which makes counterfeiting relatively simple.
13
To raise the fee for a replacement card from the present $15 to a very high level, say $200 would risk bringing more business to the counterfeiter, who manufactures his own product using his own resources and might deter the public from reporting losses. On the other hand the Director of Immigration thinks there might be advantage in emphasising the importance of the identity card, and the need to keep it safely, by a modest increase in the replacement fee to, say $50. This might have a mildly deterrent effect, similar to that of a parking fine. This possibility will now be examined in more detail.
14
Proposals for a smaller and more secure identity card are currently under study by the Administration. Proposals will be placed before Members shortly. In the meantime, there has been some publicity for the fact that a change is under consideration, which may act as some deterrent to anyone contemplating buying a false card.
(The Deputy Director of Immigration (Mr A.J. CARTER) will attend before the Council for the discussion of this item).
1st April 1981
(CR 10/1486/75 III)
C.S. 166
CONFIDENTIAL
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