TNAG-1558-FCO40-2122-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-passports-Hong-Kong-(Br-1986 — Page 81

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As a consequence the Hong Kong Act was passed and received

Royal Assent in April last year. Among other matters that

Act provided for the ending of British sovereignty and

jurisdiction over Hong Kong. Paragraph 2 of the Schedule

to the Act allows for provision to be made by Order in

Council for the ending on 1 July 1997 of British Dependent

Territories citizenship for those having such citizenship

through a connection with Hong Kong. Similarly it allows

for those who were such citizens on that date to acquire

as of right a new form of nationality, the holders of which

will be known as British Nationals (Overseas): for the

necessary arrangements for making applications for the new

status, and for the avoidance of statelessness.

The framework has therefore already been established by the

agreement and by the Hong Kong Act 1985. The Order in

Council which will follow must keep within that framework.

Its role is not to reopen questions already considered

and approved by the House, but to establish the detailed

arrangements which will be necessary to give effect to

the provisions set out in the Agreement and the Act.

Neither that Agreement nor the Act in any way alter

the decision initially taken in 1961, and confirmed in

subsequent legislation, that British nationals in Hong Kong

are subject to United Kingdom immigration control. It is

the Government's general policy to maintain the effectiveness

of that control and that the case for making concessions

to any particular group of people, whether in Hong Kong or

elsewhere, cannot be judged in isolation. It has to be seen

within the context of the Government's general policy and the

claims that many people seek to make to be allowed exceptionally

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