4.
An Order in Council made under the Hong Kong Act 1985 is
necessary to implement this agreement. The is made under the
affirmative resolution procedure: it can either be approved or
rejected by the House, but it cannot be amended.
5.
Understandably, the details of the Order have been of great
concern in Hong Kong, and the nationality provisions were the
subject of the bulk of the debates in Parliament on the Agreement
and on the Hong Kong Bill. To meet this concern, it was agreed
that a draft of a draft Order (described as "an Order with green
edges") should be submitted to Parliament for full debate. The
Government would then consider whether or not the points made
during the debates called for any changes in the draft, in so far
as these were consistent with the Hong Kong Act. The final draft
would then be presented for approval in the normal way.
6.
The debates on the draft Order took place in January this
year. As expected, the major issues raised were the three requests
made by UMELCO, namely:
a)
the endorsement in BN(0) passports
b)
the grant of British citizenship to former
servicemen and
c)
the grant of British citizenship rather than
British Overseas citizenship to non-ethnic Chinese
BDTCS if they would otherwise be stateless in 1997.
7.
The Home Secretary announced on 23 April that the Government
agreed to the first two requests, but not to the request on behalf
of the non-ethnic Chinese. This is the major issue likely to be
raised during the debates on the Order.
8.
The Government stated during the course of the debate on
the Bill that it was the intention to make the Order within a year
of the Passage of the Bill (that is by April 1986). This target
date has slipped by a few weeks, and the draft Order was laid
on 23 April.
61.2
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.