Mr C E Leeks
2
31 January 1986
Looking at it from your end we would have thought that concern for a UK national incarcerated overseas would be the province of the FCO or, in the case of armed forces personnel, the MOD. Since the MOD have said that our proposed procedures are, notwithstanding the differences in legal interpretation, "perfectly acceptable" (paragraph 6 of the memo of 5.9.85) we presume they concur with us on this point.
I should be grateful, therefore, if you
to
would review your position in the light of these comments. Perhaps I should add that we have in fact gone some way toward meeting your requirements in that we have included in the proposed procedure [step (5)] a provision for the Secretary for Security to seek the advice of XCo on a preliminary basis, see whether the removal of a particular prisoner is accpetable. This is intended to avoid the risk that the Secretary of State might be asked to sign a Removal Order only to find subsequently that the Hong Kong Government did not concur in the removal.
Finally I must emphasise that the Governor has directed that a suitable procedure be sorted out for any future cases of transfer of prisoners under this Act. Therefore we cannot proceed "on an individual basis as and when they arise".
I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Yous cage,
chill
( Michael V Stone) for Secretary for Security
MVS:sl
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