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early to say how much of the existing civil service will opt to
transfer to the new scheme (most staff have five years in which to exercise the option).
4.
Separately, the Hong Kong Government has introduced a limited compensation scheme (at its own expense) for those superseded for
promotion or compulsorily retired in the interests of accelerated
localisation. This has been a normal pre-independence development
elsewhere, where it has led to a wider scheme at independence to compensate certain pensionable expatriate officers for loss of career expectation and the Secretary of State's protection (se
paragraph 6 below).
(d) Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service
5.
There are approximately 800 pensionable expatriate officers in Hong Kong, who by virtue of their terms of appointment are
automatically members of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service
(HMOCS). HMOCS is a unified overseas civil service, created from
the various colonial expatriate civil services under a 1954 White
Paper. Under its terms HMG recognised certain long-term obligations
towards HMOCS members in the process of decolonisation. These
obligations concerned such issues as compensation for loss of
career, a guaranteed sterling value for pensions, and re-employment
elsewhere wherever practicable.
6.
Ministers considered in early 1985 the future treatment of
HMOCS in Hong Kong. They concluded that while in general Hong Kong
HMOCS members should be treated in a similar manner to HMOCS from
other ex-colonies, no decisions on exact arrangements needed be
reached till nearer 1997: where special arrangements were needed
they should if at all possible be funded by HKG. The Hong Kong
Government have been pressing us for an early decision on a General Compensation Scheme for members of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil
Service (HMOCS) in Hong Kong. A particular reason is that certain
police officers on contract terms have been allowed a period, now
extended again until March 1989, to opt between contract and
permanent terms, the latter carrying with it membership of HMOCS.
FCO Ministers have now decided, despite a collective Ministerial
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