MINISTER
OF
STATE
Our Ref: IMG/85 13/57/1
HKC 210/1
RECE
2 8 NOV 1988
Dear Mr Lee i
é
HOME OFFICE
QUEEN ANNE'S GATE
LONDON SWIH 9AT
11 Dec 1987
Thank you for your letter of 4 November about the Dependent Territories work permit quota for 1988. I have seen a copy of Simon Glenarthur's letter to you of 18 November.
We have now completed the first stage of the review of the operation of the quota. This involved looking in detail at the records of nearly 500 work permit holders who have come here under the quota arrangement since 1979. The study has shown that most of the workers coming here from Hong Kong under the scheme to work in the catering industry are single men: only about 20% brought a wife with them and only a handful of applications also involved the admission of children. Those coming from St Helena, the other territory mainly benefiting, went almost exclusively into domestic service. A closer examination of individual cases has revealed some abuses (for example, apparent deception in order to obtain permits) but has not shown any frequent or widespread abuse.
However, I do not think that it is worth continuing with the subsequent stages of this review, as originally envisaged, because its ultimate conclusions will become increasingly academic as we approach 1997, when Hong Kong will cease to be a Dependent Territory. The arguments used by your Department and Simon Glenarthur's for continuing the scheme have rested heavily on the demand for labour in the Chinese catering industry on the one hand, and on the political situation of Hong Kong on the other. Thus I would hope that we can look to the abolition of the quota after 1996. I should be grateful for your views, and those of Simon Glenarthur, to whom I am copying this letter, on this point.
By some token, I accept that the quota should continue until 1996. I agree with your suggestion that the quota for 1988 should be 200 permits, with no more than 150 allowed for any one territory. I am content with the terms of the proposed arranged Parliamentary Question.
You sincerely Dand Adiland
John Lee Esq MP
(TIM RENTON)
(approved by the Minister of State and signed
in his absence)
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