TNAG-1834-FCO40-2608-Sensitivity-review-of-Hong-Kong-Government-records-1988 — Page 69

10.

11.

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4.

for these 30 years

The PRO Manual states that applications purposes must be made before the records are old (Para 5.1.6). As the Lord Chancellor has decided that the effective date of the microfilm record is that of the original, this is a condition that cannot now be met in respect of the early records. There is the added difficulty that not all the records currently over 30 years old will be identified and copied in the early stages of this exercise. Nor will those required to be

OR security grounds or for administrative purposes necessarily be known at this Are there grounds here for HKG records to be treated en bloc as a special case in any application to the Lord Chancellor? This was the view of the HK Crown Solicitor when discussing his legal opinion in February 1987. In fact, the whole issue of HKG records is a unique situation. One might argue for exceptional arrangements to cover all aspects of future custody and control.

time.

retained

HKG

Regarding retention of

records in the FCO, a 'blanket' approval from the Lord Chancellor would seem most effective.

This offers the longest period of protection before being subject to reconsideration and would minimise the work required in making an application, a point not

to be

overlooked in view of the number of record items involved. The issue here is whether the Lord Chancellor would accept that the entire body of HK records has sufficient homogeneity to be regarded ==

'individual

must

items

of comparable to set aside the be

'created within

sensitivity' (Para 5.5. 5) and criterion that records specified periods not exceeding a span of 10 years' (Para 5.5.7). In parentheses, this would have been the case had the dates of creation of the microfilm been accepted as the operative dates.

are left

I f a 'blanket' approval is not open to US we with applications on the grounds of sensitivity (Para 5.5.8).

The problem here is the need

to make applications in respect of each item (where are the resources for this?) and that the maximum period for retention is set at 5 years (Para 5.5.7). This may not be considered sufficiently long 3 time by HKG to provide protection for future SARG interests. While FCO will be able to readily assess HMG's interests in

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/relation.