TNAG-1849-FCO40-2624-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 61

24 MAY 189 23:35 FROM COI TECH RADIO

TRANSCRIPT J: SELECT COMMITTEE RE HONG KONG

24 MAY 1989

-24-

PAGE.085/056

MR. JIM LESTER:

I wanted to ask a question about the coordination of

as we know, by work permits which are issued of course, the Department of Employment and is there coordination

between Departments so that such permits,

for instance,

could be available flexibly to British firms in Hong Kong who wished to retain Hong Kong BDTCs who would otherwise

wish to leave so as to emigrate perhaps to a third

country?

R. TIK RENTON;

As you quite rightly say, Mr. Lester, the question

of the issuance of work permits lies with the Department

of Employment. If a work permit is issued by the

Department of Employment, it almost invariably follows

that the Home Office gives the necessary immigration

permission to follow. If someone's work permit is

cancelled and not renewed, the Home Office would normally

take the necessary steps to see that that person left the

country.

At the moment, the same criteria apply for the issue

of work permits to BDTCs from Hong Kong as to people from

any other non-EEC country and I think the Department of

Employment generally takes the view that any change in

those criteria would risk taking away jobs from the

resident labour force in this country.