TNAG-1849-FCO40-2624-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 63

24

TAT

CIVAT

TRANSCRIPT J: SELECT COMMITTEE RE HONG KŨNG

-26-

24 MAY 1989

MR. TIM RENTON;

I get the impression, Mr. Lester, you are confusing

two things.

The discretion that the Home Secretary allows is on the period of residence in the United Kingdom and if the rule says strictly that conditions for the businessman shall not be lifted until after the businessman coming here has clearly been resident in this country for by far and away the greater part of the year for four years, it is in that area that the Home Secretary's discretion lies. It is discretion on the precise definition of the terms of

residence that are required.

When you move on to nationality, there are areas where there is no discretion with the Home Secretary. For example, you have to have been in the country on the date precisely five years before your application for

nationality is received.

It is actually the length and period of residence in this country, for example, for the businessman coming here the discretion lies the aim always being, and I think the Home Secretary would endorse these rules, we do not want to be totally stick-in-the-mid on this but we do want to be sure that people are genuinely putting their roots down here whilst accepting that businesmen by nature of

their work will travel

a lot overseas.