TNAG-2000-FCO40-2847-Hong-Kong-Civil-Service-appointments--promotions-and-policy--1990 — Page 64

now to be redundant as regards Hong Kong since the Letters Patent were amended on 23 December 1970 to their current form by

the quote used to read "the Governor may constitute and appoint such judges, Justices of the Peace and other public officers as may be lawfully appointed by Us". The removal of "by Us" was presumably intended to mean that such appointments were no longer considered appointments approved by the Secretary of State. Hong Kong have identified that the only appointments that are required by HK law are those relating to the Director of Audit and the Chief Justice and any puisne judge. I accordingly recommend that the Secretary of State's approval should be sought to delegate to the Governor of Hong Kong authority to make all appointments transfers and promotions save for the Director of Audit, the Chief Justice and any puisne judge.

Offices/Officers where the Secretary of State was involved

4. It is of course necessary to consider what protection should be given to officers who have previously been appointed on the authority/with the approval of the Secretary of State. It is also necessary to examine why the Secretary of State should retain any interest in such persons. In fact I can see no reason why the Secretary of State should be interested in the promotion or transfer of any persons who have been appointed in his name. I consider that the Secretary of State involvement is essentially a safeguard for that person and therefore only needs to be invoked if HKG is considering doing things which are adverse to his career. There is little point in the Secretary of State being involved in promotions and transfers since if these are happening this is well and good. We would not be told, unless the officer wrote to us, that he was being passed over or otherwise unfairly treated. My only caveat to this would be that it could be appropriate for HMG to inform us of what was happening to persons appointed by the Secretary of State if there were financial implications for HMG as a result of their promotion ie. that they could receive a higher level of SPOS.

Pensions

5. In 1987 when Hong Kong was introducing amendments to its pension ordinance the opportunity was taken to delete all reference to the Secretary of State in that ordinance. However, Legal Advisers recommended that the role of the Secretary of State should not be bypassed and that therefore HKG should still refer to us on all those matters where the legislation had previously made reference to the Secretary of State. HKG have set out the eleven references where this is relevant Annex C.

6.

-

see

Some of the circumstances which used to require the Secretary of State's approval reference are either very trivial or obsolescent. Item K is an example of the latter and items F, G, H and J of the former. I recommend, as Hong Kong have suggested, that the Secretary of State should retain his authority for approving retirement where the appointment was made with the authority of the Secretary of State (item C and D of the checklist above) and in cases where there are financial implications to HMG - such as items A and E. For the other items I recommend that considerations should be given to revising the current arrangements.

CONFIDENTIAL