TNAG-2096-FCO40-2985-HM-Overseas-Civil-Service-(HMOCS)-general-correspondence-1990 — Page 119

File

No.

DRAFT

Your

Ref.

Tick as appropriate

Addressed

S/O Letter

Unclass.

Peter Bottomley Esq MP

In Conf.

House of Commons

Restricted

LONDON SW1A OAA

Despatch

Conf.

Minute

Secret

Memo

Top Secret

For Signature by

Draft by

Mrs Johnson 21/2

Mr Trotter

Mr Stone

Official Letter

ENCLOSURES

REFERENCES AND AMENDMENTS

FURTHER ACTION AND SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS

TEL

Return to Room No.

Your Private Secretary wrote to me on 5 January enclosing a letter from Mr W M McIntyre of Hong Kong about the future of expatriate officers in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force who are members of

Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS).

[Mr McIntyre raises a number of matters of concern to many expatriate officers in the territory arising from the transfer of

sovereignty in 1997. I am well aware of these having talked to expatriate officers during my visit to Hong Kong last Autumn.]

It may be helpful if I briefly explain the background to HMOCS and to the Public Officers' Agreements to which Mr McIntyre refers in his letter. Firstly, in common with our former colonies, the Hong Kong Government, and not the British Government, is responsible

for terms and conditions of service of its public servants, including the award and payment of pensions. In the early 1950s HMOCS was set up by HMG to include officers who were appointed to

serve overseas either by the Secretary of State or the Crown

Agents. Because the Secretary of State accepted а special obligation towards this group, HMG undertook to safeguard their

conditions of service when the territory in which they were serving went into independence. This was achieved by means of a

Public Officers' Agreement drawn up by HMG and the newly independent Government under which the latter undertook to protect the terms and conditions of service and the pensions of those

public servants who had

members of HMOCS prior to

been

1.