TNAG-2100-FCO40-2989-HM-Overseas-Civil-Service-(HMOCS)-policy-matters-1990 — Page 44

CONFIDENTIAL

(c)

If specifically pressed, Ministers should reaffirm

HMG's previous assurances that the Carr-Robertson

assurances on payment of advances in lieu of pensions

to HMOCS officers in the event of a pensions default

apply to HMOCS in Hong Kong as elsewhere. Pressure

for similar assurances for local officers should be

resisted. [Estimated cost is £10 million per year at current prices and exchange rates, and excluding widows' pensions.]

(d) The question of taking over the pension entitlements

of HMOCS officers in Hong Kong, at the expense of

the Hong Kong Government, should be reviewed in 1990.

[Capitalised value of entitlements in 1997 would be

£210 million, at current prices and exchange rates.]

X,{

(e)

Members of HMOCS who remain in pensionable service

in Hong Kong after 1997 should relinquish their HMOCS

status. A decision should be taken later whether

and how the benefits of this status should be

retained for pensionable service in Hong Kong after

1997.

(f) The decisions on recommendations (a) to (e) above

should form the basis of official responses, here

and in Hong Kong, to enquiries about the position

of HMOCS.

6. I should be grateful to know if you and the other

addressees of this minute agree with these recommendations.

I hope that it may be possible to reach agreement without

the need for a meeting of OD(K). It would be useful to

know whether colleagues saw difficulties with the line

set out above by 13 March, since Ministers are likely to

be pressed on this subject again during the Lords' Committee

CONFIDENTIAL

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