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the Secretary of State that they be granted citizenship under the Bill. In the remainder of these Instructions references to HK
BDTC's include references to BNO'S.
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4.10 Given that there are 3.25 million HK BDTC's and that a maximum of only 50,000 can be granted citizenship, the selection process under these proposals will undoubtedly be highly selective and it is inevitable that many applicants will, under the points system set out in the Scheme, cluster around the "pass mark". The Governor will, at the end of the day, be forced to make arbitrary selections between equally qualified applicants. It is important that the Bill enables the Governor to put forward recommendations on that basis and that they be immune to legal challenge. Further consideration is given below (see para. 4.24 et seq) to the extent to which the Bill can render decisions of both the Governor and Secretary of State immune to challenge. It is for consideration whether an express provision should be included in the Bill which empowers the Governor to select an HK BDTC for recommendation from amongst a number of equally qualified applicants.
4.11 The Bill should ensure that the Governor is "bound" by the Scheme. He must be required to submit for recommendation only those HK BDTC's who are selected by him under the Scheme. The Governor must not submit recommendations if to do so would (given the limited powers of the Secretary of State to refuse) result in the number of grants of citizenship exceeding 50,000. It is also proposed that the Governor should "phase" his recommendations over the whole period of the run-up to 1997 and the Secretary of State should therefore be given power to require the Governor to submit only such number of recommendations in a specific period as the Secretary of State may direct. In making such a direction as to overall numbers, the Secretary of State should be able to impose different requirements as between the
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