TNAG-2190-FCO40-3127-Hong-Kong-nationality-package-1990 — Page 66

CONFIDENTIAL

British citizenship by five years residence, with up to three of the five years being spent in Hong Kong rather than the UK.

4. HKG's proposed allocation of the 50,000 places between these four component schemes, and the intended balance between those which will be allocated in response to the first round of applications and those which will be held back for later distribution, are set out in Annex A. Subject to decisions on the matters raised in paragraphs 16, 20 and 21 below, we believe that these figures can be approved as in accordance with OD(K) decisions so far.

The selection process

5. A good deal of work has been done on the selection process although a number of detailed points remain to be worked through. The paper at Annex B outlines the mechanisms at present envisaged for each of the selection schemes, and we envisage that an explanatory document on these lines will need to be

be made available to Parliament and publicly when the Bill itself is published. (I should emphasise that the mechanisms etc described are subject to further refinement and that the procedures for secondments, in particular, will need further consideration with HKG to whom we shall be sending the next edition of Annex B.) The following paragraphs raise aspects of the proposals which Ministers will particularly wish to consider.

The General Allocation Scheme (GAS)

(a)

Occupational groups

6.

The places available under this scheme will be distributed by occupational groups, with priority going to those groups which have high emigration rates and where lost personnel are difficult to replace because of the amount of training involved. However, HKG argue strongly that no occupational groups should be excluded altogether from the scheme, as that would be divisive and politically very difficult in Hong Kong. In view of the desirability of avoiding criticism in the UK that the scheme is elitist (not to mention the difficulty of finding a defensible dividing line between the occupations which would be in and those which would be out), we believe that this all embracing approach is acceptable provided that the numbers in the lesser skilled groups are not large.

7. The table at Annex C sets out HKG's proposed allocations to the various occupational groups in terms of absolute number of places to be offered (column e), the proportion of the 33,300 GAS places available in the first round which would fall to each group (column f), and the chances of success for

for individuals within each group (column g). We have sidelined those groups which we think Ministers will wish to look at most carefully.

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