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(c)
(d)
(e)
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.]
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.]
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
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
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