TNAG-2269-FCO40-3268-Hong-Kong-Her-Majesty-s-Overseas-Civil-Service-(HMOCS)-poli-1991 — Page 151

CONFIDENTIAL

DRAFT LETTER FROM R A BURNS, AUSS, FCO

J E Mortimer Esq

HM Treasury

Parliament Street

LONDON

SW1P 3AG

HONG KONG: COMPENSATION/INCENTIVE SCHEME AND PENSIONS ARRANGEMENTS

FOR HER MAJESTY'S OVERSEAS CIVIL SERVICE

1.

Thank you for your letter of 24 September.

2. I am sorry that it has taken us a little longer than expected to piece together the information you are seeking, but we have had

to recast many of our figures in order to present them in the required format.

3. I should emphasise at the outset that because of the inherent

uncertainty in predicting the numbers of officers who will stay on in Hong Kong beyond 1997, and the

the dates on which they will eventually leave the territory, there will always be an element of conjecture about the potential costs of the Scheme. At the end of

the day it is the Hong Kong Government who are in the best position to make authoritative projections about numbers of officers involved, and even they face considerable difficulties in providing "detailed information about the potential costs".

4.

Given the constraints under which we are working, we are confident that our latest estimates are of the correct magnitude,

but we will of course continue to refine our figures as new information is received from Hong Kong.

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