EMPLOYMEN
・DEPA
ENT
"GROUP"
EMPLOYMENT
DEPARTMENT
Overseas Labour Section
Department of Employment
34
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dur Clare SAAD
Our reference:
HKD 213
213/1
Ref: Hongkong.33
Enter
A R Paul Esq
Hong Kong Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Whitehall
London SW1A 2AF
Dear Mr Paul
DEPENDENT TERRITORIES WORK PERMIT QUOTA
1 July 1991
Mr. Mogrin
Jauns
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Thank you for your letter of 14 May setting out FCO proposals for the Dependent Territories Work Permit Quota. We have consulted Ministers here and are now able to respond. I am sorry this has taken us rather longer than we first supposed.
Our Ministers will support a gradual phasing-out of the quota, provided the timescale for abolition is made clear at the outset and that we can agree certain modifications to your proposals in order to meet specific concerns over timescales, numbers and presentation.
of
On timescales and numbers, Employment Ministers believe a five- year phase-out would do little more than "prolong the agony" and SO cause the Government operational and presentational difficulties. For example, under your proposals only 30 quota permits would be offered to Hong kong in 1995, the final year. Assuming applications remain at the current level of 1,000 (if anything they will increase) this would give applicants a 3% chance of success. Operating a labour-intensive balloting systems, only to turn down 97% of applicants, will upset employers who use the scheme and be difficult to defend on value for money or burdens on business grounds. A shorter phase-out with a rather more abrupt cut-off would help avoid these pitfalls. From an Employment Department standpoint a 2 or 3 year phase-out would be desirable, but in order to meet FCO concerns and help secure agreement, our Ministers would be prepared to settle for abolition over 4 years, provided that the phase-out began now with a cut in the 1991 figure.
On presentation, our Ministers share the views of their Home office colleagues described in Russell Yates' letter to you of 27 June. Namely, that we should hold off from announcing now a review after 2 years because such an announcement would encourage pressure groups to push for further concessions for Hong Kong, and that there is presentational advantage in starting now to make some modest reductions to the non Hong Kong part of the
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