Chief Secretary
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM: The Secretary of State
DATE: 6 February 1992
HONG KONG: HER MAJESTY'S OVERSEAS CIVIL SERVICE
1.
Ministers have looked several times at what arrangements
should be made for the members of HM Overseas Civil Service
(HMOCS) serving in Hong Kong at the transfer of sovereignty
in 1997. The Joint Declaration itself contains certain
guarantees of continuity of career, salaries and pensions. In other colonies approaching independence, HMG have
traditionally provided for two other elements, in
furtherance of commitments in the HMOCS White Papers of 1954
and 1960:
(a) compensation for loss of HMG's protection and of career
prospects including the option of early retirement and early payment of pension; and
sterling safeguards: a guarantee that pensions will be
paid at a fixed rate to sterling.
(b)
2
The question of our providing compensation, but without
the option of early retirement, was agreed in principle
between our predecessors in 1988. John Major, in his letter
of 19 December 1988 to Geoffrey Howe, noted that PES
handling of the funds involved (then estimated at between
£10 and £20 million over the 10 years from 1997) could not
be settled so far in advance: Ministers would want to agree
how to meet the obligation in the light of the circumstances
then prevailing.
NIKABQ/1
CONFIDENTIAL
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