TNAG-2425-FCO40-3527-Hong-Kong-Her-Majesty-s-Overseas-Civil-Service-(HMOCS)-poli-1992 — Page 30

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24 June 1992

Mr R D J Wright Security Division Cabinet office

70 Whitehall LONDON

SW1

CONFIDENTIAL

24/16 Willicnor PA Weiss

Pu

24167

HKA 233

233/1

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

London SWLA ZAH

Wright,

419

MEMBERS OF HER MAJESTY'S OVERSEAS CIVIL SERVICE IN HONG KONG AND THEIR DEPENDENTS: ELIGIBILITY TO APPLY FOR EMPLOYMENT

1.

Thank you for your letter of 8 June.

2.

In para 2 of your letter you say that you can only comment on these issues in respect of the Home Civil Service. We are puzzled by this: in discussions with your office and the Armed Forces last year, we had understood that the Cabinet Office provided the general guidelines to the Armed Services. Is this not still the case?

3. On recruitment, I understand that it would be unwise to give any assurances that fair and open competition might be set aside to allow the appointment of HMOCS members to the Home Civil Service. Your reaffirmation that British citizens working or living in Hong Kong either before or after

1 July 1997 will remain qualified on nationality grounds for appointment to the Home Civil Service is helpful.

The

4. On security clearance, I appreciate that each case must be treated on its merits. But I hope that you can take a more sympathetic view about your ability to obtain sufficient information to vet applications post-1997. You state that it will become increasingly difficult to complete security vetting checks satisfactorily after the SARG takes over in 1997. We do not really see why this should be the case. Joint Declaration provides for continuance of the existing legal system and public service. If the officers or their dependents are applying for such a job, they would clearly be keen to make all relevant information known. And particularly in the years immediately after 1997, it should still be possible to check this information in Hong Kong. Although we could no longer rely on the positive vetting carried out periodically by the Hong Kong Government, we presumably would have available all the security information collected pre-1997. The number of those who might apply is likely to be small: it should surely be possible for us to carry out the necessary checks for those who do apply.

MVSAGV

SLM

CONFIDENTIAL

420

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