CODE 18-77
Mr Stone
Confidential
HKA 233/1
RESTRICTED
416
Reference
HMOCS: TALKS WITH CSB, HONG KONG: 19-20 JUNE 1992
1.
I have minuted separately on the pensions funding
aspects of my discussions with Mr Waters in Hong Kong. This minute records other points we discussed.
2. Timing of next consultations. Mr Waters had not yet received Mr Ricketts' letter of 18 June but gave me the latest letter from Mr Wotherspoon, asking to know whether there would be some delay before the next round. We discussed this yesterday, and I wrote to Mr Waters asking him to let the Association know that we do not envisage being ready for further consultations until late-August. Mr Waters will be on leave from mid-July to mid-August, and Mr Harbinson will try to keep an eye on things in his absence. Mr Waters would be happy to come in to the FCO in early August to discuss any points we may have.
3.
Judiciary. I said that we were submitting soon. Mr Waters suggested that when we had a decision we should write to Mr Suttill direct, side-copying to him: this would show our respect for the independence of the judiciary etc!
4. Contract officers. Mr Waters gave me a copy of the Police managment letter to contract officers, reminding them of the 30 June deadline. This seemed to me badly drafted and likely to lead to problems: there was a report of grumbling in the SCMP of 20 June. I have passed you the copy of the letter on Mr Waters' file: he has agreed to send us a clean photocopy of the letter as sent out. Mr Waters said that there had so far been no complaints about the HMOCS deadline. When asked what our eventual proposals would look like, he had been saying that he did not know but thought that they might be slightly improved. He said that, provided bought-back pensionable service would count for sterling safeguards, he thought it would be acceptable for it not to count for compensation calculations. The cut-off date should be date of application for HMOCS rather than date of enrolment the bureaucratic procedures could take time. He also said that we should know by 15 July how many contract officers had applied for HMOCS: he guessed there would be only 15-20 police officers, and no AOS (no figure for judges, by their later deadline).
5.
Compensation factors. Mr Waters confirmed that he thought that a £120,000 cap would be acceptable, even though it would affect many officers. But he suggested that we think about using a compromise between the supersession and the required-to-retire factors, rather than opting for the latter. Using the full factors when so many would be capped could look
RESTRICTED
Confidehal
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.