TNAG-2434-FCO40-3536-Hong-Kong-Her-Majesty-s-Overseas-Civil-Service-(HMOCS)-and-t-1992 — Page 31

17 AUG 1702 12:14

PAUL FIFOOT

0372720755

г.02/03

3.

i) entitlement to overseas passages (i.e. as a way of defining an "overseas officer") before the appointed day;

ii) service as the substantive holder of a pensionable office before the appointed day; and

iii) recruited or appointed on the kind of terms which rendered the appointee eligible for HMOCS, whether or not he was a member of HMOCS.

At a later stage HMG took over responsibility for the payment of Celiain overseas pensions. The current statutory authority is section 1 of the Overseas Pensions Act, 1973 which empowers the Secretary of State to make payments falling to be made by HMG under an agreement with the government of an overseas territory for the assumption by HMG of responsibility for the payment of pensions. Under such agreements, pensions may be defined as pensions to an "officer" who is an officer to whom the relevant POA applies, but is not a citizen of the relevant country. Accordingly, if the relevant POA extends to officers who are not members of HMOCS, provision is made by the Overseas Pensions Act for the payment by HMG of a "colonial" pension to such persons.

4. Neither POAS nor the Overseas Pensions Act provide a sterling guarantee for colonial pensions, (though the latter does much more). Either might be cited as providing a precedent for the categories of persons who should benefit if HMC were to assume a sterling guarantee for Hong Kong pensions. Both provide precedents for not confining eligibility to members of HMOCS but as extending it to overseas officers, formerly on permanent and pensionable terms who were recruited or appointed on the kind of terms which rendered the appointee eligible for membership, even though they might not be members of HMOCS.

5. There is a further matter to be taken into consideration.

The Pensions (Increase) Act 1971, as amended, provides for the payment of pensions supplements (SPOS) to certain overseas officers. Section 11 requires that the pension in question shall be a pension in respect of service under the government of an overseas territory by a person who:

(a) was at any time selected for initial appointment to service...........by a Minister of the Crown in the United Kingdom, or was recruited by the Crown Agents....or

(h) was at the time recruited to a post for which, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, a normal channel of recruitment would have been either the Colonial Office (ODA apparently accept the Hong Kong Office in London as satisfying this requirement) or the Crown Agents....; or

(c) was at any time a member of HMOCS or HMOJ;

(d) was at any time a designated officer under

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