TNAG-2437-FCO40-3539-Authority-for-retirement-of-civil-servants-in-Hong-Kong-prio-1992 — Page 46

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retired under the Special Branch element.

All these officers

have been provided with generous settlements and the retirements

were agreed by mutual consent.

5.

However, one of these officers has recently challenged the

decision to retire him early in the interests of localisation. This has brought to light the fact that the provisions of the

Scheme itself do not confer authority upon the Governor to

retire officers. While Colonial Regulation 55 provides the

authority for the Crown, through the Secretary of State, to dismiss a servant at will, the power of the Governor or his delegates to do so is not provided for in the Colonial Regulations, except on disciplinary grounds.

6.

Legal Advisers consider that the Secretary of State should

authorise an addition to the Colonial Regulations to give the

Governor the necessary power to retire officers for the reasons given above. Hong Kong have asked that this power should be

delegated to the Chief Secretary and to the Secretary for the

Civil Service. Legal advice again is that the Governor may only

delegate this power with the approval of the Secretary of State.

This is uncontroversial and I recommend that the Secretary of

State should accept Hong Kong's suggestion.

7.

now.

It is unfortunate that this problem has only come to light

However, since all the other officers who retired early

under the Scheme were happy to do so, we do not anticipate any

further challenges of this nature. It has now been agreed by

mutual consent that the officer in question will retire early,

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