TNAG-2660-FCO40-3856-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-1992 — Page 73

CONFIDENTIAL

3. Schedule of requirements (SOR)

a

A preliminary Schedule of requirements for the new Consulate General building was drawn up last year by OED. This was discussed at the first meeting of the Steering

Committee held on 4 October. Following further discussion in Hong Kong and a visit there by OED in early December, revised version of the SOR was circulated to appropriate FCO departments, BTC and British Council for approval/comments. The final document was then incorporated in the design brief which was issued to the consultant architects last February.

The overall gross area figure quoted in this document is

18,816 square metres which falls within the 1900 square metres agreed with the Hong Kong Goverment in 1990. This gives us a certain amount of flexibility for future changes of requirements.

It is obviously crucial that we incorporate all the requirements from the outset. Later adjustments will increase the cost and possibly the time taken. It would therefore be worth double-checking that all present are content with the revised SOR, and to ask whether there has

been any further referral of thinking in particular about:

-

The size of the passport/immigration operation. There

have been some discussions on this with the Hong Kong

Immigration Department.

-

The information effort to be undertaken from the BCG.

We

have previously urged Mrs Spencer's command to think about wheter they would want to locate a regional information effort (cf BIS) in the building. They have not taken up this thought.

Minuting on these two issues attached.

JH4AAW/5

CONFIDENTIAL