TNAG-2662-FCO40-3858-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-1992 — Page 101

RESTRICTED MANAGEMENT IN CONFIDENCE

HONG KONG: ACCESS to the new consuLATE GENERAL BUILDING

152

cg.access

1.

Farrell's outline design of the building envisages completely separate entrances for:

a) The British Council;

b) passport/ immigration/ consular service; and c) VIP visitors.

A more detailed description of the requirements of access for the various categories of caller will help to refine the design brief.

2.

Callers on the Immigration Section (more correctly called "Entry Clearance"(EC) Section) will fall into 3 categories:

i) British Nationals (without right of abode in the

UK);

ii) Hong Kong Certificate of Identity holders; iii) Foreign Nationals.

There may be operational reasons to deal separately with these callers once they have reached the Section, but there is no need for separate access.

3.

Callers on Passport Section will also form 3 categories:

-

i) British Citizens perhaps 200,000; ii) British Nationals (Overseas)

million;

iii) Other British subjects

perhaps 34

-

a few thousand.

As above they will probably need to be dealt with at different counter sections, but need not be segregated for entry to the building.

-

4. Callers on Consular Section will routinely be British Citizens visiting Hong Kong - historically only some 40 cases per year. But if there is civil unrest or a serious erosion of bi-lateral relations (or both), Consular Section could be obliged to deal with a much larger workload, taking in all expatriate BCs in Hong Kong and, arguably, BCS under the 1990 Act (although if they are regarded as Chinese under Chinese Nationality law, there will be no legal entitlement to consular protection).

•

In normal circumstances it should be sufficient for consular cases to enter through the same entrance as passport and entry clearance applicants, but provision should be made for them to identify themselves at reception to avoid having to join long queues of other callers. Consideration should also be given to separate means of ascent (rather than using the main escalators to EC and passport floors).

RESTRICTED MANAGEMENT IN CONFIDENCE 1

HRD 400/1.