officers and the safeguard of pensions after 1997 would not involve any actual payments until later; the SPOS problem demanded attention and action now.
Mr Have said that a person on an average pension of say £12,500 had lost about one third of his income last year. Just now it was little easier, but still there was a loss, and a continuing risk. In the past some pensioners had become desperate and had appealed to the Governor in Council, and had been told they should look to HMG for a solution. Now the HMOCS Association in Hong Kong was negotiating a deal for the future for the serving officers, but the existing pensioners wanted a settlement now. Hong Kong pay-scales and terms of service had changed greatly over the past few years, but the existing pensioners had not benefitted from the improvements and should be regarded as a completely separate group from the serving officers.
Mr Pusinelli then referred to the 1971 Pensions (Increase) Act. The intention of the Act, as was made quite clear in the debates at the time, was to maintain the value of pensions. It was all right so long as pensions were paid in sterling. But the ODA said that for overseas pensions the Act only made the "top up" equal to what was paid to Home Civil Servants, and that there was no liability to preserve the purchasing power of the underlying basic pension.
OSPA had contested this for many years. Now a member had prepared a case which he was proposing to submit for Judicial Review, claiming that the SPOS regulations were either ultra vires or were being wrongly interpreted. OSPA had never encouraged this approach, and had been hoping that there would soon be a settlement of the SPOS issue without the need to go to court. But that argument was no longer convincing. Now that member was likely to be elected to the Association's Council at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting on 27 May.
Lord Grey said that they understood that the SPOS regulations were about to be thoroughly re-written, to clarify them. This was therefore the opportunity to deal with this issue too.
Mr Goodlad said that he understood OSPA's feeling of frustration. The Government had been trying to get agreement to a package which would cover compensation and sterling safeguards. The Governor had been pressing for it, and the Prime Minister was aware. He hoped to see the outcome shortly, though the decision was not in his hands. It was an inter-departmental issue. Revision of SPOS had financial implications which were difficult. But when the package was to hand he would bear OSPA's views and interests in mind. However that might not happen before 27 May.
Mr Pusinelli stressed that OSPA ́s concern was for action now to deal with the SPOS problem. The general compensation issue was for the future. He asked that the SPOS issue should be separated from the rest of the package. He thanked the Minister for receiving them.
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