Be file
733
NKA 3731
2 August 1993
NKA 373/
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SW1A 2AH
AUG 1993
Telephone: 0712702650
The Hon Mr Justice Godfrey Supreme Court
Hong Kong
Dear Judge Godfrey,
on 23311
HER MAJESTY'S OVERSEAS CIVIL SERVICE (HMOCS)
Thank you for your letter of 8 July to Peter Ricketts who is currently on leave.
The Colonial Office Paper to which you refer (Colonial 306) did, indeed, recognise a special obligation towards officers who hold their posts as a result of their having been selected by the Secretary of State and it was a consequence of this recognition that a list was composed of those to whom the particular obligations referred to in that Paper would apply. This list was the origin of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service and the regulations constituting that Service were published in Colonial 306.
The regulations, both in their original and in their amended form (Miscellaneous 520), state that eligibility for membership of HMOCS is confined to pensionable officers, and this requirement of membership of the permanent and pensionable establishment of a Colonial Government has also been a principle factor in establishing compensation schemes. Such schemes are established at times of constitutional change and when the Secretary of State ceases to have ultimate responsibility for matters relating to appointments, promotions and discipline within the territory concerned since such changes may, whatever arrangements the United Kingdom Government may make with the successor Government for the continued employment of members of the public service, affect conditions of service and frustrate the expectations of permanent and pensionable officers of completing a full
career.
Such schemes are not intended to make provision for those who are not committed to a pensionable career (eg those who are appointed on contract and gratuity terms) or those who, when they have joined the service of the colonial government, must have been aware of the possible consequences for their continued employment of the conclusion of an agreement of the kind of constitutional change on which a scheme takes effect. The decision made following the publication of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, that no new
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