TNAG-2931-FCO40-4206-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-National-(Overseas)-1993 — Page 31

CONFIDENTIAL

161650

MDHOAN 1687*

Changes in the put to Treasury. (if it were

Lower the fee for a BN (0) passport. The setting of fees for passports is done by Consular Fee Order. basis of the fee setting would need to be We doubt that such a reduction on its own agreed) would lead to people, who intend to apply for BN (0) status, applying in good time.

Option F: There is no charge for the registration process, the fee is for the passport. We are doubtful about the Legality of differential pricing of passports in order to encourage earlier applications. Even if it were legal we do not believe that slight increases in fees over time would encourage this.

2.

ALL BN(0)s are dual BN(0)s/BDTCs. A BN (0) only retains that status providing he remains a BDTC until 30 June 1997. This is clear from Article 4(3) of the 1986 Order and paragraph 2(2) of the schedule to the 1985 Act. ALL that a BDTC is losing under the proposed Order is one form of British passport for another which carries almost exactly the same benefits. Once the Order in Council for registering BDTCs as BN (0)s and for issuing them with BN (0) passports is presented to Parliament, we do not envisage any serious difficuly in getting it approved. Should members of the LegCo Sub Committee continue to oppose the policy, that might attract some attention in Parliament. But provided we have sound arguments for not pursuing any of the alternatives suggested by Legco members, (which we think is the case), we would not (at official level) expect to have difficulty in passing the Order. The only circumstances we could foresee in which the Order would need to be withdrawn would be if it was shown to be seriously flawed technically almost certainly not on policy grounds.

3.

·

It will not be possible to show LegCo the precise terms of the Order in Council until it has been formally laid before Parliament. This will be done as soon as we and Home Office agree to the terms and it has been printed. There will then be a period of a few weeks during which LegCo may comment before the Order is debated.

HURD

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