TNAG-2935-FCO40-4210-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-National-(Overseas)-1993 — Page 126

37-JUL-1993 18:38

B4 IND LIVERPOOL

44

851 038 3389

F.00

HONG KONG ORDERS IN COUNCIL

DRAFT SPEECH

I beg to move, that the draft British Nationality (Hong Kong)

(Selection Scheme) (Amendment) Order 1993 and the draft Hong Kong

De approved

AMSTEROTREN US

AmonGMANT

Subject to approval in this House and in another place, the first

Order will come into force on 3 January 1994 and the second on

21 July 1993.

SELECTION SCHEME ORDER

It may be helpful if I put the first Order in context. As its

title makes clear, it relates to the Selection Scheme which was

provided for by the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act 1990.

The detailed arrangements governing the Scheme were introduced

by the British Nationality (Hong Kong) (Selection Scheme) Order

1990. This provided for applications for British citizenship to

be made in tranches. Quotas were set for four classes of applicant the general occupational class, the disciplined service class, the sensitive service class and the entrepreneurs

class. The Act provided for up to 50,000 places to be made

available to British nationals in these four classes and the

various groups of which they were comprised. The Scheme allows

for points to be given for various attributes such as age,

education, experience. Citizenship is given within the quota to

those scoring most points. 39,500 of the 50,000 places were assigned for distribution under the first tranche, which started

in December 1990 and finishes at the end of this year. Because

of an element of under-subscription just over 38,000 will be registered in the first tranche. The whole operation is running very smoothly and we are well on target to complete the first tranche by the end of the year. As at 3 July we had registered 31,568 principal beneficiaries together with 52,876 dependants.

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