My lor 10/10
CONFIDENTIAL
м
Hall
21/10 PA
مامه
A J Hunter Esq
Deputy Secretary for the Civil Service
HONG KONG
HKA 435/393/6
KLIVED I
INDEX
20 OCT 1978
OF CER
*ཡཾ
PA
Acton Tuke
Ns
P.D. 24
24/10
18 October 1978
LAST
RIC
016)
(19)
REF.
24
POLICY ON THE USE OF COLONIAL REGULATIONS 54-66
1. I am sorry to have taken so long to reply to your letters of 26 April and 10 July.
2. We have now completed a review of all our files relating to cases arising from CR54-66 since 1974, and have concluded that the guidelines in John Champion's letter of 9 April 1974 remain generally valid. Our main problem has been to decide whether the Yua Ma tei case changed the rules for the use of CR55. We do not think it did. CR55 was only used because:
(a)
(b)
action was not feasible under the other Colonial Regulations, but
there was overwhelming evidence of misconduct which could nt in the circumstances be produced in Court.
Its use was therefore not inconsistent with paragraphs 5 and 6 of Champion's letter.
.
3. It is true that in the Yua Ma tei case we did not go through the procedure of consulting an independent committee, on the lines proposed in paragraph 8 of Champion's letter. But that was never more than a suggested way of proceding, and it has not been used in other CR55 cases either it has proved too cumbersome. The idea behind it was to provide some sort of safeguard against arbitrary use of CR55 simply for administrative convenience. In the Yau Ma tei case we achieved this by having three people review each file independently; only when it was their unanimous decision that action under CR55 was justified did we recommend the Secretary of State to agree to the appropriate action. shall ensure that some similar procedure is introduced in any cases that may arise in future.
Wes
4. As a result of our review, I can confirm that the draft instructions which you sent with your letter of 26 April on the handling of corruption cases in the Public Service are broadly
/acceptable
CONFIDENTIAL
Page 15Page 16