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D
E
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The Working Party proposed specific legislative amendments to achieve these broad objectives and these have now been incorporated in draft legislation. Annexed for the consideration of Honourable Members are:
(a) the Registration of Persons (Amendment) Bill 1979
(Annex C);
(b) the Registration of Persons (Amendment) Regulations
1979 (Annex D); and
(c) the Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment) Bill
1979 (Annex E).
7
Details of the proposed amendments to the Ordinances and Regulations are provided in the Explanatory Notes attached to the draft legislation. The main changes are described below. For convenience these are shown under subject headings.
Names under which Residents are Registered
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Hong Kong residents, especially older residents, frequently use more than one name. A resident may therefore be on record under several names in different government departments. This arises in part from existing statutory provisions which allow a registrant to elect the name under which he is to be registered, to change his name on registering for an adult identity card, and to have his given names amended in the birth register until he reaches 21 years of age. This leads to confusion and duplication of Government records. It can also cause inconvenience to the person himself when he seeks to obtain a service from a particular Government department. In addition, a system which allows an individual to register with Government depart- ments under different names is clearly not only confusing but also open to abuse.
9
Accordingly it is proposed in clause 5 of the Registration of Persons (Amendment) Bill to require a person to use the name which appears on his identity card in his dealings with Government Departments. In addition, amending regulation 4(b), requires a person to be registered under the name which appears on documents which establish his identity, nationality and residential status.
10
For the same reasons as are given in paragraph 8 above, clause 2(b) of the Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment) Bill provides that once a child born in Hong Kong reaches 11 years of age and is registered for his first identity card, his parents should no longer be able to change his given names in the Register of Births. This gives parents the opportunity of changing any unsuitable names before the child registers for an identity card. From the age of 11, the identity card becomes a person's principal means of identification and it is considered unnecessary to allow changes in the Register of Births after that age.
CONFIDENTIAL
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