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DRAFT SPEECH BY HON MARIA TAM, OBE, JP LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 9.7.86
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INTERPRETATION AND GENERAL CLAUSES (AMENDMENT) (NO. 2) BILL 1986
HKK OW! RECEIVED IN REGIS, HY
24 JUL 1986
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Action Taken
AGB 24
This bill has been introduced as a result of
recommendations made by an Ad Hoc Group with Mr P C WONG, Mr J J Swaine, and Mr Andrew WONG of the Legislative Council set up to study guidelines for the making of subsidiary legislation and to review the present procedure for the supervision of subsidiary legislation. It seeks to amend Section 34 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance to allow the Legislative Council to extend by resolution the period in which it may intervene to amend subsidiary legislation tabled in the Council by up to 21 days and to intervene at any time within the first 28 days after a subsidiary legislation is tabled.
Section 34 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 1) provides that all subsidiary legislation should be laid on the table of the Legislative Council at the next sitting subsequent to its publication in the Gazette. Unless the principal ordinance under which the subsidiary legislation was made requires specifically the expressed approval of the Legislative Council, a limited period of 28 days is then allowed for amendments to be made by the Council. The Ad Hoc Group has examined carefully the above procedure and has arrived at the conclusion that whilst the present arrangement is acceptable in most cases, there are occasions when a greater degree of flexibility is needed. To illustrate, a difficult situation may arise when the potential impact of an item of subsidiary legislation could not be assessed fully within the stipulated time limit of 28 days. On the other hand, after the gazetting of the subsidiary legislation if a
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