4. I have considered whether there will be any confusion between draft Regulation 93 (ii) and Regulation 59(i) (retirement on the ground that the retirement is desirable in the public interest.). I think it is clear however that Regulation 59 arises in the context of punishment of an officer.
5. Hong Kong Government have asked that the Governor should be given the general authority to delegate his power to retire officers as appropriate and that this should be specifically included in Regulation 93, as was the case of Regulation 54(5). I think we need to split draft Regulation 93 into two paragraphs, the second one of which will contain the authority to the Governor to delegate his power to retire officers. Consequently draft Regulation 93 as currently drafted, needs to become draft Regulation 93, paragraph (1) and the new paragraph on delegation will become draft paragraph (2). Incidentally, I think that paragraphs ii, iii, iv and v, should become a, b, c, d and e.
The present lettering and numbering in the Colonial Regulations is internally inconsistent, but I believe that this change would be more correct. I suggest that the new paragraph (2) would read as follows:
6.
"The Governor may delegate to any public officer the power conferred on him by paragraph 1 above of this regulation."
As regards your paragraph 5, I belive the past papers to which I was referring earlier were papers that Ms Coglin asked me to look at in early 1991. I see no reason why we cannot seek the Secretary of State's approval for new Regulation 93 at the same time as asking him to delegate his authority under the new regulation. In any case, it avoids having an interim period during which the Governor may not delegate his authority.
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Shelagh Brooks.
Shelagh Brooks