CODE 18-77
CONFIDENTIAL
MA SP
Reference
HKA
16
37311
(15)
Miss Brooks Legal Counsellor
JUDICIAL OFFICERS
LETTERS PATENT AND
1.
(TENURE OF OFFICE) BILL: AMENDMENTS TO THE
COLONIAL REGULATIONS
Miss Williams and Mr Stone discussed this issue with you last year, (at that time it was called the Judicial Officers (Security of Tenure) Bill) but there has been no action on it since Miss Wong's letter to Miss Williams of 4 September.
(54
(HKA 373/1 (1992)
2. The Bill has now been approved by ExCo and has been introduced into LegCo. We now need to make the amendments to the Article XVI of the Letters Patent and Colonial Regulations 54 (6) and 65. You will recall that we suggested last year that the amendment to the LPs should be made at the same time as the amendment relating to the Localisation of the JP System. However, Hong Kong decided that this would not be possible given the difference in timing of the two bills.
the
3. Miss Wong's successor, Miss Tam has enclosed a copy of the amendments which were agreed last year with her letter of -7 May and asks us to re-examine them in the light of the latest version of the Bill. She also asks us about the formality involved in bringing the amendments into operation and the lead time required. I presume that we will have to submit the amendments to the LPS to the Privy Council; next meetings are on 23 June and 20 July. As usual, they will need to be submitted to the Privy Council Office about 5 days in advance. Please could you let me know which of these 2 meetings you would prefer to aim for, given your workload, and whether you would like me to draft a submission or would prefer to do it yourself. As regards the CRS, I presume that I should draft a submission to the Secretary of State which could be submitted at about the same time as LP amendments are submitted to the Privy Council Office. I understand from Mr Herdman, WIAD that he is now aiming to start the exercise to re-print the Colonial Regulations in July, so it would be useful to have these new amendments made by that time.
4.
Miss Tam also mentions that the Governor will need to repeal Regulation 3 of the Disciplinary Proceedings (Colonial Regulations) Regulations to reflect the changes to be made to the CRS. The Secretary of State will also need to give his approval to this, but I presume that we could include this in the submission asking for approval for the amendments to the CRs.
1
CONFIDENTIAL