CONFIDENTIAL
2
asked the
Administration
whether the gazettal for the latter could take place in time to enable them to amend the
Standing orders in October. (They know nothing about the amendments relating to the 1995 LegCo.)
Accordingly, we
have explored the possibility of
proceeding now with the gazettal of those amendments which
deal with the stand-in arrangements, whilst leaving to а
later date the gazettal of the amendments relating to the
1995 Legco. However, legal advice is that all the
amendments must be yazetted as a whole at the cannot be split into parts. I gather this is
of the FCO Legal Advisers.
same time and also the view
This being the legal position, and given that it would be unsatisfactory for the new
the new stand-in arrangements
for the Legco President to be held up indefinitely by the
progress of the talks, we believe it is worth considering
the option of seeking Privy Council's approval to revoke the signed amendments, and in parallel to make two separate
sets of self-contained amendments (one on the 1995 LegCo,
the other on the stand-in arrangements for the LegCo
President). These two sets of amendments can then be
gazetted separately as and when appropriate. As discussed,
we understand that the Privy Council will next meet on 27
October.
Whilst the option outlined above will no doubt give us additional flexibility, we appreciate that making
submissions to the Privy Council will involve rather
tedious procedures. Also, given that
given that the Council will not