50
Reply:
Mr President,
(a)
(b)
(c)
Summonses issued by the Magistrates' Courts are produced by the Computerised Case and Summons Management System (CASEMAN). Whether a summons contains a Chinese translation depends on whether a standard offence description(s) has (have) been prepared by the relevant prosecuting department(s). Most (about 3,000) standard offence descriptions are already available in both English and Chinese, and summonses in respect of these offences are being issued in both languages. However, variables such as the defendants' addresses have not yet been included because of the limitation of the CASEMAN's capability.
All summonses are prescribed and issued pursuant to Form 1 of the Magistrates (Form) Rules, Cap 227 of the Laws of Hong Kong. A Chinese version of the Form has been prepared, and it will be brought into operation upon the upgrading of CASEMAN's capability in the light of the findings of the inter-departmental working party referred to in (c) below.
In the longer-term, CASEMAN will have to be upgraded to enable An summonses to be issued in both English and Chinese. interdepartmental working party has been formed to identify the changes required to achieve full bilingualism in summonses and to work out how to interface with prosecution departments on the electronic exchange of information. The working party is expected to complete its findings by the end of this year.
End/Wednesday, May 24, 1995