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Juvenile Offenders Ordinance
When I introduced this Bill into this Council, I explained that it contains several provisions affecting press freedom. I propose to move a Committee Stage amendment in respect of the Juvenile Offenders Ordinance that is also concerned with press freedom.
Section 3D(4) of that Ordinance empowers a juvenile court to exclude any representative of a newspaper or news agency from its sittings. However, it does not provide for the circumstances where that power may be exercised. The Committee Stage amendment I will be moving circumscribes the power in section 3D(4) by referring to the interest of the child or young person, since this will bring the provision into line with Article 10 of the Bill of Rights Ordinance and the original intention of the legislature when the legislation was introduced in 1973.
Crown Rent and Premium (Apportionment) Ordinance
I turn now to two aspects of the Bill that members of the Bills Committee had reservations about. The first is the proposal to amend the Crown Rent and Premium (Apportionment) Ordinance so that it would no longer be necessary to affix, on the building concerned, notices in respect of the apportionment of Crown Rent. The purpose of that procedure is to enable the owner of the building to object to a proposed apportionment, or to a decision not to exercise powers relating to apportionment. Since, in practice, no one has ever exercised this right to object, the Administration considered that the procedure could be dispensed with.
Members of the Bills Committee were not sure that this was a sufficient justification for the proposed amendment. In view of the shortage of time at the end of this legislative session, it was not possible to explore the issue thoroughly. On the advice of the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands, I will therefore propose a Committee Stage amendment to delete these amendments from the Bill. However, the Secretary may decide to re-introduce the amendments next session.
Estate Duty Ordinance
The other aspect of the Bill that the Bills Committee expressed reservations about was a proposed amendment to the Estate Duty Ordinance. The Bill proposes to change the method of calculating the value of benefits that accrued to a deceased person within the 3 years before his death from controlled companies. This is particularly relevant to benefits in the form of accommodation. Instead of being based on the rent actually received by a controlled company, the Bill provides that the value of accommodation would be based on the fair market rent that would be expected to be received by the company.