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Clause 46 makes it an offence for a person to obstruct, resist or delay a coroner, including a person assisting a coroner, in the lawful discharge of his duties and lawful exercise of his powers under the Bill.
Mr President, this Bill represents a further reform to the administration of justice in Hong Kong and I commend it to this Council for early passage into law.
End
Immigration Service (Amendment) Bill 1996
Following is the speech by Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in moving the second reading of the Immigration Service (Amendment) Bill 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the second reading of the Immigration Service (Amendment) Bill 1996 be read the second time. This Bill seeks to give members of the Immigration Service powers of investigation into offences relating to registration matters, and in certain forgery offences under the Crimes Ordinance. It also seeks to regularise the procedures relating to the handling of persons arrested by members of the Immigration Service.
The Immigration Service took over the work of the Registration of Persons Office in April 1977 and the work of registration of births, deaths, and marriages in July 1979. Members of the Immigration Service, however, do not have clearly defined powers to deal with the investigation of offences relating to these responsibilities. When such offences are encountered, immigration officers may make initial enquiries into the suspected offences and, if there is prima facie evidence, they are obliged to refer the cases to the Police for full investigation and prosecution. This gives rise to unnecessary duplication of work and inefficiency.
Members of the Immigration Service are at present empowered to investigate certain offences relating to forged documents, but they do not have powers to investigate other forgery offences involving forged dies, stamps and instruments which may be used in making the forged documents. When these forgeries are encountered during investigation, they have to be referred to the Police for further action. This duplication of work and the separate handling of evidence again gives rise to inefficiency.