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Clauses 37 to 40 reflect the forthcoming change of sovereignty by providing for the mark on Government envelopes to be changed from 'on Her Majesty's service' to 'on Government service'. The new mark will enjoy the same privileges and protection as the existing one. The amendments affect the Post Office Ordinance and Regulations made under it.
Since 1994 foreign lawyers have been permitted to practise in Hong Kong subject to certain conditions and requirements imposed by the Legal Practitioners Ordinance. That Ordinance provides for the "taxation" of a solicitor's bill of costs, that is to say, it enables an application to be made to the court for a determination of what the appropriate charges should be. No similar provision presently exists in respect of foreign lawyers' bills. Clauses 41 to 43 provide that those bills of costs will be treated in the same way as solicitors' bills.
11
Clauses 81 and 82 seek to close two loopholes which have been identified in certain offences under the Crimes Ordinance. The first concerns the meaning of 'currency note" for the purpose of counterfeiting offences. At present the definition of 'currency note" is limited to a note that is lawfully issued outside Hong Kong and is customarily used as money in the country of issue. The law does not therefore criminalize the counterfeiting of foreign notes that are no longer used as money. The amendment will ensure that the definition extends to a note which is or has been customarily used as money in the country of issue. The second loophole relates to the definition of "defective" for the purpose of various sexual offences. Because the existing definition does not cover conditions such as schizophrenia, a defendant was acquitted of the offence of unlawful sexual intercourse with a defective in a case which came before the courts in 1994. The amendment proposed in clause 82 plugs this loophole by bringing the definition of 'defective' in the Crimes Ordinance into line with the definition of 'mental disorder' in the Mental Health Ordinance.
Clauses 88 to 120, in Parts XII and XIII of the Bill, propose a large number of minor amendments which are needed to revise penalty provisions, correct grammatical errors and errors of cross-referencing, provide Chinese equivalents for terms and expressions which at present appear only in English, and to make other purely textual changes.
As I indicated earlier, this Bill is part of continuing process of tidying up Hong Kong's statute law and effecting minor reforms. The proposals in it are largely of a routine and uncontroversial character.
Mr President, I commend the Bill to the Council.
End