Just now the Honourable Lee Cheuk-yan is in favour of raising the financial eligibility limits for applicants for legal aid by more than the rate of inflation. This is not appropriate in the context of this Bill, as its purpose is to make a routine biennial adjustment to the limits in line with inflation, and hence preserve their real value. However, as promised in our Policy Commitments published with the Governor's Policy Address last October, we are currently conducting a review of the criteria used to assess the financial eligibility of legal aid applicants. In this, we will consider whether the current criteria are still appropriate to the circumstances of Hong Kong today, or whether they need to be adjusted. We aim to consult Members of this Council and of the public on our preliminary proposals in May this
year.
Mr President, with these remarks, I commend this Bill to Honourable Members
for approval.
End
Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 1997
Following is the speech by the acting Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Doris Ho, in moving the second reading of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 1997 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 1997 be read a second time.
This Bill seeks to strengthen the provisions of the Mental Health Ordinance, with a view to providing better legal safeguards for mentally disordered and mentally handicapped people, as well as people caring for them.
In the existing Mental Health Ordinance, 'mental handicap' is not separately defined. It is subsumed under the term 'mental disorder' together with mental illness and other disorders of the mind.
To avoid misunderstanding that the two disabilities are the same, we propose to redefine the term 'mental disorder' so that persons with only a mental handicap will be excluded. A new definition of 'mental handicap' will also be introduced so that people who are only mentally handicapped can benefit from the relevant provisions of the Ordinance without being regarded as having a mental disorder.