XN000022-1995-05-10 — Page 32

9.

Clause 10 also amends section 123 of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance to limit the court's power to hold criminal proceedings in closed court. Under the Bill, this power will only be exerisable if the court is satisfied that it is necessary in the interests of justice or public order or security to close the court. The Bill also allows part of the proceedings to be in closed court and provides that the alleged offence, the verdict and sentence must be publicly announced. Under the new provision, there will also be a right of appeal against any closure order.

Other amendments

Mr President, I turn now to some of the more significant of the miscellaneous amendments in the Bill-

clause 57 makes it clear that, where a deceased person has expressed a request that his or her body, or any part of it, be used for certain purposes, in particular for an organ transplant, that request should prevail over any views of his or her next of kin;

clause 13 clarifies the power of the court to appoint a judicial trustee in respect of a charitable trust. Under the present law, it is not clear whether the court has power to appoint a judicial trustee in respect of a charitable trust. Since the appointment of a judicial trustee might be of great utility to a number of important charitable trusts, the existence of a power of appointment in such cases should be put beyond doubt;

clause 4 raises the upper age of eligibility for the Superintendents' Discretion Scheme from 17 years to 18 years. Under this Scheme, Police officers of the rank of Superintendent and above have a discretion to caution, rather than prosecute, young offenders in appropriate cases. The aim of the Scheme is to help rehabilitate young offenders. The Scheme was established in 1963, when the target group was offenders under the age of 14. After two reviews, the age limit was extended to 16 in 1966 and to 17 in 1988. The Scheme has achieved good results. In April 1993, an interdepartmental Working Group, headed by the then Solicitor General, was established to review the Scheme. The Working Group's Report was submitted to the Fight Crime Committee, which endorsed the recommendations in the Report in September 1994. The present amendment is proposed in order to implement an important part of the recommendations;