XN000022-1995-06-07 — Page 29

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At present, the Division has 99 Crown Counsel, 95 lay court prosecutors and 153 support staff. In 1994, they handled 2,416 appeal cases, 654 cases in the High Court, 683 cases in the District Court and 5,775 cases in the Magistrate's Courts. This represent an increase of some 38% over the number of cases handled in 1993, without a matching increase in staff I should add. Apart from the day to day advisory duties, counsel in the Division also provided 5,236 pieces of specialist advice to various law enforcement agencies in the financial year 1994/95 an increase of 16% over the previous year. I would like to pay tribute to the officers in the Prosecutions Division - the Crown Counsel, Court Prosecutors and their hardworking support staff whose dedicated work does not always get the recognition it deserves. I wish to place on record my tribute to their skills, their experience, their versatility and sheer hard work. Hong Kong is indebted to them.

Improvements

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This evening's debate reference had been made to certain specific cases, these cases all had been subject of detailed discussion in the past and I've answered questions in this Council in respect of many of them, in some cases, at considerable length. Members will forgive me if I do not repeat what I have said previously about those cases will understand for the reasons I have just given why I do not intend to add what I've already said on previous occasions.

Mr President. I now like to set out some of the improvements made to the Prosecutions Division over the recent years. Not as a result of a knee jerk reaction to crisis, not as a reaction to quick fix solutions, not as some sort of delay reaction but as a steady process of improvement managed in a careful and measured way.

First, the Division is now sub-divided into some 15 units each with its own specialist function and each headed by a Directorate officer. These units include a Court Advocates Unit which deals with nearly all High Court trials, Trial Preparation Units for High Court and District Court, an Appeals Unit, an Extradition Unit, a Drugs Asset Recovery Unit and a Bill of Rights Unit to name just a few. Each unit is composed of specialists in those areas, increasing the level of professional expertise necessary to handle the complex nature of much of today's criminal work:

A