XN000022-1995-06-22 — Page 2

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Transcript of the Governor's meet-the-media session

The following is a transcript of the meet-the-media session by the Governor, the Rt. Hon. Christopher Patten, after attending the St. John Ambulance Association Centre for HK and St John Council for HK AGM today (Thursday).

Governor: You all come to ask me about the work of St John who do such a wonderful job for Hong Kong.

Question: Mr Governor, the Democratic Party has announced that they will move a motion of no confidence on you. What do you think of that?

Governor: I'm not losing any sleep about it, nor I think is anybody else in Hong Kong. I think it's gesture politics, empty gesture politics and merely tells us that the Democratic Party's election campaign is starting rather earlier this year. But there is one issue that I am concerned about and that is to ensure that our legislation on the Court of Final Appeal gets through and is supported by majority of the Legislative Council. We'll be working very hard at that so that the people of Hong Kong can enjoy the rule of law up to and beyond 1997 without any interruption.

End/Thursday, June 22, 1995

Briefing-out Review Panel set to start work

The Attorney General, Mr Jeremy Mathews, today (Thursday) announced the composition of the Working Party, under the chairmanship of the Director of Prosecutions, which will conduct a comprehensive review of the arrangements for the briefing out of cases to barristers and solicitors in private practice.

The review, announced by the Attorney General last month, is one of the measures adopted to improve on briefing out procedures. Most of these procedures, such as the setting up of a selection panel of two Deputy Crown Prosecutors to select private counsel and negotiate fees for non-standard briefing out, have already been put in place.

The Working Party responsible for the review will submit a report to the Attorney General by the end of this year.