XN000022-1995-10-18 — Page 18

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Debate on Private Member's Bills

Following is the speech by the Chief Secretary, the Hon Anson Chan, in the motion debate on Private Member's Bills in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

The motion that Members are debating today needs to be seen in the context of this Council's overall responsibility for the passing of legislation. Our system of government in Hong Kong provides for the executive - the Administration - to take the lead in formulating policies, and the legislature, that is, this Council, to scrutinize the legislative and financial proposals that we put forward. It has always been the case that the vast majority of Bills considered by this Council are introduced by the Administration.

The Administration's programme of legislation does not come about by accident. It is carefully thought out. Many Bills reflect the wishes of Members of this Council, expressed through motion debates, through discussion in LegCo panels or through other means. Many others are the result of public consultation exercises, or of recommendations made by our many advisory Boards and Committees. Still others are initiatives by the Administration, perhaps to give effect to an international obligation that the sovereign power has entered into on our behalf, to update legislation that is now obsolete or to correct some anomaly or loophole in previous legislation.

Every year, Branch Secretaries put forward proposals for legislation in their policy areas arising from all these sources. The Financial Secretary, the Attorney General and I meet several times with the Law Draftsman to consider these proposals very carefully. We have to balance the pressures for change against the resources available, both in terms of the capacity of the Law Draftsman's Division to draft the legislation and of this Council to scrutinize it. Inevitably, we conclude that we cannot include in our programme all the proposals that have been put forward. So we have to set priorities. And we do this, of course, in terms of what we honestly believe to be the public interest. Our aim is to end up with a balanced programme of legislation that meets, as far as possible, the interests of the various sectors of our society.