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"In view of the increasing demand for the prompt production of high-quality law reform reports, I intend to increase the size of its secretariat," he said.

In common with the rest of the Administration, the Legal Department helps with preparing for the transition. Mr Mathews proposed five new initiatives:

improving research facilities and expertise to cope with the increasing demand for advice on China Law, and to keep abreast of the rapid development of the legal system and laws in China;

✦ enhancing public access to the judicial system by providing bilingual court

documents;

• providing additional resources for the giving of legal advice in respect of the Basic Law and constitutional law;

exploring ways to promote the greater use of both written and spoken Chinese (including Putonghua) throughout the department; and

strengthening the Law Drafting Division to enable it to deal with the additional drafting work required in the next three years.

On the two issues of immediate concern that he outlined in his Policy Commitments, namely legal services reform and briefing out of legal department cases, Mr Mathews noted that response to the Consultation Paper on Legal Services was good - 87 written submissions were received and a public opinion survey of 1,000 households was commissioned.

The department was now evaluating the results of these exercises with a view to formulating a clear policy on the way forward and he hoped to be able to brief Members further early next year, he said.

He added that the working party chaired by the Director of Public Prosecutions and including representatives of the Bar and Law Society was carrying out a review of the briefing out of criminal and civil cases and was expected to submit its report to him at the end of December.

He would be happy to brief members of the panel on the Administration of Justice and Legal Services on the report when he received it, he said, adding that in the meantime, he had put in place a number of new procedures designed to make the monitoring of briefed out cases more efficient.