XN000022-1996-03-13 — Page 41

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Crimes in disciplined services

Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Man-kwong and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

Recently, a number of cases have been brought to light in which members of the disciplined services have been found to have committed criminal offences or breaches of internal discipline. In view of this, will the Government inform this Council:

Reply:

(a)

(b)

(c)

Mr President,

(a)

of the number of staff in the disciplined services who have been accused of committing criminal offences in the past three years, together with a breakdown by type of offence of the number of such cases proceeding to prosecution as well as the number of prosecutions resulting in conviction;

of the breakdown, by type of offence, of the number of staff in the disciplined services who have been accused of committing breaches of internal discipline, as well as the number of staff who have been disciplined for such breaches. in the past three years; and

what strategy does the Government have to maintain discipline so as to prevent members of the disciplined services from collaborating with criminals to commit crimes as a result of their coming into frequent contact with criminal activities; and how it will prevent staff in the disciplined services from abusing their power to engage in illegal activities in the course of carrying out their law-enforcement duties?

The answer to the three parts of the question is as follows:

Statistics on the number of staff in the main disciplined services (including the ICAC) who have been accused of committing criminal offences are not available. Statistics on the number of cases in which staff of the disciplined services were prosecuted for criminal offences, and the respective number of convictions in the past three years are as follows: