XN000022-1997-04-09 — Page 41

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Enactment of legislation explained

Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan Wai-yip and a written reply by the Attorney General, Mr Jeremy Mathews, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

It is stipulated in by-law 28 of the Hawker (Urban Council) By-Laws that the Urban Council may, for the purpose of the charging of fees for the use of fixed pitches by licensees, erect a meter at or on each of those pitches. I sent a letter to the Attorney General in February this year enquiring about the matter, and my enquiry was then referred to the Urban Services Department (USD) to follow up. The USD has recently sent me a reply saying that "The Urban Council has never set up such fixed pitches. The keeping of the relevant by-law is to enable the Urban Council to have the legal authority to set up such pitches should there be policy reasons to do so, so as to avoid wasting resources in going through the process of re-enacting the relevant legislative provisions." In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)

(b)

(c)

of the number of legislative provisions that have been enacted before the actual need for such provisions arises, as in the case of the above by-law;

whether consideration will be given to deleting or amending those legislative provisions which have never been invoked over the past several decades; and

whether the enactment of legislation before the need for such legislation arises is in keeping with the spirit of law-making?

Reply:

Mr President,

The answers to these three questions are as follows.

The Administration proposes legislation only when it is necessary to remedy a problem or to prevent an anticipated problem from happening. Therefore, all legislative schemes are introduced in response to a perceived need. However, it is not uncommon for authorities to be given the power to make subsidiary legislation that will supplement the legislative scheme. The powers given to such authorities, either in the principal Ordinance or in subsidiary legislation, need to cater for various possible methods of implementation. It is therefore inevitable that some powers are not actually utilised.