XN000022-1997-04-30 — Page 29

These concerns, among others, were addressed by a Working Group, appointed by the Chief Justice, to review practices and procedures relating to matrimonial proceedings. The Working Group published a report in August 1996.

After considering the Working Group's recommendations, we propose that where a maintenance payer has defaulted in payment without reasonable cause, the court may issue an order to attach his income, for example, to require his employer to deduct payments from his wages and pay the amount direct to the payee. I should make it clear here that wages are not the only income capable of being attached. An attachment order can be made also in respect of other incomes, for example, dividends from the shares of a company. The proposals for attachment of income orders are contained in Clauses 6, 14 and 30 of the Bill.

To address the difficulty in tracing the whereabouts of a maintenance payer who has defaulted in payment, we propose that all maintenance payers should be required to notify the maintenance payees concerned (or other persons specified by the court) of any change of address, by registered mail, within 14 days of such a change. Failure to comply with the requirement without reasonable excuse would constitute an offence. The proposals are contained in Clauses 5, 15 and 31 of the Bill.

The second objective of the Bill is to fill a lacuna in the existing legislation, which does not empower the court to order the sale of matrimonial property even though such a sale is often necessary for the property to be divided equitably between two spouses or ex-spouses. The Working Group mentioned earlier and also the Court of Appeal - have suggested that legislative amendments similar to section 24A of the English Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 be enacted.

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We propose that in general, the English provision should be followed. In addition, in order to give the Hong Kong court greater flexibility, we propose that the court be empowered to make such a sale order, even where no prior financial or property adjustment order has been made, if it does not consider such a prior order to be appropriate. Our proposal is contained in Clauses 22 to 24 and 33 of the Bill.

The third objective of the Bill is to rationalise and standardise the upper age limits for the making of custody, supervision, care and maintenance orders for the benefits of a child.