7.
is provision for placing before the Legislature reports on which the
Commissioner has recommended
remedial action, together with the Colonial Secretary's report on the
action taken. Such reports can
be raised in the Legislative
Council.
(b) There is no sifting mechanism before
complaints can reach the
Commissioner. He receives them
direct.
The draft Bill was referred to the
Executive Council at the end of January and
Council Members were asked for their views on the question of whether the idea of the appointment of a Parliamentary Commissioner should be pursued. Some of the unofficial
members of the Executive Council had
considerable reservations about the whole
idea and these were subsequently ventilated in the Governor's Address to the Legislative Council on Budget Day(copy of the relevant extract from the Address is attached),
8. In March this year, at the Governor's request, we referred a copy of the draft Bill to the Office of the Parliamentary
Commissioner in the United Kingdom for their comments; these have since been received but have been confined to only one point of detail. However, arrangements have been madd for the Attorney General, Hong Kong, who drafted the Bill, to visit the Office in August during his forthcoming leave to the United Kingdom with a view to further discussions on the subject.
In
9. Meanwhile, the present position in Hong Kong is that the Executive Council have decided that an examination should be carried
out into the possibility of strengthening some of the machinery which already exists in the Colony to enable members of the public to
bring to the notice of Government authorities
/ any
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