One aspect of the appeals procedure set out in Annex C on which Members' advice is sought is whether the adjudicator should have discret in to allow the appellant legal representation. To do so might open th way to long drawn out hearings and involvement of solicitors in an increasing number of appeals, even where their participation made no contrib on to establishing the facts of the case. On the other hand, this risk would be avoided if the adjudicator behaved firmly and allowed representation only in cases where it would be useful to him in reaching his decision. Such a provision would also help in countering charges of summary treatment. The draft legislation is silent on this point but an addition to it would be needed if Members advised that the adjudicator should not be allowed to use his discretion.
Implementation of the Plan
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Assuming that Members advised that the bill should be introduced into the Legislative Council, it would be necessary to select a suitable Friday for this and set a date for the subsequent implementation of the plan (see paragraph 18 on timing). Once the date were fixed UMELCO would be informed in confidence of the proposals and their. comments sought. They would also be invited to agree to the necessary legislation being passed at a single sitting. Once Members were agreed the Chinese authorities would also be notified.
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A special session of the Legislative Council would be held on the Friday afternoon. All three readings would take place in the one session. This is because it is essential to commence to implement the plan over a weekend when the Immigration Department would be able to concentrate the necessary staff to register all those who were in Hong Kong on that date and wished to benefit from the period of grace.
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In the Legislative Council the Governinent's plans would be announced and immediately thereafter made known to the public by all possible means to ensure that no one was left in ignorance of what was intended. The public announcement would explain why the new measures had to be taken and say that the practice of not returning those reaching base was at an end. As an act of grace, those who had reached base at the time of the announcement would be allowed to stay and would be given the opportunity to record their presence at a special registration office in Victoria Barracks between 6.00 a. m. on Saturday and midnight on Monday. The announcement would go on to say that, to facilitate the identification of illegal immigrants and to deter would-be illegal immigrants from attempting to come to Hong Kong, certain legislation, principally the compulsory carrying of identify documents and an obligation on employers to ensure that all their employees had such documents, had been enacted
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