TNAG-1362-FCO40-1808-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 136

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The need for the amendment has arisen as a

result of the increase in lengthy cases involving substantial preparatory work by Solicitors prior to trial. The Legal Aid Department has insufficient manpower resources to conduct such cases and the existing fees payable to Solicitors are such that private practitioners assigned would be required to carry out the work at grossly uneconomic rates and are not unnaturally reluctant to do so despite their record of selfless assistance to the legal aid scheme.

Amendments are made to the form of application

for legal aid in criminal cases to achieve consistency

with that used for civil cases and cross references to

previous Regulations as to assessment of resources and contributions are corrected to reflect recent changes effected by those Regulations.

Sir, I beg to move.