TNAG-1364-FCO40-1810-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1986 — Page 75

Question No. 11

REPLY BY THE HON. MR. MICHAEL THOMAS, C.M.G. Q.C. ATTORNEY GENERAL

TO A QUESTION FROM THE HON. TAI CHIN-WAH

IN THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL MEETING OF 4 DECEMBER 1985

QUESTION

Could this Council be informed of the following:-

number of

REPLY

(a)

(i)

divorce cases and

(ii)

civil cases, other than divorce,

(b)

which involved the assistance of legal aid over the past five years; and

whether the Government has any plan to set up an advisory body to help couples with marital problems and to assist them to bring about reconciliation prior to the commencement of divorce proceedings?

Without searching individual case files, the precise

numbers required by the first part of the question are not

available. The best I can do is to give the number of Legal

Aid Certificates issued for matrimonial cases during the five

year period ending 31 December 1984, which was 8,453. The

corresponding figure for other civil cases was 17,246.

For the purposes of the question, the number of

certificates issued for matrimonial proceedings includes not

only divorce but also other family related proceedings.

/The Government

Page 75Page 76