TNAG-1734-FCO40-2447-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 303

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 11 May 1988

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MR. PETER C. WONG: Sir, in paragraph 5 of the Secretary's answer, the Secretary states 'applicants for visas or immigration permits to certain countries are required by those countries to state whether they have ever been convicted of an offence'. How does the Secretary reconcile this statement, Sir, with his answer in the last part of the previous paragraph which states 'I should emphasise that any person who applies for a Certificate of No Criminal Conviction with a previous conviction for an offence which is no longer recordable is issued with a certificate'?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, I think that the point raised in the previous question is substantially the same here. The two are not related. The Commis- sioner of Police's list of recordable offences is one thing and what the consulate asks and how the applicant replies is another thing.

MRS. TAM: Sir, again I would like to refer to paragraph 4 of the answer. In view of the considerable amount of subjective judgement required by the criteria and the need to make reference to social attitude, would it not be more appropriate for the Governor in Council to decide what offences should be on the list, and would the Government consider issuing guidance notes for members of the public applying for Certificate of No Criminal Conviction informing them of the list of recordable offences, and of the policy behind granting Certificate of No Criminal Conviction?

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, the authority for the commissioner to decide on these crimes, as I have explained in the letter to the convenor of the OMELCO Security Panel, is under the Police Force Ordinance and the commissioner's prerogative in this respect has been upheld by the judicial review in the recent case of Regina v. Li Hok-ming. The Commissioner of Police assesses society's attitude. I accept this can be adjudged as subjective. But the Commissioner of Police has reference to a wide range of information from the public, from courts and from legal practitioners, from district fight crime committees and other bodies. Statistics on reported crimes also provide a very useful measure against which to assess opinions. As regards the last part of the question, this is certainly something which I can consider, Sir.

Conditions of service for subsidised school teachers

2. MR. SZETO asked (in Cantonese): The Education Department has recently introduced two changes to the conditions of service of subsidised school teachers concerning: (1) the payment of compensation for resignation without sufficient notice; and (2) the calculation of maternity leave for female teachers. Will Government inform this Council whether the teachers' union and schools councils concerned have been consulted about these changes, and whether amendments have to be made to the contracts of all subsidised school teachers as a result of introducing these two changes?