TNAG-1857-FCO40-2632-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 106

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

12 July 1989

香港立法局

-一九八九年七月十二日

54

(a) by deleting "Kowloon" and substituting "Kowloon and New Kowloon";

and

(b) by deleting "#".

Question on the amendment proposed, put and agreed to.

Question on long title, as amended, proposed, put and agreed to.

DRUG TRAFFICKING (RECOVERY OF PROCEEDS) BILL 1989

Clauses 9 and 30 to 32 were agreed to.

Clauses 1 and 28

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: Sir, I move that clauses 1 and 28 be amended as set out in the paper circulated to Members.

As I have said earlier this afternoon, having considered the request of the financial sector, the ad hoc group have agreed that clause 25 should be implemented three months after the rest of the legislation has come into effect. The amendment to clause 1 will enable this to be done. It is intended that only subclauses (1), (2), (3)(a), (4) and (5) of clause 25 will have a later commencement date, but not subclause (3)(b) and (c). The effect of this is that, during the three-month period, a person will not be required by law to report any transactions known or believed to be related to proceeds of drug trafficking. However, if he should report, he would not breach any duty of confidentiality that he may owe to his clients, or attract any liability for any loss arising from such reporting.

The amendments to clause 28 serve three purposes: first, to extend the possible application of the legislation to external confiscation orders and proceedings to include, in particular, the investigative provisions in Part IV of the Bill; second, to clarify that a modification to the legislation for the purpose of such application includes a modification to confer a discretionary power; and finally, to simplify the language. These amendments are similar to those made to the 1986 Drug Trafficking Offences Act in the United Kingdom.

With these remarks, Sir, I beg to move.