HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
香港立法局
19 July 1989
一九八九年七月十九日
22
that is to say, Ordinances which stand on their own and which are not amendments to existing legislation are to be drafted in both English and Chinese. Work is also well underway within my Chambers upon the translation of existing legislation into Chinese.
Of themselves neither of these developments will make it necessary for the vast majority of lawyers to be proficient in both languages. In accordance with section 10B of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance the English language text and the Chinese language text of a bilingual Ordinance are declared to be equally authentic. Accordingly, provided a lawyer can understand either the Chinese or the English version of an Ordinance he will be able to treat that version as accurate and legally valid.
Nevertheless, while most lawyers will not require proficiency in both languages it will be necessary for a relatively small number of lawyers, being legislative draftsmen, to acquire proficiency in both languages for the necessary work of translation and for original drafting of Bills in Chinese.
In recognition of that need a bilingual law team was established in the Law Drafting Division of my Chambers in 1986. Presently this team consists of seven draftsmen and 19 law translators. To achieve the Government's objective of having all of Hong Kong's legislation available in both English and Chinese by 1997 it will be necessary to expand this team. My Chambers are seeking competent bilingual law draftsmen and translators and every effort is being made to recruit appropriately qualified, bilingual lawyers and translators to join the Law Drafting Division.
Fire prevention for restaurants
6. MR. TIEN asked: With reference to the Secretary for Security's reply to a question I raised in this Council on 24 May 1989 and in view of the recent fire at a restaurant on Ma Tau Wai Road, which is already the second of its kind in the last two months and which led to six dead and 14 injured, will Government inform this Council:
(a) whether steps will be taken to tighten up existing controls, legislative or otherwise, on closed type external wall decoration as well as the minimum fire installation requirements for restaurants and other public premises and, if so, when; and
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