TNAG-2014-FCO40-2865B-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1991-1990 — Page 13

CONFIDENTIAL

HONG KONG: GOVERNOR'S RESERVED POWERS OF LEGISLATION

BACKGROUND

1. The Letters Patent will need to be amended to reflect

the changes to the composition of the Legislative Council that will occur after the 1991 LegCo elections. This in in

hand. The question arises whether this would present opportunity to make a further amendment to the Letters Patent to provide the Governor with reserved powers of Legislation.

2.

The 1991 elections to the Legislative Council will mark

an important change in the nature and composition of that

body. For the first time, LegCo will have an elected

majority. This change coincides with a different, and probably developing political climate, the possibility of the emergence of a different atmosphere within LegCo and a greater number of new members who are less willing to follow

the lead of the Administration than their predecessors.

3.

The practice in most Dependent Territories, once HMG no longer have the power to direct the legislature by means of instructing an official majority, has been to give the Governor power, if he sees fit, to pass legislation over the heads of the legislature. This practice has not been universal: an exception is Bermuda. Such a provision enables HMG, through the Governor, to continue to exercise

its ultimate responsibility for the good government of the territory in the face of a hostile and uncooperative

legislature.

BIFADM/1

CONFIDENTIAL