Legislative Council

LC Paper No. LS276/98-99

At the House Committee meeting on 25 June 1999, it was agreed that a decision on the Bill be deferred pending a further report from the Legal Service Division.

2. Clarification has now been sought from the Administration on the drafting points raised in our letter of 17 June 1999 (copy attached).

3. In the Administration's response dated 8 July 1999, it was agreed that certain amendments would be proposed in the Committee Stage. These are no more than minor improvements to the drafting of the Bill. A copy of the response together with the proposed amendments is enclosed for reference.

4. On a Member's query as to why a trust fund had not been established for the Customs and Excise Service until now, the Administration explained that the fund had been proposed after the department had received a donation in October 1997 (please also refer to paragraph 3 of the LegCo brief).

5. Subject to the proposed amendments, the Bill is in order and Second Reading debate may be resumed.

Prepared by

CHEUNG Ping-Kam, Arthur
Assistant Legal Adviser
Legislative Council Secretariat
15 September 1999

Encl

TIB 03/01/3
LS/B/94/98-99
2869 9283
2877 5029

By Fax (2869 7483) & By Post

17 June 1999

Secretary for Trade and Industry Bureau
Trade and Industry Bureau
(Attn: Miss Estrella CHEUNG
AS (TI) D2)
29/F, One Pacific Place
88 Queensway
Hong Kong

Dear Sir,

My respective telephone conversations with your Miss CHEUNG and Ms Vicki LEE of counsel earlier today refer.

The drafting points that have been raised are summarised below for your consideration -

1. whether the names of the fund (clause 3(1)), the trustee (clause 4(1)) and the trust fund committee (clause 6(1)) should be provided bilingually in each of the language texts;

2. what is meant by "facilities" in clause 5(a) and whether is the most appropriate Chinese rendition;

3. in clause 5(d), whether "provide ... of" is appropriately worded and whether there is any need to refer to the "furtherance of such education and training" in view of the very wide scope of the education and training already made possible by clause 5(a) and (b);

4. whether the "chairman" of the trust fund committee in clauses 6(2) and (4) and 7(3) should be spelt consistently with or not with a capital "C";

5. whether clause 9(a) and (b), which seem to be mutually exclusive of each other by virtue of the expression "otherwise", in fact overlap with each other considering the types of investments that may be regarded as authorised under the Trustee Ordinance; and

6. whether there is anything in clause 10(1) to (3) to which subclause (4) may be made subject.

   For the clarification of paragraph 10 of the LegCo Brief, could the Administration confirm that both the intention and the effect of the Bill are that it does not bind the State.

Yours faithfully,



(Arthur CHEUNG)
Assistant Legal Adviser

c.c. Ms Vicki LEE
Law Drafting Division
Department of Justice