PLC Paper No. LS 23

Paper for the
House Committee Meeting
of the Provisional Legislative Council on
12 September 1997

Legal Service Division Report on
Subsidiary Legislation Gazetted on 29 August 1997

Date of Tabling in Provisional LegCo	:	3 September 1997
Amendment to be made by	:	24 September 1997 (or 8 October 1997 if extended by resolution)

Commodities Trading Ordinance (Cap. 250)
Commodities Trading (Trading Limits and Position Limits) (Amendment) (No. 3)
Rules 1997 (L.N. 426)

These Rules limit the position which may be held by any person under the Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate futures contract(s) to 5,000 open contracts for any one contract month and 20,000 open contracts for all contract months. This will increase to 18 the number of commodities for which position limits are prescribed.

According to the PLC Brief issued by the Securities and Futures Commission dated 19 August 1997, the position limit is necessary to facilitate market surveillance and risk management.

The Rules will come into operation on 26 September 1997, when the Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rate futures contracts will begin to be traded on the Automated Electronic Trading System. Members may refer to the Brief for more background information.

Legal Practitioners Ordinance (Cap. 159)
Trainee Solicitors (Amendment) Rules 1997 (L.N. 427)

These Rules enable the Law Society to prescribe a standard form of trainee solicitor contract and a minimum salary for trainee solicitors so that registration of trainee solicitors will now require the use of the prescribed standard form of contract and the provision in the contract of at least the prescribed minimum salary (instead of a reasonable remuneration which was required previously).

Buildings (Amendment) Ordinance 1996 (54 of 1996)
Buildings (Amendment) Ordinance 1996 (54 of 1996) (Commencement) (No. 2)
Notice 1997 (L.N. 428)

This Notice appoints 29 August 1997 as the day on which section 21 of the Buildings (Amendment) Ordinance 1996 took effect.

The amending ordinance, passed in July 1996 at the end of a LegCo session, sought among other things to improve the registration of authorised persons and registered structural engineers. These provisions came into operation on 3 January 1997. Other provisions of the Ordinance provide for more controls over dangerous and potentially dangerous building works, street works and building sites and have yet to come into operation.

Section 21, which was put into effect by the Notice, provides for the issue of a technical memorandum by the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands to deal with the supervision and execution of building works and street works. Under that section (or section 39 of the principal ordinance), any technical memorandum so issued is required to be gazetted and tabled in the legislature, subject to amendment by resolution in the same manner as if it were subsidiary legislation.

In accordance with section 21, a Technical Memorandum For Supervision Plans has been issued and was published in the Gazette (Special Supplement No. 5) on 29 August 1997 (subject to amendment, if any, by the Council by 24 September 1997, unless extended to 8 October 1997). Members may refer to the PLC Brief PELB(L)30/30/74(97)III issued by the Planning, Environment and Lands Bureau and dated 28 August 1997 for more information on the Technical Memorandum.

Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Asbestos) Regulation (L.N. 74 of 1997)
Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Asbestos) Regulation (L.N. 74 of 1997)
(Commencement) Notice 1997 (L.N. 429)

This Notice appoints 1 September 1997 as the day on which the Regulation was to take effect.

The Regulation, made in February 1997, repeals and replaces the Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Asbestos) Special Regulations.

Prepared by

CHEUNG Ping-kam, Arthur
Assistant Legal Adviser
Provisional Legislative Council Secretariat
2 September 1997