Legislative Council

LC Paper No. LS 65/98-99

Object(s) of the Bill

To adapt certain Ordinances to bring them into conformity with the Basic Law and with the status of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

LegCo Brief Reference

2. L/M (D) in PELB(CR)10/32/98 issued by the Planning, Environment and Lands Bureau in November 1998.

Date of First Reading

3. 18 November 1998.

Comments

4. A summary of the proposed amendments in the Bill and a list of the Ordinances affected by those amendments are at Annexes A and B respectively. Members may note that the Ordinances set out at Annex B mainly deal with land matters in the New Territories.

5. The Bill does not seek to introduce any change in policy. The proposed amendments are essentially technical drafting changes to individual ordinances.

6. All of the proposed adaptations in the New Territories Land (Exemption) Ordinance (Cap. 452) relate to the power of the Governor in exempting land from Part II of the New Territories Ordinance (Cap. 97) ("the Related Ordinance") under section 7 of that Ordinance. We note that no adaptation exercise in respect of the term "Governor" has yet been carried out to the Related Ordinance.

7. According to the Administration, the bill to effect adaptations to the Related Ordinance ("the Related Bill") will be introduced into the Legislative Council by the Home Affairs Bureau shortly. Since the adaptation of the term "Governor" in section 7 of the Related Ordinance is relevant to this Bill, Members are advised that consideration of the Bill should include that part of the Related Bill.

8. If enacted, the Bill will take retrospective effect from 1 July 1997 to ensure that there is consistency in the interpretation of all laws on and after 1 July 1997. The retrospective effect will not apply to provisions involving criminal offences or penalties.

Public Consultation

9. There has not been any public consultation on the Bill.

Consultation with the LegCo Panel

10. No consultation with any LegCo Panel on the details of the Bill has been carried out.

Conclusion

11. Subject to the provisions of the Related Bill, the legal and drafting aspects of the Bill are in order. A further report will be made after introduction of the Related Bill.

Prepared by

Wong Sze-man, Bernice
Assistant Legal Adviser
Legislative Council Secretariat
16 November 1998

Bill/Adapt-8

Annex A

Notes

1 Reference to "Governor in Council" is made in the New Territories Leases (Extension) Ordinance (Cap. 150).

2 References to "Governor" are made in the New Territories Land (Exemption) Ordinance (Cap. 452).

Annex B

Item No.	Ordinances
1.	New Territories Leases (Extension) Ordinance (Cap. 150)
2.	New Territories Land (Exemption) Ordinance (Cap. 452)