Legislative Council

LC Paper No. LS34/98-99

Paper for the House Committee Meeting
of the Legislative Council
on 23 October 1998

Legal Service Division Report on
Bankruptcy (Amendment) Bill 1998

Object(s) of the Bill

To make some further consequential amendments to provisions in various ordinances affected by the Bankruptcy (Amendment) Ordinance 1996.

LC Brief Reference

2. C11/16(98) Pt. 11 issued by the Financial Services Bureau and dated 16 September 1998.

Date of First Reading

3. 30 September 1998.

Comments

4. The sole purpose of the Bill is to tidy up the obsolete references to act of bankruptcy , receiving order, composition�and scheme of arrangement remaining in the Bankruptcy Ordinance (Cap. 6) and 10 other ordinances. These concepts are no longer valid under a simplified procedure for bankruptcy introduced by the Bankruptcy (Amendment) Ordinance 1996, which came into operation on 1 April 1998. Under the new regime, they are replaced respectively by simpler and more straightforward grounds for presenting a bankruptcy petition, the more direct bankruptcy order and the more flexible voluntary arrangement�

5. According to the LegCo Brief, these remaining references were uncovered by the Administration in a recent review. The amendments now proposed by the Bill to rectify the situation are relatively minor consequential amendments.

Public Consultation

6. No public consultation is considered necessary by the Administration, given the technical and consequential nature of the proposed amendments.

Consultation with LegCo Panel

7. There has been no consultation with any LegCo Panel.

Recommendation

8. The Bill does not raise any policy issue and is legally in order. It is recommended that Members support the resumption of second reading debate on the Bill.

Prepared by

CHEUNG Ping-Kam, Arthur
Assistant Legal Adviser
Legislative Council Secretariat
21 October 1998