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Following is the speech by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, in moving the second reading of the Legal Aid (Amendment) Bill 1999 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Madam President:

I move that the Legal Aid (Amendment) Bill 1999 be read the second time.

In early 1997, the Government appointed an inter-departmental Working Group to conduct a comprehensive review of the criteria used to assess financial eligibility of applicants for legal aid services provided by the Legal Aid Department, the scope of legal aid and the operation of the Legal Aid Ordinance. In December 1997, the Administration issued a consultation paper on the Legal Aid Policy Review. During the consultation period, we received 13 submissions from interested parties. We have also consulted the Council's Panel on Administration of Justice and Legal Services on three occasions between September 1998 and February 1999. We have incorporated these comments where appropriate, and finalised the recommendations.

The recommendations will expand the scope of our legal aid system and benefit more people. In particular, our recommendation to replace the CSSA rates used to assess the disposable income of legal aid applicants with the 35-percentile of household expenditure will allow 58% of the total number of households in Hong Kong to become financially eligible for legal aid, compared with only 48% under the existing arrangement.

The purpose of the Legal Aid (Amendment) Bill 1999 is to implement the final recommendations which require legislative changes. There are three major amendments to the Legal Aid Ordinance. By clause 5 of the Bill, section 18A is amended to give the Director of Legal Aid the discretion to reduce, or not to seek, interest on the charge on preserved or recovered property. Under the existing section 18A, the Director of Legal Aid is entitled to a first charge on any property recovered or preserved for the aided person in the proceedings for which legal aid is given. If the Director of Legal Aid agrees to defer enforcing the first charge, a simple interest payable by the aided person will be accrued at a rate of 10 % per annum from the date on which the charge is first registered. The amendment allows flexibility in the existing arrangement, in that the interest can be waived if the Director considers that charging the interest would cause financial hardship to the aided person.

The amendment to section 32 in clause 9 seeks to require the legally aided person under the Supplementary Legal Aid Scheme (SLAS) to pay an interim contribution which is set at the maximum amount payable under the standard legal aid scheme, regardless of the outcome of the case. At present, legally aided persons under SLAS are not required to pay any contribution upon the grant of legal aid. The amendment will bring the arrangement of SLAS into line with the standard scheme and is in line with our principle that all aided persons with means should contribute towards the legal costs incurred on their behalf by Department of Legal Aid.

The third major amendment is to provide legal representation for the next of kin of the deceased in coroner's inquests in cases involving great public concern, as set out in clause 10 of the Bill. At present, the Director of Legal Aid has the discretion to provide legal assistance on an administrative basis to the next of kin of the deceased and those "in jeopardy" in coroner's inquests where it is considered to be in the interest of the public to do so. The amendment expands this arrangement to empower the Director of Legal Aid to grant legal aid to the next of kin of the deceased regardless of whether claims for damages are involved.

Certain other recommendations would be implemented through amendments to the Legal Aid Regulations and Legal Aid (Assessment of Resources and Contribution) Regulations. We will present the amendment regulations for Members' approval by negative vetting after the Legal Aid (Amendment) Bill has been passed. It is our intention that the Bill and the Regulations should come into effect concurrently.

This Bill seeks to improve the present legal aid system by expanding the scope of legal aid assistance. I commend this Bill to Honourable Member for early passage into law.

Thank you, Madam President.

End/Wednesday, October 13, 1999

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