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The following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a reply by the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Hon Mrs Anson Chan, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question :

Will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:

(a) whether the Chief Executive makes arrangements for meeting the Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal on a regular basis; and

(b) of the number of such meetings in the past 12 months, and the purpose of each meeting as well as the occasion on which each meeting took place?

Reply :

The Administration's reply to the question raised by the Honourable Member is as follows:-

The Chief Executive and the Chief Justice meet several times a year. This continues a practice before July 1997. In the last 12 months, they met four times to consider the following matters :

(a) matters relating to the resourcing of the Judiciary, including Judges' remuneration and conditions of service;

(b) legislative proposals which impact on the Judiciary such as increasing the jurisdictional limits of the District Court; and

(c) matters of mutual concern to the Judiciary and the community, such as the level of legal costs, access to justice and the use of Chinese in the courts.

On these occasions, the Chief Justice also briefed the Chief Executive on recommendations which had been made by the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission to the Chief Executive.

These meetings are spread over the year and usually take place over lunch.

End/Wednesday, January 5, 2000

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