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Following is the question by the Hon Ho Chun-yan and a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mrs Regina Ip, in the Legislative Council today (November 6):

Question:

Regarding the consultation on legislative proposals to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it will compile a compendium of the submissions received during the consultation period; if it will, of the time to publish the compendium; if not, the reasons for that and how it will deal with the submissions received;

(b) whether, to date, it has decided to revise or considered revising the proposals set out in the Consultation Document on Proposals to Implement Article 23 of the Basic Law; if it has, of the proposals involved as well as the reasons and details of the revision; and

(c) as the Administration is already preparing the drafting instructions for the relevant bill while the consultation period has not yet expired, of how the Administration currently formulates the definite policies on the legislation for implementing Article 23 of the Basic Law and prepares the drafting instructions for the relevant bill for the Department of Justice to proceed with the drafting of the bill?

Reply:

President,

(a) The Government will prepare a compendium of the submissions received after the end of the consultation period.

(b) At present, we are seeking public views on our proposals to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law, and we have taken every opportunity to explain and clarify the proposals. At the joint meeting of the Security Panel and Administration of Justice and Legal Services Panel on October 21, we stated our intention to put beyond doubt that freedom of the press will be adequately protected, in that no search or seizure of journalistic materials will be allowed to take place without prior judicial approval.

In the light of concerns expressed that the proposals might undermine Hong Kong's status as a financial centre, the Government has also decided not to seek additional financial investigation powers for the Police. Instead, the Police will continue to rely on financial investigation power under the existing Police Force Ordinance. The Government is prepared to review the proposals in the light of comments received.

(c) We have not issued any drafting instructions, but are in the process of contemplating how the proposals to implement Article 23 should be drafted in legal language. However, it must be stressed that this is a preparatory step and would in no way prejudice the public consultation exercise currently underway. All the views and comments received during the public consultation period will be taken into account before we introduce a Bill into the Legislative Council.

End/Wednesday, November 6, 2002

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