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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, to a question by the Hon Tam Yiu-chung in the Legislative Council today (March 19):
Question:
According to section 2(1) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Ordinance (Cap. 297) (ROO), where an individual has been convicted for the first time of an offence in respect of which he was not sentenced to imprisonment exceeding three months or to a fine exceeding $10,000, and has not been convicted of an offence again within three years, the conviction record may generally be withheld in applying for jobs. I have learnt that an applicant for a post in the rank-and-file grades of disciplined services, who has a conviction record that may be withheld under ROO, was requested by the recruiting department to submit a confirmation of no criminal conviction provided by the Hong Kong Police Force as supplementary information after passing the recruitment examination. As a result, the department was aware of his conviction record and his application was subsequently rejected. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of persons with conviction records which may be withheld under ROO recruited as government employees in the past three years; among them, of the number of persons employed by the disciplined services and the number of such persons employed in the rank-and-file grades; and
(2) whether it will remove the requirement for persons applying for posts in the rank-and-file grades of disciplined services to submit confirmation of no criminal conviction to the recruiting departments as supplementary information after passing the recruitment examinations; if it will not, of the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Ordinance (Cap. 297) (ROO) aims to facilitate the rehabilitation of persons who are convicted the first time and whose offences are minor in nature, and to prevent unauthorised disclosure of their previous convictions. According to section 2(1) of ROO, where an individual has been convicted in Hong Kong of an offence in respect of which he was not sentenced to imprisonment exceeding three months or to a fine exceeding $10,000 and has not been convicted in Hong Kong on any earlier day of an offence, and a period of three years has elapsed without that individual being again convicted in Hong Kong of an offence, such a conviction shall be considered "spent". Generally speaking, save for some limited exceptions provided in ROO, the individual shall be deemed to have no conviction record.
However, sections 3 and 4 of ROO also set out a list of exceptions, specifying the circumstances to which the above arrangements do not apply. Such exceptions cover the admission, employment and authorisation-related proceedings of a wide range of professionals and prescribed offices under ROO, including staff of various ranks of the disciplined services, civil servants on or above Point 27 on the Master Pay Scale, civil servants at directorate level, judicial officers and personnel of financial regulatory bodies.
(1) An individual whose "spent" conviction records may be withheld for employment purposes under ROO is not required to declare such records to the recruiting authority when applying for government vacancies. As such, the Administration does not have information on the number of such employees. Regarding the recruitment process for offices to which the non-disclosure arrangement of "spent" conviction records is not applicable, the Administration does not maintain any statistics on whether such employees have any "spent" conviction records.
(2) The arrangement of requiring an applicant for offices in various disciplined services ranks to declare all criminal conviction records assists the departments concerned in properly assessing the applicant's suitability for appointment to such posts. Notwithstanding an applicant's criminal conviction record, the department concerned will, in the course of the recruitment process, give due consideration to all relevant factors, including the ability and performance of the applicant, the nature and gravity of the offence which led to the conviction, its relevance to the duties of the post concerned, the job requirements of the post, etc., with a view to ascertaining the applicant's overall suitability for appointment to that post. Each case will be handled having regard to its individual circumstances. Disciplined services staff, in view of their duties and powers, are required to maintain a high degree of integrity and probity to meet the reasonable expectation of the public. In this connection, the requirement for a full and detailed disclosure of conviction records is an arrangement that seeks to strike a balance between public interests and offenders' rehabilitation opportunities. There is no plan on the part of various disciplined services to remove such a declaration arrangement.
Ends/Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Issued at HKT 13:05
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