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Following is a question by the Hon Starry Lee Wai-king and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, in the Legislative Council today (October 19):
Question:
Regarding the legal aid services provided by the Legal Aid Department (LAD), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of applications for legal aid in respect of judicial review (JR) cases received by LAD each year since 2001; among such applications, of the number of cases approved; the total amount of legal aid involved in such cases; the case which involved the highest amount of legal aid and the amount;
(b) of the respective amounts of legal aid involved in the four JR cases in respect of: the Chong Fung Yuen case, the residential development project in the vicinity of Stage 8 of Mei Foo Sun Chuen, the Environmental Impact Assessment reports for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, and the right of abode of foreign domestic helpers;
(c) among the JR cases where legal aid was granted since 2001, of the respective numbers of cases where the solicitors or counsel were specified by the aided persons and those cases where LAD assigned the solicitors or counsel; whether LAD had rejected the solicitor or counsel specified by the aided person and assigned another solicitor or counsel to provide the service; if it had, of the number of such cases and the reasons why LAD rejected the solicitor or counsel specified by the aided person; and
(d) among the JR cases where legal aid was granted since 2001, whether there were cases where the solicitors or counsel offered free legal services to the aided persons; if there were, of the number of such cases?
Reply:
President,
(a) The number of legal aid applications received by the Legal Aid Department (LAD) in respect of judicial review cases and the number of cases with legal aid granted in the past 10 years are set out in the following table. LAD has not maintained a separate record on the legal aid costs spent on all judicial review cases.
Year Number of applications Number of cases
in respect of with legal aid
judicial review granted
---- ---------------------- --------------
2001 147 20
2002 144 17
2003 146 20
2004 125 18
2005 180 24
2006 174 42
2007 234 99
2008 364 190
2009 552 200
2010 268 93
(Note: Apart from legal aid applications for judicial review, LAD also receives applications for legal aid in relation to immigration related matters which may involve judicial review proceedings. However, LAD does not keep separate record on the number of such cases.)
(b) Legal aid costs incurred in the four judicial review cases are as follows:
Case Legal aid costs
incurred
($ million)
---- --------------
Chong Fung Yuen 2.33
Residential development project 0.26
in the vicinity of Stage 8 of (up to end
Mei Foo Sun Chuen September 2011)
Environmental Impact Assessment 1.49
reports for the (up to end
Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge September 2011)
Right of abode of foreign Judgment
domestic helpers just been
given.
Cost figures
are not yet
available
(c) Amongst the judicial review cases mentioned in part (a), the number of cases where the assigned solicitors are assigned by LAD based on the aided person's nomination or as directly assigned by LAD are as follows:
Year Number of Number of Number of
cases cases where cases where
the solicitors the solicitors
are assigned are assigned
by LAD based by LAD
on the aided
person's
nomination
---- --------- --------------- -------------
2001 20 7 13
2002 17 11 6
2003 20 19 1
2004 18 17 1
2005 24 20 4
2006 42 39 3
2007 99 96 3
2008 190 184 6
2009 200 175 25
2010 93 88 5
LAD does not keep separate record on the number of cases where the assigned counsel are solely nominated by the aided persons. It only keeps record on the number of cases where the assigned counsel are nominated by the assigned solicitors or the aided persons. The relevant figures are as follows:
Year Number of cases Number of cases
where the assigned where the assigned
counsel are nominated counsel assigned
by the are assigned by LAD
solicitors or the
aided persons
---- --------------------- ------------------
2001 5 14
2002 6 11
2003 17 3
2004 15 1
2005 21 1
2006 39 1
2007 35 0
2008 43 2
2009 140 2
2010 55 1
LAD does not keep separate record on the number of cases in respect of which the aided persons made nominations but the nominations were declined.
(d) As far as LAD is aware, there are no such cases.
Ends/Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Issued at HKT 18:05
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