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Following is a question by the Hon Dennis Kwok and a written reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, in the Legislative Council today (February 27):
Question:
The provision of legal aid services is currently administered by the Legal Aid Department (LAD) under the Home Affairs Bureau. There have been long-standing calls from both Members of this Council and the two legal professional bodies (i.e. the Hong Kong Bar Association and the Law Society of Hong Kong) for the setting up of an independent legal aid authority (ILAA) to administer legal aid in place of LAD. Moreover, in a report on the feasibility and desirability of establishing an ILAA published in 1998, the Legal Aid Services Council (LASC) recommended that an ILAA should be established. Since then, LASC has continued its task to advise the Chief Executive on this topic. For this purpose, LASC commissioned a consulting firm in October 2011 to conduct a study on the same topic, and an interim report was submitted to LASC in March 2012. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(a) when LASC expects the draft report of the aforesaid study will be submitted to it;
(b) whether LASC has plans to make public the draft report as soon as it has been received; if so, the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) whether LASC has plans as well as a timetable for implementing the recommendations made in the report; if so, the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Legal Aid Services Council (LASC) was established in 1996 under the LASC Ordinance (Cap. 489) to oversee the administration of legal aid services provided by the Legal Aid Department (LAD) and to advise the Chief Executive (CE) on the policy of the Government concerning publicly-funded legal aid services provided by LAD. Under the LASC Ordinance, LASC is tasked to advise CE on, inter alia, "the feasibility and desirability of the establishment of an independent legal aid authority". Since its establishment in 1996, two previous studies were conducted by LASC on the subject. In the last study conducted in 2007, LASC acknowledged that despite LAD﷿s institutional position as part of the Government, there were already sufficient safeguards in statute and in practice to ensure the operational independence of LAD. Hence, LASC did not see a pressing need to disestablish LAD and substitute it with an independent legal aid authority, and proposed to revisit the issue in late 2011 / early 2012.
In October 2011, LASC commissioned a consultant to conduct the study and LASC's reply to parts (a) to (c) of the question is as follows:
(a) LASC has received the draft report on the consultancy study and given comments to the consultant. The consultant is finalising the report. LASC will go through the due process for approval of the report of the study and targets to submit it to the CE in the first half of 2013.
(b) LASC will upload the summary report of the study onto its website after making the submission to the CE. The full report may be provided upon request.
(c) LASC will discuss with the Government on the implementation plan as soon as the Government has given due consideration to the report.
Ends/Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:41
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