The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

     Following is the remarks by the Chairman of The Legislative Council Commission, Mr Andrew Leung, on the deliberation by the Commission at a media briefing at the Legislative Council (LegCo) Complex today (November 27):

     The Legislative Council Commission (the Commission) held a special meeting this morning to discuss the issues relating to the recovery of Members' remuneration and operating expenses paid to four persons, i.e. Leung Kwok-hung, Law Kwun-chung, Yiu Chung-yim and Lau Siu-lai, who have been disqualified from assuming the office of Members of LegCo since October 12, 2016 in a judgment handed down by the Court of First Instance of the High Court in July 2017.

     The amount of funds involved for each person ranges from $2.7 million to $3.1 million.

     To assist the Commission's consideration of the matter, legal advice from an external Counsel was sought in addition to in-house legal advice.

     Considering the legal advice, as public money is involved, it is the Commission's duty to recover the funds.

     The Commission will first issue demand letters to the 4 persons.  They will be given 4 weeks, a reasonable time frame, to provide a reply to the Commission.  The Commission will consider the way forward after receiving their replies.

Ends/Monday, November 27, 2017
Issued at HKT 12:50

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