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In response to media enquiries about the Law Reform Commission's Report on the Regulation of Covert Surveillance, a government spokesman said today (March 24) the Government welcomed the release of the report. He said its recommendations were broadly consistent with the aims of the Interception of Communications and Surveillance Bill as far as covert surveillance was concerned. That Bill is currently being examined by a Bills Committee of the Legislative Council.
"Both the Report and our Bill share the common underlying principles of protecting privacy whilst ensuring law and order and public security," the spokesman said.
"Broadly speaking, the report deals with covert surveillance in general proposing the creation of criminal offences applicable to all, while the Bill primarily provides for the regulation of interception of communications and covert surveillance by law enforcement agencies (LEAs), taking into account the general consensus within the community that we should give priority to govern LEAs' conduct of the two types of covert operations," he said.
The spokesman said that while there was some divergence between the Bill and the report, many recommendations of the report were in fact consistent with the provisions of the Bill - including the introduction of a two-tier authorisation mechanism in accordance with the intrusiveness of operations; the proposal for the Chief Executive to appoint, on the recommendation of the Chief Justice, a limited number of judges to issue warrants; the establishment of an independent oversight authority to ensure compliance and to handle complaints; and the requirement for annual reports to be made to the Chief Executive and Legislative Council.
"The report provides good food for thought. As far as it is applicable to LEAs, we will study the recommendations in great detail as we take forward the Bill through the legislative process. We will also separately consider how to take forward that part of the report involving private parties, in the context of our work of examining the Law Reform Commission's other reports on privacy matters," the spokesman said.
Ends/Friday, March 24, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:18
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