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Gazettal of Adaptation of Laws (No. 16) Bill 1999

A Bill which seeks to adapt 13 health-related Ordinances and their subsidiary legislation to make them consistent with the Basic Law and with Hong Kong's status as a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China was published in the Gazette today (Friday).

Entitled the Adaptation of Laws (No. 16) Bill 1999, the Ordinances and subsidiary legislation relate to hospitals, clinics, mental health and other health-related matters such as antibiotics, pharmacy and poisons, smoking and prevention of disease.

Most of the proposed amendments are terminological changes, a Government spokesman said. "For instance, references to 'Colony' and 'Governor' are replaced by 'Hong Kong' and 'Chief Executive' respectively.

"Although the Hong Kong Reunification Ordinance and the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance have set out how the inconsistent references should be construed, it remains undesirable to retain such references in the ordinances. The adaptations facilitate interpretation by dispensing with the need to make cross references," he added.

The 13 ordinances are:

* Hospital Authority Ordinance (Chapter 113)

* Pesticides Ordinance (Chapter 133)

* Mental Health Ordinance (Chapter 136)

* Antibiotics Ordinance (Chapter 137)

* Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance (Chapter 138)

* Quarantine and Prevention of Disease Ordinance
(Chapter 141)

* Radiation Ordinance (Chapter 303)

* Pharmacopoeia Ordinance (Chapter 308)

* Medical Clinics Ordinance (Chapter 343)

* Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (Chapter 371)

* Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health Ordinance (Chapter 389)

* Hong Kong Academy of Medicine Ordinance (Chapter 419)

* The Prince Philip Dental Hospital Ordinance (Chapter 1081)

Subject to Article 12 of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, most of the adaptations, when passed into law, will take effect retrospectively as from the date of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council on 16 June 1999.

End/Friday, June 4, 1999

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