LegCo reviews 490 statute law amendment proposals
SingTao · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago2 MIN
Summary
The Legislative Council is scrutinising the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026, which the government has submitted to amend about 150 pieces of legislation through roughly 490 changes . The package covers adaptation of laws, updates to technical terminology and the repeal of obsolete provisions . At a bills committee meeting on August 28, the Law Reform Commission said more than 130 of the proposed changes came from a systematic review, including 77 adaptation amendments . It added that even apparently narrow wording changes can require extensive research into legislative history, policy background and overseas source provisions before departments can settle proposals safely .
Key Points
- The bill proposes about 490 amendments to around 150 laws, including legal adaptation changes, technical wording updates and repeal of outdated provisions .
- Law Reform Commission secretary-general Wong Wai-chung said more than 130 amendments arose from systematic review work, with 77 specifically involving adaptation of laws .
- Wong said difficult references were not always obvious, citing terms such as “subject”, “fingerprint”, “people”, “Seal of Hong Kong” and “Hong Kong seal” .
- Election Committee lawmaker Carmen Kan Wai-mun said this was the current administration’s third such exercise and asked whether similar statute law revisions would still be needed later .
- Deputy Solicitor General for Legal Policy Chan Yuen-bing said the government would try to include related amendments for “lawyer corporations”, but follow-up work with bureaux and departments was still needed .
Why It Matters
The exercise affects how Hong Kong’s statute book is modernised and aligned across principal ordinances and some subsidiary legislation, rather than leaving outdated or inconsistent wording in force . It also shows that even technical legal clean-up can influence future implementation issues, including court rules and professional terminology for the legal sector .