Must keep in-house corps
I REFER to the letter by Mr Barry Sceats headlined, 'Legal accident of history no longer valid' (South China Morning Post, July 12).
Of the points that I raised in explanation of retention of prosecuting counsel in the Attorney-General's Chambers, Mr Sceats commented on three. May I further clarify.
On the need for having a corps of in-house lawyers who can give the Government their full commitment of time, Mr Sceats commented that outside counsel were often given briefs on the basis that they had to devote their full time to the particular case.
What I had earlier explained was that the Hong Kong Government had to have a corps of lawyers whose services were exclusively its, in the sense that it did not have to compete with others to secure the full commitment of counsel's time and resources.
Apart from cost considerations if all cases were briefed out, there is a difference between 'securing' and 'retaining' services.
On the need for confidentiality, continuity and special expertise - quite apart from the confidentiality that is expected of private counsel in a client situation, there would be instances where consideration had to be given to other matters of confidentiality that pertain to the civil service.
The circumstances under which the Prosecutions Division could retain the services of highly experienced prosecutors at the Bar who formerly served in the division have been a matter of public concern.
The need for specialist expertise, as I explained in my previous letter, is tied to the earlier consideration of having a corps of government prosecuting counsel.
On the cost-effectiveness of in-house prosecution in some cases, Mr Sceats commented that no figures had ever been produced.
Figures on briefing-out costs relating to prosecution in the higher courts were made available to the Legislative Council's Public Accounts Committee.
The figure for the savings expected as a result of conducting prosecutions in-house in the Magistrates' Courts is contained in the Attorney-General's Policy Commitments published at the time of the Governor's Policy Address last year.
P. NGUYEN, QC Director of Public Prosecutions
