Hong Kong Ordinances

ADOPTION ORDINANCE - SECT 28

Criminal record checking, etc.

(1) On receipt of an authorization under section 27A(2)(b), the Director shall
forthwith send to the Commissioner of Police—

   (a)  the authorization; and

   (b)  (if an accredited body is designated in the authorization pursuant to
        section 27A(3)) the Director’s certification to the effect that the
        authorization is submitted in support of an application for adoption.

(2) The applicant may be required to—

   (a)  attend before a public officer authorized by the Commissioner of
        Police for the purpose of subsection (3); and

   (b)  allow that officer to take and record his fingerprints.

(3) For the purpose of verifying whether or not the applicant has been
convicted of an offence in Hong Kong or elsewhere, a public officer authorized
by the Commissioner of Police for the purpose of this subsection may take and
record the fingerprint impressions of the applicant for checking against
police records, but any fingerprints obtained pursuant to this subsection
shall be destroyed as soon as reasonably practicable after the record checking
has been conducted.

(4) The Director or an accredited body may, for a purpose connected with a
person’s proposed adoption of an infant, release any information on the
person that the Director or the accredited body has obtained pursuant to
section 27A(2)(b) (as read with section 27A(3)) to—

   (a)  the Government, or a government in a place outside the People’s
        Republic of China;

   (b)  an accredited body, or a person duly authorized (howsoever described)
        by a competent authority in a place outside the People’s Republic of
        China to place infants, or make arrangements, for adoption;

   (c)  any court having jurisdiction to make the adoption order;

   (d)  any other person who, in the opinion of the Director, reasonably
        requires the information to facilitate the process of the proposed
        adoption;

   (e)  the Administrative Appeals Board. (Part 7 added 28 of 2004 s. 32)