Hong Kong Ordinances

MANDATORY PROVIDENT FUND SCHEMES ORDINANCE - SECT 6H

Authority may issue guidelines

(1) The Authority may issue guidelines for the guidance of approved  trustees,
service providers, participating employers and their employees,
self-employed persons and other persons concerned with this Ordinance.

(2) A guideline-

   (a)  may consist of a code, standard, rule, specification or provision
        relating to provident fund schemes or a class of such schemes; and

   (b)  may apply, incorporate or refer to any document that has been
        published by a person, either as in force at the time when it is
        issued under this section or as amended or published from time to
        time.

(3) A guideline may require persons (including persons belonging to a class)
specified in the guideline to give to the Authority information or documents
of a kind specified in the guideline. The guideline may only specify
information or documents of a kind that the Authority reasonably requires for
the exercise or performance of its functions. This subsection has effect
whether or not regulations are made for the purposes of section  21C (2)(k),
22A(2)(b) or 46(1A)(t).

(4) The Authority must publish a guideline issued under this section in the
Gazette or in some other publication determined by the Authority.

(5) The Authority may amend or revoke a guideline issued under this section.
Subsection (4) applies to the amendment or revocation of a guideline in the
same way as it applies to the issue of a guideline.

(6) A person does not incur a civil or criminal liability only because the
person has contravened a guideline issued under this section. However, if in
any legal proceedings the court is satisfied that such a guideline is relevant
to determining a matter that is in issue in the proceedings-

   (a)  the guideline is admissible in evidence in the proceedings; and

   (b)  proof that the person contravened or did not contravene the guideline
        may be relied on by any party to the proceedings as tending to
        establish or negate the matter.

(7) In any legal proceedings, a document that purports to be a copy of a
guideline issued under this section is, in the absence of evidence to the
contrary, to be presumed to be a true copy of the guideline. (Added 4 of 1998
s. 2)