Hong Kong Ordinances

PERSONAL DATA (PRIVACY) ORDINANCE - SECT 13

Use of approved codes of practice in proceedings under this Ordinance

(1) A failure on the part of any data user to observe any provision of an
approved code of practice shall not of itself render the data user liable to
any civil or criminal proceedings but where in any proceedings 
under this Ordinance a data user is alleged to have contravened a requirement
under this Ordinance, being a requirement for which there was an
approved code of practice at the time of the alleged contravention, subsection
(2) shall have effect with respect to such code in relation to those
proceedings.

(2) Any provision of a code of practice which appears to a specified body to
be relevant to a requirement under this Ordinance alleged to have been
contravened shall be admissible in evidence in the
proceedings under this Ordinance concerned and if it is proved that there was
at any material time a failure to observe any provision of the code which
appears to that body to be relevant to any matter which it is necessary to
prove in order to establish a contravention of such requirement, that matter
shall be taken as proved in the absence of evidence that such requirement was
in respect of that matter complied with otherwise than by way of observance of
that provision.

(3) In any proceedings under this Ordinance, a code of practice which appears
to a specified body to be the subject of a notice under section 12 shall be
taken to be the subject of such notice in the absence of evidence to the
contrary.

(4) In this section-

"proceedings under this Ordinance" (根據本條例進行的法律程序)
includes any criminal proceedings where a data user is alleged to have
committed an offence by reason of a contravention of a requirement under this
Ordinance;

"specified body" (指明當局) means-

   (a)  a magistrate;

   (b)  a court; or

   (c)  the Administrative Appeals Board. (Enacted 1995)

"proceedings under this Ordinance" (根據本條例進行的法律程序)

"specified body" (指明當局)