Hong Kong Ordinances

FAMILY STATUS DISCRIMINATION ORDINANCE - SECT 49

Terms of reference

(1) The Commission shall not embark on a formal investigation unless the
requirements of this section have been complied with.

(2) Terms of reference for the formal investigation shall be drawn up by the
Commission, or if the Commission was required by the Chief Secretary for
Administration to conduct the investigation, by the Chief Secretary for
Administration after consulting the Commission. (Amended L.N. 362 of 1997)

(3) It shall be the duty of the Commission to give general notice of the
holding of the formal investigation unless the terms of reference confine it
to activities of persons named in them, but in such a case the Commission
shall in the prescribed manner give those persons notice of the holding of the
investigation.

(4) Where the terms of reference of the formal investigation confine it to
activities of persons named in them and the Commission in the course of it
proposes to investigate any act made unlawful by this Ordinance which it
believes that a person so named may have done, the Commission shall-

   (a)  inform that person of its belief and of its proposal to investigate
        the act; and

   (b)  offer him an opportunity of making oral or written representations
        with regard to it (or both oral and written representations if he
        thinks fit), and a person so named who avails himself of an
        opportunity under this subsection of making oral representations may
        be represented-

        (i)    by counsel or a solicitor; or

        (ii)   by some other person of his choice, not being a person to whom
               the Commission objects on the ground that he is unsuitable.

(5) The Commission or, if the Commission was required by the Chief Secretary
for Administration to conduct the formal investigation, the Chief Secretary
for Administration after consulting the Commission may from time to time
revise the terms of reference; and subsections (1), (3) and (4) shall apply to
the revised investigation and terms of reference as they applied to the
original. (Amended L.N. 362 of 1997)