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The Judiciary Administrator's Speaking Notes at the Special Meeting of Finance Committee on 8 April 2022

2022-23 Draft Estimates

The draft Estimates of 2022-23 for the Judiciary is $2,401.5 million, which represents an increase of $150.2 million or 6.7% over the revised estimates for 2021-22 and 3.3% over the original estimates for 2021 22. In 2022-23, the net additional financial resources required are mainly for filling existing judicial and non judicial vacancies, additional operating expenses for strengthening court operations, facilitating the application of information technology in the Judiciary, and enhancing administrative support for court operations and other functions of the Judiciary.

Judicial Manpower

2.     The establishment of judicial posts now stands at 222. Over the past years, the Judiciary has been launching open recruitment exercises for filling judicial vacancies at appropriate timing, having regard to the judicial manpower situation and operational needs at different levels of court-

  1. (a)     for the Court of First Instance of the High Court (“CFI”), three CFI Judges were appointed from the latest recruitment exercise launched in November 2020. Further judicial appointment(s) will be announced in due course;
  2. (b)     for the District Court, one District Judge was appointed from the latest recruitment exercise launched in March 2021. Further judicial appointment(s) will be announced in due course; and
  3. (c)     for the Magistrates’ Courts, the latest recruitment exercise for Permanent Magistrates launched in August 2021 is in progress.

3.     The Judiciary would continue to monitor the judicial manpower situation and engage deputy Judges and Judicial Officers to meet operational needs as far as practicable.

Non-Judicial Manpower

4.     For non-judicial manpower, in 2022-23, there will be a net decrease of two civil service posts following a lapse of eight time-limited civil service posts upon conclusion of different tasks and an increase of six civil service posts for meeting operational needs, including-

  1. (a)     providing enhanced support for the use of information technology in the Judiciary; and
  2. (b)     implementing various measures under the enhanced mechanism for handling complaints against judicial conduct.

Overview of the Judiciary’s Work and Operation in 2021-22

5.     In 2021, despite the various adjustments to court business in light of the public health situation, the overall caseloads at the various levels of court were comparable to the levels of 2019 before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The target court waiting times for civil cases were generally achieved. The need to clear cases affected by adjustments to court capacity in response to the evolving public health situation and the impact of the influx of cases relating to social events (“SE”) in 2019 and National Security Law (“NSL”) have inevitably affected the average court waiting times for some case types, mainly for criminal cases.

6.     The impact of fluctuating public health situation, the upsurge of cases (especially those relating to SE in 2019 and NSL) at various court levels, and the phenomenal increase in leave applications for judicial review (“JR”) relating to non-refoulement claims continued to pose multiple challenges to the Judiciary.

7.     To cope with the above three challenges, the Judiciary has been taking proactive measures which seek to make the best possible use of available manpower and court facilities to handle the maximum volume of court business-

  1. (a)     Impact of Public Health Situation

      2. In light of the evolving public health situation since 2020, the Judiciary has been striking a balance between public health risks and efficient administration of justice through adjusting court business and adopting social distancing measures from time to time to ensure that courts can continue to carry on business as safely as circumstances permit. The latest arrangement was the gradual resumption of court business with reduced capacity following the cessation of the General Adjournment of Proceedings (“GAP”) for around one month from 7 March to 11 April 2022. To minimize the impact of these measures on court business, the Judiciary has been making greater use of remote hearings and paper disposals to dispose of civil cases where appropriate, and continuing to process urgent and priority cases as far as practicable.

  2. (b)    Upsurge of cases relating to Social Events (SE cases) in 2019 and National Security Law (NSL cases)

      3. The rapid and substantial upsurge of SE and NSL cases since 2020 has been posing particular challenges to the Judiciary as their operational arrangements tend to be more complex because many of them involve a large number of defendants, legal representatives, media and public viewers, and evidences in the form of large volume of video recordings, which require longer trials for more than 20-30 days.

      While the court will endeavour to fix an earliest possible date for each of those complex SE/NSL cases involving a large number of defendants, the processing time of each case from the first hearing date to conclusion depends on a range of factors many of which are beyond the control of the Judiciary. Specifically, the parties in each case will invariably need considerable time to complete a series of steps and procedures required to ensure due administration of justice before the case is ready for trial. These include investigation by law enforcement agencies, seeking legal advice, defendants’ application for legal aid, seeking case management directions, discovery and exchange of evidence, and preparation for trial etc. Operational experience from cases concluded at District Court is that the time expended at the District Court before trial in quite a number of them could range from 100 to 300 days or even longer, which is around 30% more than other criminal cases.

      Notwithstanding this, the Judiciary has been according high priority to handling these cases as expeditiously as possible while ensuring due administration of justice through a series of proactive and multi-pronged measures. These include-

    1. (i)    engagement of additional judicial resources;
    2. (ii)    more proactive case management through setting stringent timetables;
    3. (iii)    longer court sitting hours and Saturday sittings;
    4. (iv)    making the best use of around 135 existing courtrooms suitable for the criminal cases in 11 law court buildings for handling around 60-70 hearings of SE cases each week;
    5. (v)    enlarging the capacity of existing courtrooms to handle cases with a larger number of defendants through renovation and/or broadcasting of hearings;
    6. (vi)    re-commissioning the Tsuen Wan Law Courts Building in October 2021; and
    7. (vii)    planning to construct a mega courtroom for 50 defendants at Wan Chai Tower which is expected to complete in 2023.

      8. With the adoption of the above pragmatic measures to expedite the handling of SE and NSL cases, as of end February 2022, the Judiciary has already disposed of some 1 700 (or 83%) of some 2 100 SE cases brought to various levels of court. The vast majority of cases (at 94%) at the Magistrates’ Courts have been concluded. The imminent challenge in the coming one to two years is mainly to cope with around 190 outstanding cases being handled by the District Court. For NSL cases, a total of 85 NSL cases, with many of them being bail-related ones, have been received at various levels of court. Among them, 64 cases (or 75%) have been concluded.

  3. (c)     Leave application for JR relating to Non refoulement claims

      4. From 2016 to 2021, the total number of applications to the CFI for leave to apply for JR increased from 228 to 1 767. The vast majority (over 90%) of the increase came from cases related to non-refoulement claims. The number of other JR cases has remained stable at an annual average of around 140 cases with no apparent trend of increase. The percentage of leave granted in relation to non-refoulement claims JR cases remains at a very low level. Only 3.9% of these cases disposed as at end January 2022 were approved.

      The Judiciary will continue to deploy additional and dedicated manpower resources and streamline processing procedures as far as possible, with a view to expediting the processing of the increasing number of cases at Court of Appeal of the High Court and CFI.

Greater Use of Technologies

8.     The Judiciary is committed to making greater use of technology for enhancing the efficiency of court business. We have been and will continue to make proactive efforts in taking forward a series of technology-related initiatives in 2022-23 and the years ahead. These include the rollout of the integrated Court Case Management System to enable electronic filing of court documents and electronic payment of relevant fees at various levels of court by phases starting from 2022, and the greater use of remote hearings for civil proceedings under appropriate circumstances.

9.     The Judiciary is also working on the necessary legislative amendments to give effect to the general application of remote hearings to criminal proceedings.

Consultation on draft Family Procedure Bill

10.     The Judiciary has launched a public consultation on the draft Family Procedure Bill (“the Bill”) in February this year. The Bill seeks to legislate for a consolidated set of procedural rules to enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the family justice system in taking forward recommendations in the Judiciary's Final Report on the Review of Family Procedure Rules published in May 2015. Subject to feedback of the consultation and the other developments, we aim at introducing the Bill to the Legislative Council later this year.

Conclusion

11.     The Judiciary will continue to explore areas for improvements to enhance efficiency of judiciary administration, and to provide quality services to court users and members of the public.

12.     Thank you.