# Registration of Persons Ordinance, 1960

Date of Commencement: 1 June 1960 (G.N.A. 44 of 1960) Adaptation of law: See L.N. 362 of 1997, L.N. 363 of 1997, 127 of 1997, 28 of 1998, 71 of 1999 for changes after the handover of Hong Kong
* A verified copy of this enactment exists on Hong Kong e-Legislation since 26 April 2018.
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REGISTRATION OF PERSONS ORDINANCE, 1960.
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS.
HONG KONG
No. 18 of 1960.
* L.S.
I assent. Claude Burgess, Officer Administering the Government. 19th May, 1960.
An Ordinance to provide for the registration of persons in the Colony, for the issue of identity cards and for purposes connected therewith.
Be it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows—
Short title and commencement. 1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Registration of Persons Ordinance, 1960, and shall come into operation on such day as the Governor shall appoint by Proclamation in the Gazette.
Power to make appointments. 2. (1) The Governor may appoint, by name or office, an officer to be Commissioner of Registration, and officers to be styled assistant commissioners, district registrars, registrars and assistant registrars, of registration, registration supervisors and such other officers as may be deemed necessary for the purposes of this Ordinance.
(2) The powers and discretions vested in the Commissioner of Registration and duties required to be discharged by him may be exercised and discharged by an assistant commissioner of registration or such other officers as the Governor may specify by notification in the Gazette.
(3) The Governor may establish or set up such offices as he may deem necessary for the purposes of this Ordinance and may appoint an officer to be known by such style as the Governor may decide, to have charge of each such office.
Compulsory registration of persons. 3. (1) Subject to—
    (a) the provisions of subsection (2);
    (b) the provisos to section 10; and
    (c) any exemptions which may be granted by regulations made under this Ordinance,
every person being in the Colony at the commencement of this Ordinance or who thereafter enters the Colony shall make application to be registered under the provisions of this Ordinance and any regulations made thereunder.
​(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), if administrative convenience so requires, the Governor may direct that such registration of all persons shall be effected progressively according to description or category of persons to be specified from time to time by order made under this subsection and published in the Gazette.
(3) On the publication of any such order made under subsection (2), every person so described or being a person of a category so specified shall make application to be registered under this Ordinance and any regulations made thereunder.
(4) Every application for registration made in compliance with the provisions of this section shall be made in such manner as may be prescribed by regulations made under section 8.
Evidence. 4. A certificate purporting to be under the hand of the Commissioner of Registration certifying that the document or photostat copy annexed thereto with his seal is a true facsimile of the statement or document it represents shall be admissible in evidence in any court, without further proof, as evidence of such statement or document and the contents thereof and of the signature of the Commissioner of Registration thereto. The provisions of section 20 of the (Cap. 8).Evidence Ordinance shall apply to all such certificates, and to the documents and photostat copies attached thereto.
Duty to use registered name and to submit number of identity card. 5. Notwithstanding the provisions of any law to the contrary, every person of the age of seventeen years and upwards, unless exempted from the provisions of this Ordinance by regulations made thereunder, shall in all dealings with Government—
    (a) use the personal name and surname by which he elected to be registered; and
    (b) furnish the number of his identity card to the satisfaction of the public officer requiring such number; and
    (c) when he is required by law to furnish particulars of any other person, so far as he is able—
       (i) submit the personal name and surname by which such other person elected to be registered; and
       (ii) furnish the number of the identity card relating to such person to the satisfaction of the public officer requiring it.
Power of search. 6. (1) The Commissioner of Registration, any registration officer so authorized by him, the Immigration Officer for the Colony, any police officer of or above the rank of sub-inspector, any deputy immigration officer, and any immigration control officer so authorized by the Immigration Officer may without warrant and with or without assistance
    (a) enter and search any premises; ​
    (b) stop and search any vessel, vehicle or individual whether in a public place or not,
if he has reason to believe that any evidence of the commission of an offence against this Ordinance or the regulations made thereunder is likely to be found on such premises or individual or in such vessel or vehicle, and may seize any evidence so found.
(2) A female person shall be searched under this section only by another female person.
Power of arrest. 7. Any person whom the Commissioner of Registration, or the Immigration Officer for the Colony, or any deputy immigration officer, or any immigration control officer so authorized by the Immigration Officer reasonably believes has committed an offence against this Ordinance or the regulations made thereunder may be arrested without warrant—
    (a) in the absence of the Immigration Officer for the Colony, or a police officer, or deputy immigration officer, or such duly authorized immigration control officer, by the Commissioner of Registration who shall either forthwith give such person into the custody of any police officer, or into the custody of any deputy immigration officer or immigration control officer, when the provisions of paragraph (b) shall apply, or forthwith take him to the nearest police station and shall there hand him over to the custody of a police officer and thereupon the provisions of section 47 of the (Cap. 232).Police Force Ordinance shall apply; or
    (b) by the Immigration Officer for the Colony, or a deputy immigration officer, or such duly authorized immigration control officer, who shall forthwith take him to the nearest police station and shall there hand him over to the custody of a police officer and thereupon the provisions of section 47 the Police Force Ordinance shall apply.
Power to make regulations.. 8. (1) The Governor in Council may make such regulations as may be necessary for the purposes of this Ordinance.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred by subsection (1) such regulations may prescribe or provide for—
    (a) the manner in which and places at which application for registration shall be made;
    (b) the information and documents to be furnished for the purposes of registration;
    (c) the taking and recording of photographs and fingerprints of persons requiring to be registered and the destruction of such photographs and the facsimiles of all such fingerprints on the expiration of this Ordinance; ​
    (d) the method and manner by which information and documents furnished by a person requiring to be registered are to be recorded and maintained;
    (e) the photographing of fingerprints, information and documents furnished or made for the purposes of registration and the destruction of their originals;
    (f) the use of films and photographic reproductions of such films;
    (g) the issue of identity cards, their form, and particulars to be entered thereon;
    (h) the custody and production of identity cards;
    (i) the inspection of identity cards;
    (j) the amendment or cancellation of identity cards, and the issue of duplicates thereof;
    (k) the issue of reports and certificates;
    (l) the exemption of any person or category of persons from the provisions of this Ordinance;
    (m) destruction of documents and records;
    (n) forms;
    (o) fees.
(3) Any regulation made under this Ordinance may provide that a contravention thereof shall be an offence and may prescribe penalties for such offence not exceeding a fine of one thousand dollars and imprisonment for six months.
Power to suspend or revive operation of Ordinance. 9. (1) It shall be lawful for the Legislative Council by resolution—
    (a) from time to time to declare the suspension of the operation of this Ordinance from the date named in the resolution; and
    (b) from time to time to declare that any suspension declared under paragraph (a) shall terminate as from the date mentioned in the resolution.
(2) The suspension of this Ordinance under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) shall until the termination of such suspension have the same effect as the repeal of an enactment.
(3) The termination of the suspension under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) shall have the same effect as if the Ordinance had been re-enacted and come into operation on the date as from which the suspension is declared to terminate save and except that any regulations which were in force at the date when the suspension, which has thus been terminated, came into effect, shall revive and continue to have full force and effect.
​Repeal. (Cap. 177). 10. The Registration of Persons Ordinance is hereby repealed:
Provided that—
    (i) all persons registered or exempted, other than children under twelve years of age, under the provisions of that Ordinance shall be deemed to be registered or exempted under the provisions of this Ordinance which shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to all such persons;
    (ii) all identity cards issued under the provisions of that Ordinance to persons so registered shall be deemed to be issued under the provisions of this Ordinance;
    (iii) all acts done and all records kept under the provisions of that Ordinance shall be deemed to have been done or kept under the provisions of this Ordinance;
    (iv) the Governor may by order published in the Gazette, require by description, category or name all persons deemed to be so registered or exempted under the provisions of that Ordinance to register again in accordance with the provisions of this Ordinance and any regulations made thereunder;
    (v) on the publication of any such order made under paragraph (iv) every person so described or named or being a person of a category so specified shall return his identity card issued under the provisions of that Ordinance and make application in such manner as may be prescribed by regulations made under section 8 to be registered under this Ordinance.
Passed the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, this 18th day of May, 1960.
A. Chapman, Deputy Clerk of Councils.
(Secretariat DR D/RPO)
This work is a Hong Kong ordinance. As an edict of a government, it is in the public domain in the U.S. Because Hong Kong ordinances are originally written in English, this is not a translation and no separate translation license is needed. Since fifty years have passed from its publication. It is also in the public domain in Hong Kong according to section 183(2) and paragraph 36 of Schedule 2 of the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528).
According to Section 3 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 1), the term "ordinance" also includes any subsidiary legislation made under any ordinances of Hong Kong that does not contravene with the Hong Kong Basic Law.
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