### Engineers Registration Ordinance 《工程師註冊條例》

21. Inquiry committee and rules of conduct
(1) The Board may refer any complaint concerning a disciplinary offence to an inquiry committee for decision, and for that purpose the Board may establish an inquiry committee of not less than 3 members of the Institution in the same or a similar discipline as the registered professional engineer in respect of whom the complaint is made, to determine whether or not he has committed a disciplinary offence.
(2) The Board may make rules providing for the conduct of its inquiries by an inquiry committee and for other matters relating to the investigation of an alleged disciplinary offence.
(3) The inquiry committee shall not proceed to hear evidence of a complaint concerning a disciplinary offence unless the registered professional engineer in respect of whom the complaint is made is given 28 days’ notice of the complaint and the date, time and place of the hearing.
(4) The registered professional engineer referred to in subsection (3) shall be entitled to attend and hear all evidence produced at the hearing and shall be provided with a copy of this Ordinance and any rules made under this section.
(5) The Board may make rules for the rehearing of an inquiry by an inquiry committee.
(6) Where a registered professional engineer is alleged to have committed a disciplinary offence under section 20(1)(b) or (g), the inquiry committee—
(a) shall not be required to inquire whether the registered professional engineer was properly convicted of the alleged offence; and
(b) may consider any record of the case in which a conviction was recorded and any other evidence which is relevant as showing the nature and gravity of the offence.
(7) The inquiry committee may, in deciding whether a person has committed a disciplinary offence, have regard to any code of professional conduct or practice promulgated by the Board or currently in use by the Institution.

22. Legal adviser
The Board may appoint a legal practitioner to advise an inquiry committee and a review committee on any points of law and procedure that arise before, during or after the inquiry.

### Engineers Registration Ordinance 《工程師註冊條例》

24. Powers in regard to obtaining of evidence and conduct at inquiry
(1) An inquiry committee shall have power—
(a) to hear, receive and examine evidence on oath;
(b) to summon any person to attend the inquiry either as the person whose conduct is the subject of the inquiry or to give evidence or produce any document or other thing in his possession and to examine him as a witness or require him to produce any document or other thing in his possession, subject to all just exceptions;
(c) to admit or exclude the public or any member of the public from the inquiry;
(d) to admit or exclude the press from the inquiry;
(e) to award any person summoned to attend the inquiry as a witness such sum, to be paid from the funds of the Board, as in the opinion of the inquiry committee have been reasonably expended by him in connection with his attendance.
(2) The Registrar shall sign summonses to witnesses.
(3) No person shall be required to answer any question or produce any document or other thing which, in the opinion of the inquiry committee, may tend to incriminate him.
(4) A witness shall, in respect of any evidence given by him before the inquiry committee, be entitled to the same privileges to which he would be entitled if he were giving evidence in court.

25. Review of disciplinary orders
(1) When an inquiry committee completes its hearing in respect of a disciplinary offence and makes a finding that a disciplinary offence has been committed, the Registrar shall forthwith forward the inquiry committee’s decision and details of any order proposed to be made by the inquiry committee under section 23 to the Board for review.
(2) The Board shall appoint 3 of its members, one of whom shall be qualified in the discipline, or, in the opinion of the Board, a discipline similar to the discipline, of the registered professional engineer concerned to sit with the Chairman as a review committee to review the decision of the inquiry committee.
(3) The Board shall not appoint a member of the inquiry committee to be a member of the review committee.
(4) The review committee may—
(a) confirm the decision and any proposed order of the inquiry committee;
(b) reverse a finding of guilt of the inquiry committee;
(c) recommend that any proposed order made by the inquiry committee be varied; or
(d) remit the decision or any proposed order of the inquiry committee to the inquiry committee with directions to reconsider the decision or proposed order or both.
(5) The inquiry committee shall comply with the directions and recommendation, if any, of the review committee.

### Engineers Registration Ordinance 《工程師註冊條例》

26. Service of orders of inquiry committee
(1) The Registrar shall serve a copy of any order made under section 23(1), together with a copy of the inquiry committee’s reasons, or serve notice that the inquiry committee has not found that the registered professional engineer concerned committed a disciplinary offence, upon the registered professional engineer who was the subject of the complaint, either personally or by registered post addressed to his registered address immediately when the Registrar receives— (Amended 33 of 1997 s. 12)
(a) the report of the review committee, unless the inquiry committee is to reconsider its decision; or
(b) any order of the inquiry committee reviewed under section 25(4)(d).
(2) The Registrar shall not remove the name of the registered professional engineer from the register before the expiry of a period of 3 months after the date of service of the order under subsection (1) or, in the case of an appeal made to the Court of Appeal against the order under section 28, before the appeal is finally determined. (Amended 10 of 2005 s. 88)
(3) Any person whose name has been removed from the register under this Ordinance may apply to the Board for the restoration of his name to the register, and the Board may, after such inquiry and subject to such conditions as it may consider desirable, allow or refuse the application.
(4) If the Board allows an application under subsection (3), it shall order the Registrar to restore the name of the applicant to the register on payment by the applicant of the prescribed fee.

### Engineers Registration Ordinance 《工程師註冊條例》

27. Publication of disciplinary orders
(1) After the expiry of the time within which an appeal may be made to the Court of Appeal under section 28 against an order of an inquiry committee made under section 23(1)(a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) or, if such an appeal has been made, after the appeal is finally determined, the Board— (Amended L.N. 179 of 1991; 33 of 1997 s. 13; 10 of 2005 s. 89)
(a) shall publish a copy of the order or, if the order is varied on appeal, the order as so varied in at least one English and one Chinese language newspaper circulating daily in Hong Kong; and
(b) may publish the order or, if the order is varied on appeal, the order as so varied in any other publication or manner as the Board thinks fit. (Amended 10 of 2005 s. 89)
(2) Where an order is published under subsection (1), the Board—
(a) shall publish with such order sufficient particulars to acquaint the public with the nature of the matter to which the order relates; and
(b) may publish with such order an account of the proceedings of the inquiry committee.
(3) No action in damages for defamation shall lie against any person as a result of publishing an order and other particulars required or permitted under this section.