Page:Food Safety Ordinance (Cap. 612).pdf/30

FOOD SAFETY ORDINANCE Division 2—Codes of Practice 43. Codes of practice

(1) The Director may issue any code of practice that in the Director’s opinion is suitable for providing practical guidance in respect of this Ordinance.

(2) If a code of practice is issued under subsection (1), the Director must, by notice published in the Gazette—
 * (a) identify the code;
 * (b) specify the date on which the code is to take effect; and
 * (c) specify for which of the provisions of this Ordinance the code is issued.

(3) The Director may from time to time revise the whole or any part of a code of practice issued under subsection (1).

(4) Subsection (2) applies, with the necessary modifications, in relation to any revision made under subsection (3) as it applies in relation to the issue of a code of practice.

(5) The Director may at any time revoke a code of practice issued under subsection (1).

(6) If a code of practice is revoked under subsection (5), the Director must, by notice published in the Gazette—
 * (a) identify the code; and
 * (b) specify the date on which the revocation is to take effect.

44. Use of codes of practice in legal proceedings

(1) A failure by a person to observe a provision of a code of practice does not of itself render the person liable to any civil or criminal proceedings.

(2) However, if in any legal proceedings the court is satisfied that a provision of a code of practice is relevant to determining a matter that is in issue in the proceedings—
 * (a) the code of practice is admissible in evidence in the proceedings; and
 * (b) proof that the person contravened, or did not contravene, the provision may be relied on by any party to the proceedings as tending to establish or negate that matter.

(3) In any legal proceedings, a code of practice that appears to the court to be the subject of a notice under section 43 is to be taken to be the subject of that notice in the absence of evidence to the contrary.

(4) In this section—

“code of practice” (實務守則) means a code of practice issued under section 43 as revised from time to time under section 43(3);