Hong Kong’s security chief has said authorities will provide sufficient evidence and “intelligence” to support any move to restrict specific lawyers from visiting inmates, in response to a lawmaker who called such a measure under proposed prison rule changes “ridiculous”.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung told a security panel meeting on Monday that a magistrate would need to be satisfied with the government’s submissions to grant a court warrant to restrict legal visits. He added that authorities would have “intelligence” for suspected behaviour that would violate the proposed five “key purposes” for prison visits.

“We will tell the court if we have intelligence from somewhere else that a lawyer might help smuggle [objects] out of the prison,” Tang said, referring to a past case without getting into specifics.

Tang was responding to lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun, who questioned how authorities could gather sufficient evidence to file a court warrant to limit a specific lawyer or members of their firm from contacting a designated inmate, when legal visits in prisons were confidential in nature.

“On what grounds could the government apply for this warrant, if [officers] could not listen to the meeting’s content? If this warrant is challenged by judicial review, the government would need to make explanations. What evidence would be used to support this?” Tse asked.