Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Finance Committee Report on the examination of the Estimates of Expenditure 2018-2019 July 2018 Finance Committee Report on the examination of the Estimates of Expenditure 2018-2019 July 2018 CONTENTS Chapter Page I Introduction 1 – 2 II Civil Service 3 – 12 III Administration of Justice and Legal Services 13 – 24 IV Central Administration and Other Services 25 – 37 V Financial Services 38 – 49 VI Public Finance 50 – 55 VII Constitutional and Mainland Affairs 56 – 67 VIII Environment 68 – 80 IX Housing 81 – 94 X Transport 95 – 110 XI Home Affairs 111 – 120 XII Commerce, Industry and Tourism 121 – 133 XIII Communications and Creative Industries 134 – 141 XIV Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene 142 – 154 XV Health 155 – 168 XVI Innovation and Technology 169 – 182 XVII Planning and Lands 183 – 199 XVIII Works 200 – 211 XIX Education 212 – 223 XX Security 224 – 233 XXI Welfare and Women 234 – 256 XXII Labour 257 – 271 Appendix Page I Programme of the special meetings of the Finance A1 – A3 Committee II Summary of written and supplementary questions B1 – B3 and requests for additional information III Attendance of members and public officers at the C1 – C36 special meetings of the Finance Committee IV Speaking notes of Directors of Bureaux, Secretary D1 – D114 for Justice, and Judiciary Administrator Chapter I : Introduction 1.1 At the Legislative Council meeting on 28 February 2018, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government introduced the Appropriation Bill 2018. Following the adjournment of the Bill at Second Reading and in accordance with Rule 71(11) of the Rules of Procedure, the President of the Legislative Council referred the Estimates of Expenditure to the Finance Committee for detailed examination before the Bill was further proceeded with in the Council. 1.2 The Finance Committee set up under Rule 71(1) of the Rules of Procedure comprises all Members of the Council except the President. The Committee held 21 sessions of special meetings over five days from 16 to 20 April 2018 to examine the Estimates of Expenditure. The purpose of these special meetings was to ensure that the Administration was seeking a provision no more than was necessary for the execution of the policies of the Government for 2018-2019. 1.3 To facilitate the smooth conduct of business, members of the Committee were invited to submit written questions on the Estimates of Expenditure using a web-based application system. A total of 6 244 written questions were received and forwarded to the Administration for replies. In this connection, the Administration provided replies to the first 3 300 questions before the special meetings and replies to the remaining questions that were in order before the third Budget meeting of 2 May 2018. Members' questions and the Administration's replies have been uploaded onto the Council's website. 1.4 Each session of the special meetings from 16 to 20 April 2018 was dedicated to a specific policy area and attended by the respective Director of Bureau and his/her key Controlling Officers. The schedule of the 21 sessions is given in Appendix I. At the start of each session, the Director of Bureau/Controlling Officer concerned gave a brief presentation on the spending priorities and provisions sought under his/her programme areas. The Chairman then invited members to put questions to the Administration. The records of the proceedings of the 21 sessions are given in Chapters II to XXII. Questions which were not dealt with and requests for further information were referred to the - 1 - Chapter I : Introduction Administration for written replies after the meetings, while broad policy issues raised during the meetings were referred to the respective panels for follow up, where necessary. 1.5 A total of 211 supplementary questions and requests for additional information were referred to the Administration for reply after the special meetings. All the written replies to these questions were forwarded to members prior to the third Budget meeting on 2 May 2018. A summary of the number of the questions and additional requests for information is given in Appendix II. 1.6 The attendance of members and public officers at the special meetings is given in Appendix III. The speaking notes of Directors of Bureaux, the Secretary for Justice and the Judiciary Administrator at the special meetings are contained in Appendix IV. 1.7 This report, published in both Chinese and English, would be presented to the Legislative Council on 4 July 2018 in accordance with Paragraph 53 of the Finance Committee Procedure. - 2 - Chapter II : Civil Service 2.1 At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr Joshua LAW, Secretary for the Civil Service ("SCS"), briefed members on the civil service establishment and the financial provisions related to the policy area of central management of the civil service (Appendix IV-1). Civil service establishment 2.2 Whilst welcoming the creation of 6 700 additional civil service posts in 2018-2019, Mr Tony TSE enquired how the Administration would work out the financial provisions for these additional posts in 2018-2019 as these posts would be filled at different time throughout the financial year. SCS replied that, as a general practice, the Administration would include six months' personal emoluments for these additional posts in the Estimates and then top up any shortfall after filling the posts. 2.3 In reply to Mr Tony TSE's enquiry on whether the Administration had set a time frame for bureaux/departments ("B/Ds") to recruit civil servants for new posts, SCS advised that although the Administration had not set such time frame, most of the exercises conducted from 2013-2014 to 2016-2017 had been completed within six months. The time for completing the recruitment exercises had remained at a stable level despite that the number of open recruitment exercises for civil servants had increased by 50% during the same period. As regards the new civil service posts created for replacing non-civil service contract ("NCSC") positions, SCS said that the relevant recruitment exercises would tie in with the contract expiry of the NCSC staff concerned. 2.4 Referring to Reply Serial No. CSB032, Ir Dr LO Wai-kwok welcomed that 354 out of the 6 700 additional civil service posts to be created in 2018-2019 belonged to the construction and relevant engineering professional grades. In view of the extra workload arising from the implementation of the Quality Water Supply Scheme, he noted with concern that only 11 new posts would be created in the construction and relevant engineering professional grades for the Water Supplies Department ("WSD") in 2018-2019. SCS replied that - 3 - Chapter II : Civil Service additional manpower resources were allocated to individual B/Ds in light of the actual operational needs. 2.5 Ir Dr LO Wai-kwok sought information on the number of new posts in the construction and relevant engineering professional grades to be created in the Buildings Department ("BD") in 2018-2019. SCS advised that a total of 125 new posts would be created in BD, which represented an increase of 6.8% of the existing establishment of the department. 2.6 Ir Dr LO Wai-kwok also asked whether the Administration had introduced measures to groom young civil servants in the construction and relevant engineering professional grades to take up the duties of senior posts. SCS replied that individual departments would provide designated training programmes to groom young civil servants to take up the duties of promotion ranks and obtain the relevant qualifications in due course. 2.7 Mr Kenneth LEUNG expressed concern about the substantial staff retention and succession problems of some professional grades, such as the pilot grade of the Government Flying Service, due to more attractive remuneration in the private sector. He asked how the Administration would address such problems and whether B/Ds could use the one-off provision, which was equivalent to 3% of the recurrent non-personal emoluments portion of their envelopes, allocated by the Financial Secretary to improve the remuneration of individual professional grades. 2.8 SCS advised that the one-off provision was for individual B/Ds to make general service improvements with greater operational flexibility and could not be used to improve the remuneration of individual grades. CSB would keep in view the manpower situation of the professional grades and explore with the relevant bureaux/departments the possibility of addressing any staff retention and succession problem by various means, such as manpower increase and other human resources management measures. - 4 - Chapter II : Civil Service 2.9 Referring to Reply Serial No. CSB015, Dr Elizabeth QUAT asked whether the Administration would consider proposals put forth by the disciplined services grades to conduct a grade structure review ("GSR") for disciplined services once every six years. SCS advised that the Administration was actively considering the proposals of conducting a GSR. As complicated issues were involved, the Administration needed more time to explore feasible options. The Administration would, nevertheless, handle the matter at full speed. Civil service medical and dental benefits 2.10 Referring to Reply Serial No. CSB059, Mr POON Siu-ping asked whether the Administration would earmark a separate annual provision for the Hospital Authority ("HA") to cover its provision of medical services, including imaging and specialist out-patient services, for civil service eligible persons ("CSEPs"). 2.11 SCS explained that the Administration had allocated financial provisions to HA to cover the provision of civil service medical benefits through two separate funding arrangements. While the annual lump sum provision allocated to HA was for the provision of medical benefits to the public, including CSEPs, there was dedicated funding allocated to HA to enhance the provision of imaging and specialist out-patient services for CSEPs.