18.
Again, during 1982, a new Technical
Education and Industrial Training Department was
formed, under the policy direction of the Secretary
for Education, to take over responsibility in these
fields from the Education and Labour Departments
respectively, and to act as the executive arm of the
newly established statutory Vocational Training
Council.
19.
At the same time, there has been a fairly
continuous process of reforming and recasting the
internal organisation of branches and departments; and this is still going on. So much for what we
I shall now
have done during the past two years.
describe what we plan to do in the near future in order to achieve more appropriate groupings of policy programmes and a better balance of responsibilities between policy branches in the Secretariat.
20.
First, I should like to refer to Dr Fang's
suggestions that thought should be given to the creation of a Secretary for Health to oversee the development of our medical and health services and that the post should be filled by a medically qualified person, which suggestions were, I think, supported by Miss Bennett
and Dr Ip.
and complexity of the administrative problems connected with our health and medical services. The scope and depth of these services have been graphically described this afternoon by the Secretary for Social Services and the Director
of Medical and Health Services.
principle, I am not in favour of creating, a new Secretary to deal with policy matters for a single
programme area which is also handled by a head of department of equal seniority, as this tends to lead to a duplication of effort and confusion over respective
There can be no doubt about the range
But, as a matter of
/responsibilities,.,,.