Sir,
Speech by the Honourable Chief Secretary
(Sir Philip Haddon-Cave)
in the Budget Debate on 17 April 1985
Before the Financial Secretary delivers the
customary winding-up speech for this debate there are
several civil service related subjects which fall to me
as Chief Secretary to deal with.
Size of the Civil Service
2.
mentioned
Inevitably the size of the Civil Service was
during the debate: five members, namely,
Mr S L Chen, Mr Peter C Wong, Mr Wong Lam, Mrs Pauline Ng
and Mr Wong Po-yan commented favourably on
Government's
the
efforts to stabilise the size of the Civil
The statistics of the
Service in present circumstances.
approved establishment presented in Appendices IX and X
these
of Volume 2 of the Draft Estimates indicate that
efforts have met with a good measure of success: the
approved establishment increased from 151,809 posts in
1980 to 173,663 posts in 1992 or by 14.4%. The growth
rate was then held to 1.85%
in 1983 and to 2.74% in
1984. It is intended to hold it down again to 1.33% in
1985. Of the 2,419
additional posts
to
be created in
new services in the
1985, 1,473 posts are for essential
Medical and Health Department and the Royal Hong Kong
Police Force.