DRAFT
How the Executive Council Works
Every Tuesday morning at 9.30 a.m.
the Governor of
conference a
room in the Government
Hong Kong steps into Secretariat Building in Lower Albert Road.
The men and
women gathered round the table form Hong Kong's Executive Council, the territory's most important policy making body.
During the ensuing meeting ranging in significance from
consider matters
hawker to (revese
they will
matters
affecting
a a petition by
livelihood of Hong well being and the well
ondrak Wat
exaples)
Kong's 5 1/2 million people.
The Council's deliberations (although not generally
its decisions) are confidential.
This brief takes a look
behind the closed doors of its meetings and, in so doing,
separates the facts from the myths about its work.
The Members
The size of the Executive Council is not
not fixed.
the Governor's
most
The Royal Instructions provide that senior official advisers (the Chief Secretary, the Commander
British
Forces,
Secretary Financial the
and
the
Attorney-General)
must be Members,
ex-officio,
of the
Council. But the Governor has
whom, and how
how many people, he appoints
freedom beyond that
as to
to the
Although his appointments
are
to subject
Council.
the covering
is there
no
recorded
approval of the Secretary of State,
instance of the Governor's choice being overruled.