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23
The
bodies with
recreational
Urban and Regional Councils are financially autonomous a range of statutory responsibilities for the provision of muncipal services such as public cleansing, licensing restaurants
and markets and the provision and management of
cultural and sporting facilities
extends over Hong Kong Island and Kowloon; that of the Regional
Council, which was formally constituted on 1 April 1986, over the
Both Councils include elected
New Territories.
members
The Urban Council's authority
and appointed
district and
of
the Urban
To maintain close connections between
regional levels of representative government, members
Council sit as members of District Boards whilst the
District Boards elect members to sit on the Regional
Territories
Council
New
24.
The
The principal functions of the Legislative Council are to
enact legislation and control the expenditure of public funds
Council questions the Administration on matters of public interest
and debates its proposals in regard to policy Until 1985 the
Council consisted of appointed members only.
Following the
principles laid down in the 1984 Hong Kong Government White Paper on
the Further Development
Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong,
24 members of the Council have, since 1985, been chosen by a system
of indirect elections. Twelve are elected by an electoral college
comprising all members of the District Boards and the Urban and
Regional Councils; and twelve by functional constituencies
representing significant sectors of the community.
The Legislative Council
25.
The 1985/86 session of the Legislative Council marked a
significant stage in its history In addition to the introduction
10.
of elected members for the first time, the size of the Council was
increased from 45 to 56, and the number of civil servant members was
The Council also moved to a new Chamber,
from the central Government offices, and met
two weeks. In addition to dealing with
stages of enactment Council members asked supplementary questions of official members,
reduced from 16 to
physically separate
weekly, instead of every
various
some
72
Bills at
296 questions
and
797
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