CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
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The Urban Council's responsibilities are restricted to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon, which have a population of nearly four million. The council's main duties are: public sanitation and cleansing; the licensing and hygienic control of all food premises, offensive trades and bathhouses; the management and control of civic centres, museums, football stadia, markets, abattoirs, hawkers, cemeteries, crematoria and funeral parlours. Other responsibilities include the provision and management of public libraries and places of public recreation, such as bathing beaches, swimming pools, tennis and squash courts, games halls, sports grounds, playgrounds and parks; the provision and promotion of cultural services and outdoor entertainment; the licensing of places of public entertainment and liquor licensing. In all these fields, the council's policies and decisions are carried out by the Urban Services Department, the director of which is the principal executive officer of the council under the Urban Council Ordinance.
The council's main revenue is derived from its 34.8 per cent share of the yield from rates in the urban area. Fees and charges provide other sources of income. In the 1981-2 financial year, the council worked to an overall budget of $961 million, including a grant of $280 million from government.
Advisory Committees
The network of more than 320 government advisory boards and committees plays an essential role in the efficient administration of Hong Kong. A distinctive feature of the system of government in the territory, the purpose of these bodies is to see that, after consultation with interested groups in the community, government is provided with the best possible advice on which to base its decisions. As a consequence, nearly all government departments are assisted by advisory bodies of some kind.
Advisory bodies fall under four broad categories: ‘appeal' boards (such as the Appeals Board (Education) or the Board of Review, Long Term Prison Sentences); those which deal with the interests of a particular industry (such as the Construction Industry Training Authority or the Fish Marketing Advisory Board); committees which advise on particular areas of government policy or public interest (such as the Social Welfare Advisory Committee or the Special Committee on Land Supply); and local committees concern- ing themselves with the welfare of districts, areas and neighbourhoods throughout the territory, including district fight crime committees, area committees and the recently established district boards which advise government on all matters affecting the well-being of the people in their district.
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Government officials and members of the public are both represented on these commit- tees the public members being appointed on account of their specialist knowledge or expertise, or through their record or interest in contributing to the life of the community.
Increasing importance has been attached to the contribution of unofficials to the formulation and execution of government policies and in 1981 the ratio of unofficial to official chairmanship increased to 53:47 from about 50:50 in 1978. Moreover the chairmanship of a number of more important boards and committees has been held by unofficials.
While the membership of a committee is in general reviewed on the occasion of the expiry of a member's term of office, a more systematic and regular monitoring of the composition and effectiveness of these bodies is being undertaken. A recent exercise indicates that about one third of the committees have been reviewing their terms of reference for possible modification to meet changing needs and circumstances. Many have recommended improvements to improve their effectiveness.