29.
Answer:
Mr President,
(a)
(b)
(c)
Localisation of the civil service is a long-established government policy dated back to 1950. Our policy objective is to staff the civil service with qualified and suitable local candidates as far as possible. One key aspect of the policy is to give preference to qualified and suitable local candidates in recruitment. Overseas candidates are considered for appointment only when there is no qualified and suitable local candidate available. Since 1985, overseas candidates are appointed only on agreement terms. Overall, the localisation policy is successful. At All Policy present, 99.1% of the civil service are local officers. Secretaries and over 70% of Heads of Department are local officers. The percentage of local officers at the directorate and senior management/professional levels has been increasing over the years. The localisation statistics in the last 10 years and the position as at 1 April, 1996 compared with 18 years ago are annexed.
The Legal Department is historically a department with a high percentage of overseas officers due to difficulties in recruiting local officers until recent years. As a result, three of the five Law Officer posts were localised less than three years ago and this has affected the pace to localise the post of Attorney General.
The Legal Department is at present 73% localised with 100% at the Crown Counsel rank, as compared with 39% and 74% respectively in December 1988, when the Double Ladder Scheme was introduced to speed up localisation. The pace of localisation in the department is satisfactory. There is no set target for full localisation of the department and the present steady pace will continue.