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(c)

The Preparatory Committee for Chinese Medicine (PCCM) will publish a list of potent herbs for reference by members of the public. The Department of Health will work with the Committee to educate the public on the safe and proper use of Chinese medicine.

One of the terms of reference of the PCCM is to advise on the promotion, development and regulation of Chinese medicine. It is also tasked with the study on the import, distribution, manufacture and sale of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong. The proposal of labelling toxic Chinese medicine will be one of the topics to be considered by the PCCM.

Criteria for making appointments to advisory bodies

Following is a question by the Hon Yum Sin-ling and a reply by the acting Secretary for Home Affairs, Mrs Stella Hung, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

Will the Government inform this Council:

(a)

(b)

(c)

whether there are any criteria laid down for making recommendations to the Governor for the appointment of persons to various 'committees', 'boards' and 'advisory committees' as unofficial members, and what are the procedures for making recommendations and what is the selection process:

whether consideration will be given to requiring that grass-roots representatives (such as District Board Members) be recommended for appointment so that the views of people at the grass-roots level can be reflected in such committees/boards: and

how the authority concerned assesses the performance of appointed members; and whether the term of office of any appointed member has been terminated on account of poor performance in the past three years; if so, what is the number?