TNAG-1361-FCO40-1807-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 242

Speech by the Chief Secretary in the Legislative Council on 6 February 1985

Sir,

I move the resolution standing in my name on

the Order Paper.

2

to

This resolution proposes amendments to Standing

Order 60 So as to permit the

Committee Finance conduct all its meetings in public unless the Chairman orders otherwise in accordance with any decisions of the

Committee.

3

Members will recall that Standing Orders were amended in 1983 to enable the Finance Committee to sit in public to examine the draft Annual Estimates before the Appropriation Bill is considered in committee of the whole Council; and further amendments were made in 1984 to enable the Public Accounts Committee to hold its hearings in public.

4

As

I am sure that Members will agree with me that those public meetings held last year in March by the Finance Committee and in November by the Public Accounts Committee were well received by the public at large. another major step towards more open government, it is only right that regular meetings of the Finance Committee, and not just those meetings at which the draft Annual Estimates are considered, should be held in public as well. For confidential items, the

the Committee

will still meet in private and the resolution recognises

this.