TNAG-1361-FCO40-1807-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 4

2

Supplementary

information : (a) Members were notified on 30 March that

confidential item C.1 included on the

agenda for the Finance Committee meeting on 3 April would be downgraded and re-numbered as item B.2. The item deals with implementation of Report No. 10 of the Standing Commission on Civil Service Salaries and Conditions of Service on overtime and related allowances. The item was marked confidential for the papers relating to the subject were in a confidential file. But it is not unusual for confidential files to contain papers that need not be so classified. The fact is that to have open and confidential versions of files dealing with a specific subject would be inconvenient.

(b) In 1984-85, 41 Finance Committee agenda

items out of a total of 204 were classified confidential, i.e. 20%, sometimes rather unnecessarily. Members may be assured that the number of agenda items classified as confidential in the future, now that Finance Committee meets in public, will be kept to the absolute minimum.