TNAG-2991-FCO40-3566-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-1992 — Page 155

SPEAKING NOTE

Transfer of Certain Minor Responsibilities From the Executive Council

The

I thought it would be useful to let you know of an exercise being conducted by the Hong Kong Government to improve some of the routine procedures of the Executive Council. proposal involves transferring certain minor statutory responsibilites now rested with the Council to Policy Secretaries or Heads of Departments, and the setting up of a statutory administrative appeals board to deal with minor statutory appeals which now lie with the Council.

2.

The Governor mentioned in his Policy Address in October 1991 the need to improve the Executive Council's procedures to allow Members more time to concentrate on important issues of the day. This arises from the fact that currently many existing ordinances require minor, routine executive matters to be referred to the Council regularly. They take up a disproportionate amount of the Council's time, and distract Members from other more important issues,

3.

We have looked at three specific areas:

(a)

Minor statutory Powers

—

the Executive Council is currently required to exercise many minor executive powers, such as the setting of technical standards, approving forms etc. Responsibility for these minor matters will now be devolved to the relevant Policy Secretary or Head of Department;