Resettlement_Department_Annual_Report_1967-1968 — Page 15

Resettlement Policy Select Committee:

To determine overall resettlement policies and the planning of future operations, including the exercise of the powers and func- tions of the Council as the competent authority under Parts IV and V of the Resettlement Ordinance.

Resettlement Management Select Committee:

To exercise the powers and functions of the Council as a com- petent authority under Parts IV and V of the Resettlement Ordinance 1958, and to--

(i) supervise and carry out the general administration of cottage

resettlement areas;

(ii) make recommendations for the effective administration and

control of the multi-storey resettlement estates.

24. Membership of these Committees for 1967–68 is given at Appen- dix 3. The Select Committees in turn delegate their routine duties to the Commissioner for Resettlement. Since the introduction of the Ward system by the Council, the earlier practice of Councillors being appointed as visiting members to individual estates has lapsed. Instead they receive enquiries and complaints from tenants at their ward offices, some of which are in fact located in estates. Since September 1967 monthly group visits of members of the Select Committees to estates have been arranged so that they can observe problems at first hand. Officers of the Resettlement Department carry out the day to day business within the policies laid down by the Government, the Urban Council and the Select Committees. Individual appeals from members of the public against the Commissioner's decisions on tenancy matters are referred to the Management Select Committee, on other matters to an appeals subcommittee of the Policy Select Committee. Since the appeals sub- committee generally handles appeals on subjects for which the Urban Council is not the competent authority, it can legally only advise the Commissioner for Resettlement; in practice its advice is generally accepted. At the end of the year it was decided that all appeals would in future be dealt with by panels of a joint appeals sub-committee of the two Select Committees. It has also become customary for the Commis- sioner to consult the Select Committees on a wide range of questions. The advice tendered and decisions made by the Committees form a substantial body of 'case law' for the guidance of the department.

10

Page 15Page 16