1974 — Page 51

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

CHAIRMAN (in English):-I regret that, as Chairman, I cannot accept this report prepared by Mr. BERNACCHI as being within the competence of Standing Order 13(6)(b), because it is not a report which covers the work of a select committee of which Mr. BERNACCHI is the chairman nor is it a report for which no notice is required.

This is a matter which has been dealt with extensively by the Standing Committee of the Whole Council, so there is no call for this report to be laid before the Council or debated without notice. Mr. BERNACCHI can challenge the ruling of the Standing Committee by a substantive motion.

I therefore declare that Mr. BERNACCHI's action in laying this report before the Council is not within the terms of the Standing Order to which he referred and therefore the motion to waive Standing Orders is out of order. I so rule.

Will the Council now proceed to Item 4 of the Agenda.

QUESTIONS

(1) MR. LO TAK-SHING asked the following question (in English):-

In order to assess whether printing of our Official Record takes too long could members please be informed how long it takes for Parliament in England to get its Hansard printed?

MR. JOHN MACKENZIE, CHAIRMAN OF THE ADMINISTRATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):-

Mr. Chairman, I am informed that United Kingdom Hansard is available by the morning following each parliamentary session.

Unfortunately the Urban Council cannot aspire to this scale of service and the Official Record of Proceedings takes, on average 2-3 months to produce from the date of session to final print. The present procedure is to transcribe from tape to draft which is then vetted and corrected prior to printing of a Proof Copy. The Printed Proof is then sent to Members for final corrections. The major time delay is with the Government Printer who, of course, services all Government departments and must arrange for the proof and final copies of our Official Record to be sent into a heavy printing schedule.

However, I must point out that these printing procedures do not cause delay in implementation of Council decisions. The Council Secretariat initiates action whilst the Record is in draft form, and I am not aware of any undue delays in this respect.

Finally, it would be possible to speed the production of the Official Record of Proceedings if this was felt necessary by Members, but I must warn that this would require further study and would probably incur increased expense.

MR. Lo (in English):-Sir, as this is an open meeting, to which the public is usually invited and presumably what we do here is of interest to members of the public. Apart from looking at our official record of these proceedings, how else can members of the public get an accurate and current picture as opposed to historical record of what takes place in this Chamber?

MR. MACKENZIE (in English):—Mr. Chairman, I think the meetings of these procedures are well covered by the press media and are opened to the general public and our activities are very well reported generally through our Public Relations Section to the press. The fact that the printed official record is not available, I do not think detracts in any way from the situation that I described. It would, of course, be more efficient if we could expedite the printing of this but, in fact, I don't think that this official record of the proceedings has much in the way of public demand after printing.

MR. Lo (in English):-It's a question of accuracy, Mr. Chairman. Does Mr. MACKENZIE feel that he is satisfied with the accuracy of reporting that appears in the newspapers after every session?

CHAIRMAN (in English):-Mr. MACKENZIE is asked for a personal opinion and I must rule that out of order.

MR. MACKENZIE (in English):-May I ever have confidence in the press, Sir! (Laughter)

CHAIRMAN (in English):-That is playing to the gallery and is out of order too. (Laughter)

MR. Lo (in English):-Very good. May I ask then, in all seriousness, that the Chairman of the Administration Select Committee do look into it? I mean, really, if England can do it in a day, I think it's rather hard for us to be satisfied with three months in Hong Kong.

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