ENG-1978 — Page 322

CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

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Select committees and sub-committees co-opt such officials and other persons as are necessary, but each select committee is chaired by an urban councillor.

The Urban Council's responsibilities are restricted to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon, which have a population of about 3.6 million. The council's main duties are: public sanitation and cleansing; the licensing and hygienic control of all food premises, offensive trades and bathhouses, the management and control of markets, abattoirs, hawkers, cemeteries, crematoria and funeral parlours. Other duties include: control and management of the City Hall, museums and football stadia; provision and management of public libraries and places of public recreation, such as bathing beaches, swimming pools, tennis and squash courts, games halls, sports grounds, playgrounds and parks; provision and patronage of cultural services and outdoor entertainment; the licensing of places of public entertainment and liquor licensing. In all of these fields, the council's policies and decisions are carried out by the Urban Services Department, the director of which is the principal executive officer of the council under the Urban Council Ordinance.

The council's main revenue is derived from its 34.8 per cent share of the yield from rates in the urban area. Fees and charges provide other sources of income. In the 1978-9 financial year, the council worked to an overall budget of $531.4 million.

Advisory Committees

An important aim of the government is that of improving its contacts with the popu- lation at large. The government is also concerned to ensure that it acts on the best advice available and that its actions are understood and accepted by those affected. A significant part of the effort to achieve this aim is a comprehensive network of more than 150 advisory bodies. These bodies, which include both government em- ployees and members of the public, are a distinctive feature of the system of govern- ment in Hong Kong. Practically all government departments and areas of activity are assisted by advisory bodies of one sort or another.

Reviews of the membership and functions of advisory committees and boards are carried out regularly as more committees tend to be created than disbanded due to the ever increasing complexity and spread of government activities.

Advisory bodies may be based on the common interests of a particular locality (as in the case of Mutual Aid Committees or the Rural Committees in the New Terri- tories to which have been added seven district Advisory Boards), or a particular in- dustry (such as the Textiles Advisory Board), or deal with a particular area of com- munity concern (such as the Action Committee Against Narcotics), or of government activity (such as the Transport Advisory Committee). Other examples of such bodies are the Board of Education, the Medical Development Advisory Committee, the Social Welfare Advisory Committee, the Labour Advisory Board, the Trade and Industry Advisory Board, the Social Security Appeals Board, the Metrication Com- mittee and the Country Parks Board.

Civil Service

The civil service provides the staff for all government departments and other units of the administration. During 1977-8 the civil service maintained its growth. It in- creased the number of posts - usually called the establishment from 117,800 on