ENG-1993 — Page 37

CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

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The council normally meets in public once a week for the transaction of normal council business. In addition, about once a month, the Governor addresses or answers questions from members at a special sitting.

House Committee

The House Committee of the Legislative Council consists of all members of the council other than the President and ex officio members. Its chairman and deputy chairman are elected from among its members. The House Committee performs overall co-ordinating and house management functions in respect of the business of the council and its committees. It also considers matters referred to it by these committees.

When the Legislative Council is in session, the House Committee meets every week to discuss the council's proceedings and to undertake preparatory work for meetings of the full council. Regularly on the agenda of these meetings are reports on subsidiary legislation tabled in the council; questions that members intend to put to the government; motions and bills to be debated; and any other matters of public concern or relating to the business of the council.

The House Committee may appoint sub-committees to assist in the consideration of specific subsidiary legislation and issues of public concern. Sittings of the committee and its sub-committees are normally held in public.

- Finance Committee

The Finance Committee of the Legislative Council consists of the Chief Secretary as the chairman, the Financial Secretary and 56 non-official members. It scrutinises public expenditure, both at special meetings held in March at which members examine the draft estimates of expenditure for the year ahead, and at regular meetings, held throughout the year, to consider requests which entail changes to the provisions agreed upon by the Legislative Council in the estimates each year, or to note financial implications of new policies. Both the special and regular meetings are held in public. The Finance Committee has two sub-committees: the Establishment Sub-committee and the Public Works Sub- committee, whose meetings are also held in public.

The Establishment Sub-committee consists of 26 members of the Legislative Council, one of whom is the chairman. Representatives of the Secretary for the Civil Service and the Secretary for the Treasury are in attendance. It examines mainly the creation, redeployment and deletion of permanent and supernumerary posts remunerated from the directorate pay scales, and changes to the structure of civil service ranks and grades (including pay scales, new grades and new ranks), and makes recommendations on them to the Finance Committee. It also reports to the Finance Committee on changes in departmental establishments, and on the size and cost of the civil service.

The Public Works Sub-committee consists of 32 members of the Legislative Council, and the Financial Secretary as the chairman. The Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands; the Secretary for Works; the heads of all works departments and the Environmental Protection Department; and representatives from the Finance Branch are in attendance at all meetings to provide advice. The sub-committee makes recom- mendations to the Finance Committee in the upgrading of projects to Category A of the public works programme, which indicates their readiness to start, and on changes to the scope and approved estimates of projects already in that category.