ENG-2011 — Page 63

Constitution and Administration | 27

disciplined services); the Standing Committee on Disciplined Services Salaries and Conditions of Service (the disciplined services except the heads of disciplined services); and the Standing Commission on Civil Service Salaries and Conditions of Service (all other civil servants).

In accordance with the Basic Law, new recruits to the civil service on or after July 1, 1997 should normally be permanent residents of the HKSAR, save for those who fall within the exceptions provided in Articles 99 and 101 of the Basic Law.

Subject to the above policy, appointment to the civil service is based on open and fair competition which aims to recruit the best person for the job. Promotion is performance-based and not a reward for long service. As the largest employer in Hong Kong, the Government takes the lead in employing people with disabilities to help them integrate into the community and to ensure that they are given equal opportunity in recruitment to the civil service.

The Government monitors closely the turnover in the civil service for manpower planning purposes to keep manpower at a level commensurate with service demand. Overall wastage in the civil service was about 3.5 per cent in 2010-11. Given the importance of continuity at the management level, the Government has a well- established staff planning mechanism to review the succession planning for senior staff, identify and groom officers with potential for advancement to senior management and develop a pool of talent for senior positions.

The Government values regular communication and consultation with staff. There are four consultative councils at the central level: the Senior Civil Service Council, the Model Scale 1 Staff Consultative Council, the Disciplined Services Consultative Council and the Police Force Council. More than 80 consultative committees operate at the departmental level. A Civil Service Newsletter is published regularly to provide an added link with serving and retired civil servants.

To ensure that Hong Kong continues to maintain a world-class civil service which keeps pace with changes in society, the Government introduced a number of reforms during the past 10 years. These reforms cover the following five main areas:

1. Maintaining a Lean and Efficient Civil Service

To help reduce the Government's operating expenditure, the civil service establishment has been downsized from its peak in early 2000 by about 18.7 per cent to about 161 000 at the end of March 2007. In accordance with the 'small government' principle, the Government continues to keep a watchful eye over the size of the civil service. New posts are only created when the need is fully justified and other means of providing services are not feasible. On the other hand, due consideration is given to the need for additional manpower resources for delivering new and improved services. Since 2007-08, the civil service establishment has increased by about 1 per cent annually. The growth forecast for the civil service in 2011-12 is about 1 per cent.