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The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:
Chairman of the Legislative Council (LegCo) House Committee, Hon Miriam Lau Kin-yee, said that the pace of introducing bills by the Administration in the current session still had room for improvement. She urged that as the coming year will be the last session of this LegCo term, the Administration should introduce bills as early as possible so that LegCo Members would have sufficient time to carry out their scrutiny work.
Speaking at the end-of-session media briefing of the LegCo House Committee today (July 11), Ms Lau said: "The Administration has the absolute discretion to decide when bills should be introduced to the Council. However, if the bills are controversial, they should be introduced as early as possible." She believed that in terms of the pace of introducting bills by the Administration, some progress has been made in the current session as compared with the previous years. But there was still room for improvement.
Deputy Chairman of the House Committee, Hon Fred Li Wah-ming, said that according to the Legislative Programme provided by the Administration to LegCo, the Government had originally intended to introduce 23 bills into LegCo in this session. Only 20 of them were introduced at the end of the session. In addition to another seven bills which were not in the Legislative Programme, the Government had introduced a total of 27 bills into LegCo in the current session.
Mr Li said that despite Members' repeated requests for early introduction of bills, most of the bills were introduced towards the end of the current session. Of the 27 bills introduced into LegCo, 15 were introduced in May this year or later and four of them will not be introduced until the last Council meeting of the current session to be held this Wednesday (July 13).
On the relationship between the Executive Authorities and the Legislature, Ms Lau pointed out that the relationship was once very tensed during the early stage of the current session because of the controversy over the Country Parks (Designation) (Consolidation) (Amendment) Order 2010 (the Amendment Order). LegCo Members expressed their grave dissatisfaction with the way of handling the Amendment Order by the Administration. While the Administration claimed that the Council has no right to repeal the Amendment Order, LegCo Members believed that the motion to repeal the Amendment Order was legal, constitutional and in order. To address the concern, a subcommittee has been formed by the House Committee to study issues relating to the power of the LegCo to amend subsidiary legislation. Upon completion of its work, the subcommittee would submit its report and recommendations to the House Committee.
Ms Lau also stressed that she had repeatedly expressed Members' discontent to the Chief Secretary for Administration (CS) on the absence of Principal Officials at relevant Panel meetings during the session. She said that Principal Officials had the responsibility to attend relevant Panel meetings to explain policies to Members and listen to Members' views. CS promised that if the agenda items of the Panel meetings were related to the policies, relevant officials will be appointed to attend the meetings. Ms Lau hoped that there would be significant improvement in this aspect.
As regards the communication between LegCo and the Central Government, Ms Lau said LegCo Members were very keen on meeting with the Chinese leaders and officials of the Central Government when they were visiting Hong Kong. However, there was nothing good or unusual to report over the past year. Although as Chairman of the House Committee, Ms Lau has written to the Chief Executive expressing Members' wish to meet with Mr Wang Guangya, Director of Hong Kong and Macao Affairs of the State Council, while visiting Hong Kong last month, Mr Wang only met with the President of the LegCo and 44 LegCo Members (including the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Standing Committees and Panels) during a luncheon and failed to meet with all Members. She earnestly hoped that LegCo Members would have more opportunities to meet with Chinese leaders of the Central Government in future to exchange views on matters of mutual concern.
Ends/Monday, July 11, 2011
Issued at HKT 21:25
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