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Following is a question by the Hon Yiu Si-wing and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Home Affairs, Ms Florence Hui, in the Legislative Council today (May 27):
Question:
At present, various policy bureaux publicise and promote their policies and measures through a number of channels. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective expenditures incurred by various policy bureaux last year on publicising policies and measures, with a breakdown by publicity means (including (i) television announcement in the public interest, (ii) radio announcement, (iii) newspaper supplement, (iv) outdoor publicity activity, (v) Internet and (vi) social media) according to Annex 1;
(2) whether it regularly assesses the effectiveness of the publicity work of various policy bureaux; if it does, of the assessment criteria and outcome of the last assessment; if not, the reasons for that; and
(3) how the authorities tackle the situation where the publicity work is not cost-effective?
Reply:
President,
We have consulted relevant policy bureaux on the enquiry raised by the Hon Yiu and our consolidated reply is as follows:
(1) Expenditures of various policy bureaux in 2014-15 on publicity of policy measures are provided in Annex 2.
(2) and (3) When carrying out publicity initiatives, policy bureaux will, having regard to the objectives and actual circumstances of such initiatives, collect responses via different means to assess the effectiveness of the publicity initiatives for reference for mapping out publicity and promotional strategies in future. Generally speaking, policy bureaux may, in their assessing the effectiveness of the publicity initiatives, consider such factors as the number of programme participants or service users, opinions from target groups or relevant stakeholders, relevant press commentaries and reports, number of hotline enquiries, hit rates of webpages and content of submissions received.
Policy bureaux are tasked with prudent and effective use of allocated funding to take forward various areas of work, including publicity initiatives, under their respective policy portfolios. Their key areas of work and performance will also be reported in the Controlling Officer's Reports for the relevant year. In addition, in their annual budgeting exercises, policy bureaux will examine the priorities of various tasks and prepare budgets for the following year, including the budgets for publicity initiatives. Taking into account cost-effectiveness and other relevant factors, they will consider making necessary revision to the budgets.
Ends/Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:42
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