LCQ17: Records related to legislative exercise of Article 23 of Basic Law in 2002
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     Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, to a question by the Hon Cyd Ho Sau-lan in the Legislative Council today (November 17):

Question:

     The authorities announced on September 24, 2002 the introduction of local legislation to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law.  Regarding the files and documents relating to the aforesaid local legislation, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the total number of files opened by the authorities for the introduction of the aforesaid local legislation, the total number of pages of documents, and among them, the number of files and documents classified as confidential; the government departments and/or bureaux involved in the preparation of these documents, the number of officers in charge and their respective ranks, and list the various information in the table in the Annex;

(b) of the number of files that have been transferred to the Government Records Service (GRS) for appraisal since the authorities' decision to shelve the legislative proposal on September 5, 2003; among them, of the number of files destroyed upon appraisal, the number of those transferred to GRS for permanent preservation, the number of files and documents that are classified as active and are still being kept by the government departments and/or bureaux concerned;

(c) among the files and documents that have been transferred to GRS in (b), of the number of those that are classified as confidential, and when they can be made available for public perusal; and

(d) of the names of the files and documents that are classified as active and are still being kept by the government departments and/or bureaux concerned?

Reply:

President,

     Our consolidated reply to Member's questions regarding the consultation and legislative exercise of Article 23 of the Basic Law (BL 23) launched in 2002 is as follows:

     The Security Bureau (SB) has opened a total of 119 files to keep records related to the BL 23 legislative exercise.  These files are kept under the following six subjects:

(1) BL 23;
(2) General enquiry and correspondence from the public relating to BL 23;
(3) Press cutting - BL 23;
(4) Meeting with District Council Members on BL 23;
(5) BL 23 - Discussion forums and interviews; and
(6) Legislative Council questions and motions on BL 23.

     Of the above 119 files, 88 are classified as confidential.  We have not kept statistics on the number of pages contained in each of these files.

     The consultation and legislative exercise launched in 2002 was led by SB and the relevant departments under its purview.  The key responsible officers included the Secretary for Security, the Permanent Secretary for Security, a Deputy Secretary for Secretary, a Principal Assistant Secretary for Security and an Assistant Secretary for Security.  Similar to legislative work under other policy areas, SB sought legal advice from the Department of Justice as and when needed.

     SB has all along been managing and maintaining records in accordance with the procedures and guidelines on management of government records drawn up by the Government Records Service (GRS).  Before destruction of government records, SB will consult GRS with a view to identifying records of enduring value and arranging transfer of such records to GRS for permanent preservation.  As the legislative work regarding BL 23 is yet to be completed, we do not have any plan to destroy the aforesaid files and do not need to consider whether we would transfer any of them to GRS.

Ends/Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Issued at HKT 16:15

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