LCQ22: Enhancing services of 1823 Contact Centre
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Question:
The Government is actively aligning with the National 15th Five-Year Plan and promoting the development of "Artificial Intelligence Plus", and is continuously promoting the application of AI in government affairs to support economic and social transformation and upgrading. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that the 1823 Contact Centre currently adopts AI technology mainly for handling public enquiries, complaints or service requests, whether the Government will consider utilising AI for post-case compilation, consolidation and analysis of data, for example, by introducing a "one issue per month" system to regularly focus on high-frequency complaints, as well as a "one issue per district" system to focus on high-frequency district-level feedback, and regularly reporting key public concerns in each district to the respective District Councils and District Offices, so as to gain an in-depth understanding of the issues and put forward targeted solutions; if so, of the details; if not, whether the Government will consider implementing the relevant proposals;
(2) as chapter 13, section 3 of the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China mentions enhancing the level of digital and intelligent governance, whether the Government will draw on the experience of the Mainland's "12345 government service hotline" to proactively identify issues of long-standing public concern through 1823's big data, and incorporate this into Hong Kong's first five-year plan to formulate reform targets;
(3) during the period from January to May this year, among the cases handled by 1823 relating to "Service Request/Complaint Handling", those involving multiple departments accounted for three per cent; of the following information regarding such cases: (i) the shortest and longest time from receipt to completion of handling and responding to the customer; (ii) the main government departments involved; (iii) the types and contents of the cases; and (iv) the level of customer satisfaction (with a full score of five); regarding case follow-up, whether the Government will strengthen on-site verification and conduct ongoing monitoring; if so, of the details;
(4) in response to a Member's question in this Council on June 11 last year, the Government indicated that it would further strengthen the 1823 mechanisms for case classification, triage and referral, further expand the use or trial of AI technology in different service areas and interfaces, and enhance the chatbot's question-answering capabilities; of the areas of improvement in the relevant technology, the effectiveness of implementation and the changes in the number of cases handled to date;
(5) as the Mainland's "12345 government service hotline" offers a wide range of services, including the provision of sign language video services to cater for people with hearing impairment, consultancy services for enterprises, and foreign language services to assist in answering enquiries from foreigners, whether the Government will refer to the service scope of this hotline to enhance 1823 services so as to cater for the needs of different groups; if so, of the detailed plans and directions; if not, the reasons for that; and
(6) as Hong Kong occasionally encounters emergency incidents, and members of the public need various types of emergency support, such as temporary cold shelters and supplies replenishment, whether the Government will consider enhancing the logistical support capability of 1823 in handling emergency cases, such as integrating the hotlines of various government departments into 1823 and utilising AI to shorten handling time and speed up the dissemination of information; if so, of the detailed plans and directions; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Operated by the Digital Policy Office (DPO), 1823 handles enquiries, compliments and suggestions for 23 participating policy bureaux/departments (B/Ds), and receives all requests for government services/complaints about government services. For requests for government services/complaints, 1823 will record the case details and refer them to the appropriate B/Ds for handling. The responsible B/Ds will determine how to follow up and respond. 1823 will track the progress of the B/Ds’ replies and, upon request from the respective B/Ds, convey their reply to the service requestor/complainant.
Regarding the question raised by the Hon Joephy Chan, our reply is as follows.
(1), (2) and (4) In 2025, 1823 launched a number of service enhancement initiatives, including enabling intelligent interoperability between the 1823 chatbot "Tammy" and the GovHK chatbot "Bonny"; providing 1823 services on the "iAM Smart" platform; enhancing the Geographic Information System and the business rule engine to improve the referral efficiency of cases in rural areas; and launching a digital self-service enquiry platform. These measures have effectively enhanced user experience and operational efficiency, enabling staff to focus on handling more complex cases, thereby alleviating the manpower pressure arising from the increase in complaint cases.
In addition, 1823 is now expanding the application of AI+ technology across various operational areas. This includes piloting the use of AI to analyse unstructured data from citizens' calls and emails, automatically extracting information from service requests/complaints on specific topics and populating to the respective fields in the Customer Relationship Management System; using AI to analyse departments' email replies to cases referred by 1823 to automatically identify cases for priority handling; and developing a Web App that allows citizens to use 1823 service directly through the "iAM Smart" platform without downloading the 1823 mobile application.
Regarding the proposals of "one issue per month" and "one issue per district", 1823, as a data provider, will submit monthly reports to participating departments that categorise service requests/complaints by type and/or district. This enables departments to conduct comprehensive analysis by combining with their own data, thereby gaining a better understanding of public needs. In addition, 1823 will provide additional information upon request from individual B/Ds to facilitate in-depth analysis on specific topics or regional hot topics, and formulation of targeted improvement measures.
(3) From January to May 2026, 1823 received over 300 000 service requests/complaints, with an average referral time of approximately one hour. About three per cent of these cases required referral to multiple departments. These cases were mainly related to issues such as environmental hygiene, noise nuisance, or street obstructions, and usually involved more than one department. Upon receiving a referral from 1823, the relevant departments will determine the follow-up action and how to address the citizen's request, and provides a substantive reply according to its performance pledge. If the citizen has any opinions on the department's reply or follow-up actions, 1823 will relay them to the department concerned for further review and action. The overall user satisfaction rating for 1823 service was 4.6 (out of five). 1823 does not maintain separate user satisfaction levels for cases involving multiple departments.
(5) 1823 offers a variety of communication channels, including telephone, mobile application, web forms, and email, to facilitate use by citizens with different needs (including persons with disabilities). In addition to providing citizens with contact centre services, 1823 also handles enquiries from businesses regarding company registration, labour laws, etc. Apart from the existing biliteral and trilingual (Cantonese, Putonghua and English) services, 1823 also collaborates with the Centre for Harmony and Enhancement of Ethnic Minority Residents to support calls in eight ethnic minority languages.
(6) 1823 has an emergency response mechanism in place and maintains close communication with various emergency departments and hotlines (such as the 999 Report Centre, the Highways Department, the Drainage Services Department, and the Civil Engineering and Development Department). For instance, when inclement weather-related emergencies occur (e.g. fallen trees, flooding, landslides and road blockages), 1823 will activate the mechanism to prioritise the handling and referral of urgent cases. In addition, 1823 will provide hotline support for major incidents upon request from departments.
The DPO will continue to actively explore technologies such as AI and will draw on the experiences of different places to continuously enhance the 1823 service.
Ends/Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Issued at HKT 11:40
Issued at HKT 11:40
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