LegCo Paper No. CB(2) 172/96-97
Ref : CB2/PL/SE/1

LegCo Panel on Security

Minutes of Meeting
held on Wednesday, 2 October 1996 at 12:00 noon
in the Chamber of the Legislative Council Building

Members Present :

    Hon James TO Kun-sun (Chairman)
    Hon Mrs Selina CHOW, OBE, JP (Deputy Chairman)
    Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong
    Hon Emily LAU Wai-hing
    Hon Fred LI Wah-ming
    Hon Howard YOUNG, JP
    Hon Zachary WONG Wai-yin
    Hon Andrew CHENG Kar-foo
    Hon CHEUNG Hon-chung
    Hon Albert HO Chun-yan
    Hon IP Kwok-him
    Hon Bruce LIU Sing-lee
    Hon TSANG Kin-shing
    Hon Margaret NG
    Hon Lawrence YUM Sin-ling

Members Absent :

    Dr Hon Philip WONG Yu-hong *
    Dr Hon LAW Cheung-kwok *
    Hon LO Suk-ching *

Clerk in Attendance :

Mrs Sharon TONG
Chief Assistant Secretary (2) 1

Staff in Attendance :

Mrs Justina LAM
Assistant Secretary General 2
Miss Salumi CHAN
Senior Assistant Secretary (2) 1
Mr Paul WOO
Senior Assistant Secretary (2) 5

I. Election of Chairman and Deputy Chairman for the 1996/97 Session

(Appendix 1 to LegCo Paper No. CB(2) 2186/95-96)

Mr James TO, Chairman of the Security Panel for the 1995/96 session, took the chair. He pointed out that according to Standing Order 60E(6), "a Member who is the chairman or deputy chairman of a Government advisory body in respect of matters which a Panel considers to be directly related to the terms of reference of the Panel shall not be the chairman or deputy chairman of the Panel." He took members through the "List of Government Advisory Bodies relevant to LegCo Panel on Security" at Appendix 1 and noted that no Panel member was serving as chairman or deputy chairman of the listed bodies.

2. Mr James TO and Mrs Selina CHOW were elected Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Panel respectively.

II. Terms of Reference

(Appendix 2 to LegCo Paper No. CB(2) 2186/95-96)

3. Members proposed no changes to the existing terms of reference of the Panel as listed at Appendix 2.

III. Schedule of Meetings for the 1996/97 Session

4. Members agreed to the meeting schedule of the Panel for the 1996/97 session as follows :

Clerk

    (a) Next meeting

    15 October 1996 (Tuesday) 8:30 am.

    (b) Regular meetings from November 1996 onwards

    The 2nd Monday of each month at 10:45 am.

[Post-meeting note : As the Administration would be attending the Executive Council meeting on 15 October 1996, the next Panel meeting was rescheduled to be held on 28 October 1996 (Monday) at 8:30 am in Conference Room A of the Legislative Council Building.]

IV. Items for Discussion at the Next Meeting

(Appendix 3 to LegCo Paper No. CB(2) 2186/95-96)

5. Members noted the Panel’s list of outstanding items for discussion and agreed to accord priority to those which required the Administration’s expeditious action before the change of sovereignty in 1997. After discussion, members agreed to discuss the following four items at the next Panel meeting and the joint meeting with the Public Service Panel to be held on the same day : Clerk

Meeting of the Security Panel from 8:30 am to 10:00 am

  1. Permanent residency after 1997 (Item A3 of the list of outstanding items);
  2. Follow up on visa-free facilities for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Passport holders to keep track of developments since the discussion at the Panel meeting on 8 July 1996 (Item A6 of the list of outstanding items); and
  3. Report of the Subcommittee on the Police Management Review (Item A8 of the list of outstanding items).

Joint meeting with the Public Service Panel from 10:00 am to 10:30 am

  1. Follow-up on staff wastage in the Police Force since the discussion at the Security Panel meeting on 15 July 1996 (Item A7 of the list of outstanding items) and localization of the Police Force.

6. Members agreed to discuss the following two items at the regular meeting to be held in November 1996 :

Clerk
  1. Deployment of mainland troops in Hong Kong (Item A1 of the list of outstanding items); and
  2. Entry visa for Taiwan visitors (Item A2 of the list of outstanding items).

7. Mrs Selina CHOW was concerned about the recent increase in the number of illegal immigrants from mainland China and Vietnam and their commission of crimes in Hong Kong. She would like to know the measures taken /to be taken by the Police to tackle the problem. She proposed and members agreed to include this subject into the list of outstanding items for future discussion.

Clerk

V. Any Other Business

Subcommittee on the Police Management Review

8. The Chairman remarked that a draft report on the work of the Subcommittee on the Police Management Review during the period from May 1995 to July 1996 had been circulated to Subcommittee members for comments. Members agreed that the Subcommittee should continue to study the remaining nine reports. The Clerk would call for membership of the Subcommittee for the 1996/97 session.

[Post-meeting note : A circular was issued on 8 October 1996 under LegCo Paper No. CB(2) 77/96-97 to invite members to re-signify membership for the Subcommittee for the 1996/97 session.]

Provision of information papers by the Administration

9. Based on the experience from the last session, members considered that there was a need to urge the Administration to provide information papers (with Chinese translation) for discussion at Panel meetings well in advance. As this was a common problem experienced by various Panels, members agreed that the Chairman of the House Committee should be requested to write to the Administration on the subject.

[Post-meeting note : Members discussed the subject at the House Committee meeting on 4 October 1996. They agreed that the Administration should be requested to provide papers and documents simultaneously in Chinese and English to Panels one week before the scheduled meetings. The Chairman of the House Committee would convey members’ views to the Chief Secretary.]

VI. Close of Meeting

10. The meeting ended at 12:25 pm.

LegCo Secretariat
9 October 1996

* other commitments

Last Updated on 21 August 1998