Advisory and Statutory Bodies

In maintaining a system of Advisory and Statutory Bodies, the Government's policy objective is to facilitate it to obtain the best possible advice on which to base decisions or to perform statutory functions by consulting interested groups and individuals in the community. Through these bodies, a wide cross-section of the community and relevant organisations can participate in the initial stage of policy-making and public service planning.

Functions and Composition of Advisory and Statutory Bodies

Advisory and statutory bodies give advice to the Government or perform public functions which otherwise would be performed by government departments. Their areas of activities are wide-ranging. Some of the advisory bodies, such as the Telecommunications Numbering Advisory Committee, deal with the interests of a particular industry. Others advise on a particular area of government policy interest, including the Transport Advisory Committee. On the other hand, statutory bodies perform their functions according to the relevant legislation. Some of them, such as the Hospital Authority, perform executive functions.

Government officials and members of the public are represented on these bodies. Over 3,600 members of the public have been appointed to serve on around 400 major bodies, and some serve on more than one.

Principles of Appointments to Advisory and Statutory Bodies

The Government makes appointments to advisory and statutory bodies on the basis of the merit of individuals concerned, taking into account a candidate's ability, expertise, experience, integrity and commitment to public service and with due regard to the statutory provisions of statutory bodies, functions and nature of business of the bodies concerned. While upholding the principle of appointment by merit, the Government has established the following guidelines and principles for appointments to these bodies to ensure that members of the public have equal opportunities to participate in public affairs through services on these bodies -

"Six-year Rule"

"Six-year Rule" means not appointing a non-official member to serve on the same body in any one capacity for more than six years to ensure a healthy turnover of members of advisory and statutory bodies.

"Six-board Rule"

"Six-board Rule" means not appointing a person to serve as a non-official member on more than six advisory and statutory bodies at any one time to ensure a reasonable distribution of workload.

Gender Benchmark

In January 2004, the Government set the "25% gender benchmark" as an initial working target, meaning at least 25% of appointed non-official members of advisory and statutory bodies should be of male or female. The working target was achieved in December 2005 in overall terms for all advisory and statutory bodies.The Government has raised the target from 25% to 30% with effect from June 2010.

The Government regularly keeps in view the composition and operation of the advisory and statutory bodies to ensure that they meet the needs of the community. A reasonable turnover of membership is generally maintained to ensure the inflow of new ideas. At the same time, these bodies adopt a number of transparency measures, including issuing press releases, holding press briefings and opening up meetings, so as to promote the public's understanding of their work. The membership lists of all these bodies are also uploaded onto the Internet as the Civil and Miscellaneous List to facilitate public inspection of the relevant information.

Public Participation

To secure public views and participation, the Government has been encouraging the public to participate in the work of these bodies. Relevant information has been uploaded on the website of this Bureau. Interested individuals can indicate their willingness in participation by downloading and filling in a curriculum vitae form and subsequently mailing their personal information to the Government for inclusion in a centralised database which contains the membership records of non-official members serving on these bodies as well as the personal data of those interested individuals. The database serves as a useful reference for relevant Bureaux/Departments when appointing members to the advisory and statutory bodies under their purview. Apart from this, we also invite members from various organisations, such as social service agencies, professional bodies, commercial or industrial associations, educational institutions and women organisations to indicate their interest in service on these bodies.