LegCo Paper No. CB(2) 105/96-97
Ref : CB2/PL/IP

LegCo Panel on Information Policy

Minutes of Meeting
held on Wednesday, 2 October 1996 at 11:30 a.m.
in Conference Room B of the Legislative Council Building

Members Present :

    Hon Emily LAU Wai-hing (Chairman)
    Hon Andrew CHENG Kar-foo
    Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung
    Hon Bruce LIU Sing-lee
    Hon Mrs Elizabeth WONG CHIEN Chi-lien, CBE, ISO, JP
    Hon Lawrence YUM Sin-ling

Clerk in Attendance :

Mrs Anna LO
Chief Assistant Secretary (2) 2

Staff in Attendance :

Mrs Justina LAM
Assistant Secretary General 2
Mr Colin CHUI
Senior Assistant Secretary (2) 2
Mr Raymond LAM
Senior Assistant Secretary (2) 6

Miss Emily LAU welcomed Mr Lawrence YUM Sin-ling as a new Panel member and informed members that Miss Christine LOH Kung-wai had resigned from the Panel.

I. Election of Chairman

2. Miss Emily LAU Wai-hing was elected Chairman of the Panel.

II. Terms of Reference

3. Members considered and agreed to the terms of reference at Appendix I to LegCo Paper No. CB(2) 2134/95-96.

III. Schedule of Meetings for the 1996-97 Session

4. The Chairman reminded members that pursuant to the House Committee’s decision on 16 December 1994, policy briefings for the 1996-97 would be held at Panel meetings. The briefing for the Information Policy Panel had been scheduled for 10 October 1996 at 3:15 p.m..

5. Members agreed that the next regular meeting would be held on 14 October 1996 at 2:30 p.m. in Conference Room B of the Legislative Council Building. Starting from November 1996, regular meetings of the Panel would be held on the first Friday of every month at 10:45 a.m. in Conference Room B of the Legislative Council Building.

IV. Items for Discussion at the Next Meeting

6. Members went through the list of outstanding items for discussion at Appendix II to LegCo Paper No. CB(2) 2134/95-96 and, after discussion, agreed that the items listed below would be discussed at the following meetings:

    Discussion items for meeting on 14 October 1996

  1. Review of legislation having an impact on press freedom
  2. Progress on the case of XI Yang
  3. Meeting with the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.

Discussion item for a future Panel meeting

Display of publicity materials in public places.

7. The Clerk reported that the Secretary for Home Affairs, who was the corresponding policy secretary for the Panel, advised that his briefing on the Governor’s Policy Address 1996 could only cover issues within his purview as he was not in a position to address to questions on policy commitments for other policy secretaries. He requested the Panel to consider either discussing only issues regarding his policy areas; or inviting other relevant policy secretaries to the briefing on matters of interest to members. The Panel agreed to also invite the Secretary for Security, in particular on items (b) and (c) of para. 6 above. If the Secretary for Security attended the briefing, "Display of publicity materials in public places" would be an agenda item for the meeting on 14 October 1996 in place of items (b) and (c) of para. 6 above.

Clerk

(Post-meeting note : As the Secretary for Security was unable to attend the policy briefing for the Panel, the agenda items for the meeting on 14 October 1996 as listed in para. 6 above remained unchanged.)

V. Any other business

Provision of Information Papers

8. Members noted that experience from the last session showed that the Administration had very often ignored to the request for information papers to be provided on time. The Panel agreed that the Panel clerk should write to the Secretary for Home Affairs to re-iterate the following:

Clerk
  1. the need for documents to be provided simultaneously in Chinese and English to the Panel one week before the meetings;
  2. the need for documents to be made available as early as possible in respect of urgent meetings where only short notice can be given; and
  3. the tabling of documents at meetings should be avoided as far as possible.

(Post-meeting note : The Secretary for Home Affairs was so requested on 2 October 1996.)

The meeting ended at 11:50 a.m.

Legislative Council Secretariat
11 October 1996

Last Updated on 20 August 1998