Legislative Council Annual Report 2016-2017

Subsequently, six electedMembers were disqualified by the courts fromassuming the office of Members of LegCo since 12 October 2016. While it is regrettable that LegCo is to exercise its powers and functions under BL without a full membership for the time being, I respect the judgments of the courts. I look forward to the Council functioning with full membership in the near future. In the meantime, LegCo has continued to exercise its constitutional powers and functions as a law-making institution. In the first legislative session of the Sixth LegCo, the Council approved 12 Government bills, seven with amendments, as well as one Member's bill. Among these Government bills, three lapsed upon prorogation of the Fifth LegCo were re-introduced into the Sixth LegCo. They were the Private Columbaria Bill, the Fire Services (Amendment) Bill 2016 and the Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill 2017. While the Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill 2017 is under scrutiny by its Bills Committee, the scrutiny of the other two bills was expeditiously completed by the relevant Bills Committees building on the comprehensive work done by their predecessors in the Fifth LegCo. The passage of these two bills by the Council was welcome as they sought to address livelihood issues that affected all walks of life. The Private Columbaria Bill provided for a licensing scheme for regulating the operation of private columbaria and the Fire Services (Amendment) Bill 2016 provided for a scheme for registered fire engineers to conduct fire safety risk assessment for certain premises. Meanwhile, the Apology Bill, which provided for the effect of apologies in certain proceedings and legal matters that aimed to facilitate amicable resolution between parties in dispute, was also enacted. The scrutiny of the Appropriation Bill 2017 ("the Appropriation Bill") was again filibustered by a few Members through proposing voluminous Committee stage amendments ("CSAs") in order to force the Government to accede to their various demands. This year, a total of 742 CSAs were proposed. In considering the admissibility of the CSAs, I must respect Members' right to participate in the legislative process while ensuring the orderly, efficient and fair disposition of LegCo business. If a large number of CSAs proposed by a Member cannot serve any serious purpose other than consuming the Council's time, I must rule those CSAs frivolous and inadmissible under the Rules of Procedure ("RoP"). Drawing from the past experience, while I considered that a reasonable debate platform should be provided for Members to express their views on the performance of individual bureaux, departments and public officers, Members had much room and flexibility to consolidate their CSAs for more effective and efficient use of the Council's time. As such, I ruled 185 CSAs admissible and allocated enough Council meeting time for Members to debate the CSAs falling within different policy areas. All the proposed CSAs were negatived and the Legislative Council Annual Report 2016-2017 3