Civil servants should not unscrupulously criticise the Government's policies or enforcement operations by individual departments.  

The Government today made the statement in response to media enquiries regarding a civil service staff union's social media post about the January 1 procession.
 

It expressed deep concern and regret over the remarks made by a civil service staff union on a social media platform expressing dissatisfaction against a Police decision to end the procession earlier due to public safety considerations, alleging that the decision restricted Hong Kong people's rights of procession, assembly and association.

If any civil servant has violated the Civil Service Code, the Government will deal with it in a serious manner in accordance with the established mechanism.

It also highlighted that in the press release "Government strongly condemns rioters breaching public peace" issued on January 2, that Police decided to end the procession earlier after taking into account public safety considerations. It is clear the civil service staff union concerned completely ignored this fact and made unscrupulous criticisms. This is totally unacceptable to the Government.

According to the Civil Service Code, civil servants shall uphold the principle of political neutrality, which means that they should serve the Chief Executive and the Government of the day with total loyalty and to the best of their ability, no matter what their own political beliefs are.

When civil servants express their views, they should ensure that their views would not give rise to any conflict of interest with their official duties, or would be seen to be compromising the important principles of maintaining impartiality and political neutrality which they should uphold when discharging their duties.

All civil servants including those who are office bearers of staff unions must abide by the relevant civil service regulations or code, the Government added.