CE to attend Jan LegCo Q&A

December 10, 2019

Chief Executive Carrie Lam:
About my appearance in the Legislative Council. Since the beginning of my term, I have attached importance to the relationship between the executive and the legislature, so on top of the regular Q&A (Question & Answer) sessions which take place once every quarter in the legislative year, I have initiated with the support of the Legislative Council President to do this monthly question time lasting for about 30 minutes on each occasion. The problem that I am facing is these days, as proven by the two occasions in October, almost whenever I step into the Legislative Council building and the chamber there would be disruptions to the proceedings and perhaps also undermining the order in the Legislative Council. So I told myself that perhaps I should give another trial in attending the regular Q&A session in January and if that goes relatively smoothly, of course I am happy to resume the practice of doing a short Q&A or a short question time with the Legislative Council. There is no doubt that as the (Chief Executive) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, I need to lead the executive to work closely with the Legislative Council, because the Legislative Council plays a very important statutory role in scrutinising the Government’s business, in approving our legislative proposals and also in supporting our funding requests. So this is something for the time being, sort of. Because I don’t want to cause more disruptions and security risks and concerns to colleagues in the Legislative Council Secretariat.

(To watch the video with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said she will attend the Legislative Council question and answer session in January.

Ahead of this morning’s Executive Council meeting, Mrs Lam told reporters there were disruptions in LegCo when she delivered her Policy Address and during the Chief Executive’s question and answer session in October.

“Since the beginning of my term, I have attached importance to the relationship between the executive and the legislature.

“The problem that I am facing is these days, as proven by the two occasions in October, almost whenever I step into the LegCo building and the chamber there would be disruptions to the proceedings and perhaps also undermining the order in the LegCo.

“So I told myself that perhaps I should give another trial in attending the regular question and answer session in January and if that goes relatively smoothly, of course I am happy to resume the practice of doing a short Q&A or a short question time with the LegCo.”

The Chief Executive added that she has to lead the executive in working closely with the LegCo, which plays a vital statutory role in scrutinising the Government’s business, approving its legislative proposals and supporting government funding requests.