The oath-taking and signing of a declaration by civil servants will be done in one go, Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip said today.

Speaking at a press conference on the Policy Address initiatives, Mr Nip said it is a basic requirement for all civil servants to take an oath or make a declaration that they will uphold the Basic Law and bear allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

He said: “As regards oath-taking for serving civil servants, we listened to the views of the civil service unions and organisations and also conducted some studies. We have come to the view that basically the act of confirming in writing the upholding of the Basic Law and pledging allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is a basic requirement for civil servants. All civil servants, serving and those newly recruited, should do so.

“There is no particular reason that we have to do it by phases if logistically we can handle it. So we plan to do it in one go.

“The majority of the civil servants will do it by signing a declaration. That means confirming in writing about upholding the Basic Law and pledging allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR. We have already done that for those civil servants who joined the Government after July 1 this year.”

He added that the bureau will finalise the preparatory work before meeting the major civil service organisations and will promulgate the detailed arrangements.