House Committee status explained

May 5, 2020

Chief Executive Carrie Lam：
As far as I understand from the senior counsels’ advice, they have made it very clear - having analysed what has happened in the House Committee meetings over the last six months - that if the presiding member’s only role and function is to help elect the chairman and the vice-chairman of the House Committee, then many of the matters raised by him as a presiding member and also discussed in the House Committee’s 30-hour meetings are irrelevant. They are irrelevant to the purpose of electing the chairman and vice-chairman of the House Committee, including the debates on the security of the Legislative Council building, advocating some non-binding motions and so on. 

The second point that the senior counsels have observed during their very detailed scrutiny of the deliberations is that there was at least one occasion on March 13 in the House Committee meeting that gave people a very clear impression that the delaying of the election by the presiding member of the House Committee was quite deliberate and deliberate for political reasons. 

And the third thing that I observed from the senior counsels’ advice is, having regard to all these circumstances, they are of the firm view - this is the word taken from the senior counsels’ statement - that the prevailing chairwoman of the House Committee should have the responsibility and the power to deal with the business of the House Committee. 

So what I am now expecting, and which the Honourable Starry Lee has agreed, is for the prevailing House Committee chairwoman to exercise her power.

(To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said the prevailing chairwoman of the Legislative Council House Committee should have the responsibility and power to deal with the matters of the committee.

Mrs Lam made the statement ahead of the Executive Council meeting this morning, noting LegCo President Andrew Leung had sought advice from outside senior counsel on how to address the delay in electing the committee’s chairman.

She said the senior counsels have observed that many of the matters raised in the House Committee’s meetings by the presiding member in the past six months have been irrelevant to the purpose of electing the committee’s chairman and vice-chairman.

“The second point that the senior counsels have observed during their very detailed scrutiny of the deliberations is that there was at least one occasion on March 13 in the House Committee meeting that gave people a very clear impression that the delaying of the election by the presiding member of the House Committee was quite deliberate and deliberate for political reasons.

“And the third thing that I observed from the senior counsels’ advice is, having regard to all these circumstances, they are of the firm view - this is the word taken from the senior counsels’ statement - that the prevailing chairwoman of the House Committee should have the responsibility and the power to deal with the business of the House Committee.”

The Chief Executive added that she expects the committee’s prevailing chairwoman Starry Lee to exercise her power.