(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said the Government has very high expectations for civil servants.

Ahead of the Executive Council meeting this morning, Mrs Lam made the statement in response to questions on the new civil service recruitment guidelines issued by the Civil Service Bureau.

She said civil servants are subject to stringent standards.

“Civil servants are public officers and we have very high expectations of every member of the civil service.

“They have to, under the National Security Law, pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and uphold the Basic Law.

“So, they are subject to a more stringent set of standards and I would advise whoever wants to join the civil service of the Hong Kong SAR, they have to make sure that they can fulfil those requirements.”

She noted the Civil Service Bureau has focused on probationers this time to ensure they are good enough to continue serving the people of Hong Kong.

“In terms of the management of the civil service, of course, recruitment is important, so we bring in the right people. Secondly, the probation period is very important. We want to observe these civil servants to ensure that they meet high standards that I have just described.

“Because once they move on to confirmation, our rules and regulations make it very difficult for us to dismiss a permanent civil servant.

“This time around, the Civil Service Bureau has focused on the probationers, advising the heads of departments to make sure that they are monitoring and observing not only the performance of the probationers on the job but also their conduct, their other behaviour to make sure that they will be good enough to continue to serve the people of Hong Kong, being an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China.”