Secretary for Labour & Welfare Matthew Cheung says $23.78 million has been allocated in the 2010-11 financial year to support the Women's Commission's promotion of women's status, rights and opportunities.

Speaking at a dinner organised by the Federation of Trade Unions' Women Affairs Committee tonight, he said the commission advocated gender mainstreaming and has devised a checklist to help Government officials to adopt gender perspectives in a more systematic way in the formulation of policies and work plans.

More than 30 policy or programme areas closely related to women have adopted the checklist and the Social Welfare Department will be the first to adopt the revised checklist made available last year in working out the details of the Victim Support Programme.

"The Victim Support Programme, with a yearly allocation of $5 million, is expected to come on stream in the first half of this year. The department will provide subventions to non-governmental organisations to offer victims of spouse battering and child-abuse cases, particularly those undergoing judicial proceedings, emotional support and information on judicial proceedings and social support services."

Gender perspectives are taken into account in the provision of many public service facilities, he said, adding more will be made available in the next three years.

Public affairs

On women's participation in public affairs, Mr Cheung said seven out of the 30 Executive Council members are women. In the civil service, as at the end of last year, 35% were women while those in the directorate stood at 32%. Seven of the 18 permanent secretaries (39%) are women.

"As at September last year, 27.6% of the non-official members of the advisory and statutory bodies are women - a significant increase as compared with the 17% recorded in June 2000.