Legislative Council Short-distance Agenda Guidelines issued under the Epidemic of the Legislative Council

The fifth wave of the epidemic is severe, and the Legislative Council meeting to be held tomorrow (26th) will also be affected.

The Legislative Council Secretariat sent a letter to all members today (25th), announcing that the meeting will continue tomorrow. It has not been changed to a remote meeting for the time being, but the agenda of the meeting has been shortened. motions of MPs.

At the same time, the Secretariat issued the remote meeting guidelines formulated by Chairman Leung Kwan-yen, setting out the details of the arrangements that must be followed if future meetings have to be conducted by video.

Liang Junyan decided to use the video conferencing platform Zoom. Members must show their appearance after joining the meeting, otherwise they will be removed. Members from different sectors also have specific requirements for the background color used.

The Legislative Council meeting tomorrow (January 26) is affected by the epidemic and needs to shorten the agenda.

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The agenda was suddenly shortened, and Deng Jiabiao's motion was picked up

The Legislative Council passed a motion last week authorizing meetings of the Legislative Council or committees to meet remotely in accordance with the "Rules of Procedure" within a specified time.

The resolution is not permanent and has a sunset clause until December 31 this year.

In other words, this year's Legislative Council meeting, if the epidemic is severe, can be held remotely.

When meeting with reporters yesterday, Legislative Council Chairman Leung Kwan-yan said that the secretariat will start a rehearsal for a video conference today, but the temporary plan on Wednesday is still a physical meeting, and the latest situation will be closely monitored later.

Although the Legislative Council has contracted outsourced staff, the latest document shows that tomorrow's meeting will still be held in person as planned, as before, there will be six oral questions.

However, the Secretariat pointed out that in order to prevent a large number of Members, staff and other people from gathering in the Legislative Council Complex for a long time, the President of the Legislative Council instructed that the meeting should be completed after the questioning session and the first Member's motion (namely, the "Primary Medical Care" proposed by Chen Kaixin) The Ten-Year Plan” motion) was adjourned.

The second member's motion on the original agenda was the motion "reformed in Hong Kong's poverty alleviation policies and strategies" proposed by Tang Jiabiao.

The motion of a member of the Federation of Trade Unions, Tang Jiabiao, must be adjourned.

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A fixed location must be reserved for remote meetings

In addition, the Legislative Council issued guidelines on the arrangement of remote meetings. Members must use electronic devices equipped with cameras, microphones and speakers, and install the latest version of Zoom in order to use the "virtual background" function.

Before each remote meeting, the meeting ID, password and invitation link will be sent to members. Members must log in to the meeting in person 30 minutes before the scheduled start time.

Once approved to join, members must switch to the "video on" mode to display their appearance to assist in identity verification; otherwise, they will be removed and not allowed to participate in the meeting.

During the meeting of members, the full Chinese name must be used as the name, so that the President of the Legislative Council or the member presiding over the meeting can easily identify the member.

All participants in remote conferences must stay in a suitably quiet fixed location with a stable internet connection.

If using Zoom on a smartphone, the screen orientation should be set to landscape mode.

In January last year, Kwok Wai-keung, a member of the Legislative Council of the Federation of Trade Unions, attended the Housing Panel on video while driving, during which the camera showed seat belts and rear mirrors.

Under the new arrangement, I believe it will be difficult for similar things to happen again.

Background color by three groups

Members are required to use Zoom's "Virtual Background" feature to display a colored background during remote meetings.

According to the regulations, members of the Election Committee must use orange, members of functional constituencies should use green, and members of directly elected members should use purple.

MPs must attend meetings remotely via Zoom from within Hong Kong.

Legislative Council members or committee members and other participants attending the remote meeting must display their appearance on the screen during the meeting.

In the case of counting the quorum at the meeting and voting at the meeting, members who show their appearance are deemed to be present at the meeting.

If members want to speak, they must use Zoom's "raise hand" function to signal, and their microphones will only be turned on under the chairman's instructions.

Members wishing to raise a point of order must use the "raise hand" function and send a message to the chairman or relevant secretary via the "chat" function.

Members must clearly display their appearance and raised hands on the screen when voting.

During the voting period, members can use the "raise hand" function to signal to the chairman to request a roll call.

If a roll call is required, Members will be notified through the SMS service adopted by the Legislative Council Secretariat that the vote is about to take place.

The Secretariat pointed out that under the remote meeting, the privileges and immunities of members and appointed officials under the law are the same as those of the physical meeting.

As for the press and members of the public, all past online broadcasts of public remote meetings can be viewed or listened to through the Legislative Council Online Broadcasting System.

Many new faces of the 90 members of the Legislative Council, Mr. Leung Kwan-yen, wants to act with care when doing practical things. Legislative Council to work