Legislative Council of Hong Kong	1843 - 1997

	Provisional Legislative Council of Hong Kong	1997 - 1998

	Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region	1998 -

Motions are the mechanism through which most of the Legislative Council business is transacted. A motion is a debatable, amendable and to-be-voted-on proposal submitted to the Council for its decision, and once passed, will become a decision of the Council. For those items which require a decision, a motion is to be proposed, debated and moved for that purpose. There are two types of motions: motions intended to have legislative effect and motions not intended to have legislative effect.

Public officers and Members may move motions with legislative effect for decisions of the Council to make or amend subsidiary legislation and other instruments made under an Ordinance, to amend Council procedures and practices, or to invoke its powers. Decisions of the Council vary in nature and consequences. They may be resolutions with the force of law that the Government must implement, or orders made by the Council for self-regulation, such as a motion to make a rule or a temporary order for the regulation of its proceedings.

Members may also move motions with no legislative effect for debate at Council meetings. This type of motion debates with no binding effect provides opportunities for Members to express their views on issues of public concern or to put pressure on the Government to take certain actions regarding a specific position or standpoint agreed by the Council. Such motions include those motions moved for the adjournment of the Council for debate on specific issues of urgent public importance or concerning public interest. Public officers may attend such debates and respond to Members’ views.

Records in this series relate to the preparation works and activities of Council Meetings of the Legislative Council on Motions and Resolutions presented by members and the Administration since March 1989. Among the types of documents contained in the files are notices of motions, notices of amendments to motions, correspondence between the Secretariat and the Administration on speaking arrangement and motion debate schedule, wording of the motion, resolutions, voting results, as well as progress reports from the Administration.

The subjects covered by the records reflect a wide range of motions moved in the Legislative Council, including Motion of Thanks, subsidiary legislations, reduction of tax, urban renewal, unemployment assistance scheme, Vietnamese migrants, Old Age Pension, youth suicide, sewage charges, broadcasting, statutory bodies, civic education, fair trade, slope safety and amendments to Basic Law.

This series excludes records relating to motions moved to enact Bills, which are grouped separately in LAS 61: Records relating to Bills to be presented at Council Meetings.

Correspondence Files, Minutes of Meeting, Motions, Reports, Subsidiary Legislation

CorrespondenceFiles ✔ Correspondence Files

MinutesOfMeeting ✔ Minutes of Meeting

Motions ✔ Motions

Reports ✔ Reports

SubsidiaryLegislation ✔ Subsidiary Legislation