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Emergency and essential services provided to the public by all disciplined services departments will not be affected by the introduction of a five-day working week from July 1.
Law enforcement, rescue, fire and ambulance services, and maintenance of public order will continue to be provided round the clock. The operating hours of all Immigration control points and public counters dealing with registration of births, deaths and marriages; registration and replacement of identity cards; visa and travel document applications remain unchanged. The operation and visiting hours at Correctional Services Department institutions will also remain unchanged.
Staff of the Security Bureau, the Immigration Department, the Fire Services Department, the Customs and Excise Department, the Government Flying Service, the Correctional Services Department, the Civil Aid Service and the Auxiliary Medical Service engaged in back-end support or administrative duties together with a small number of civilian staff of the Hong Kong Police Force performing such duties will work five days a week from July 1.
A few services that deal directly with the public will no longer operate on Saturdays. Their new operating hours are:
* Customs and Excise Department:
- The licensing offices for dutiable commodities licence/permit and carriage licence for prescribed articles will operate from 8.45am to 12.45pm and 1.15pm to 5.30pm from Monday to Friday;
- The public service counters for registration of motor vehicles importers and distributors and assessment of taxable value of vehicles; application for authorisation and approval for import, export and storage of controlled chemicals, and licence for manufacturing optical discs and import/export of optical disc mastering and replication equipment will be open from 8.45am to 12.30pm and 1.30pm to 5.30pm from Monday to Friday.
* The counter/shroff office of the Licensing and Certification Command of the Fire Services Department will run from 9am to 12 noon and 2pm to 4.30pm Monday to Friday.
* The Correctional Services Department's public enquiry counters and Complaints Investigation Unit will operate from 8.30am to 5.45pm Monday to Friday, and the Post-release Supervision of Prisoners Scheme Office from 8am to 5.45pm Monday to Friday.
* The Secretariat of Security and Guarding Services Industry Authority will operate from 9am to 12.45pm and 2pm to 5.15pm Monday to Thursday, and 9am to 1pm and 2pm to 5.30pm on Fridays.
"We will take measures to safeguard the level and efficiency of our services, including enhancement of e-services, extension of working hours on weekdays, provision of drop-in boxes and payment by post," a Government spokesman said.
Details of the new working arrangements of the Security Bureau and disciplined services departments are available at their websites.
The public can also visit the central website at http://www.info.gov.hk/info/5day/eng/index.htm for more information about the Government's five-day working week.
Ends/Sunday, June 25, 2006
Issued at HKT 11:31
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