Chapter 6  
Organisation, Administration and Staffing
 

The Department has three Divisions, namely the Application and Processing Division, the Litigation Division and the Policy and Administration Division, each headed by a Deputy Director. The organisation chart can be found at the departmental website at http://www.lad.gov.hk/eng/ginfo/oo.html.
 

Staffing

At the end of 2017, the Department had 550 staff members comprising 80 professional officers, 168 law clerks and 302 supporting staff. Seven Legal Aid Counsel and 13 Law Clerks were newly recruited.
 
  Mr Chris Chong Yan-tung
Deputy Director of Legal Aid
(Policy and Administration)
 

Training and Development

The Department is committed to developing and maintaining a highly-motivated and professional work team to provide quality services to our customers. Every year the Department arranges various general and professional training courses for our staff of all levels to equip them with the latest knowledge and skills needed to face the challenges ahead. The Training Unit, which is headed by a Senior Training Officer, is responsible for formulating, implementing and reviewing the Department's training and development policies and plans to meet the operational and development needs of the staff.
 

Professional Training

To keep our professional officers abreast of the changes and development in the relevant legislation and law, the Department sponsored 57 professional officers to attend external seminars including Data Protection and Data Access Request, Get to Know the Data Privacy, Advocating for Children in New Zealand – The Role of Lawyer for Child, The Intersection of Domestic Violence Family Law, Perspectives from the Other Side of the Atlantic – Splitting the Assets and Confidentiality in Family Law Cases, Mental Capacity Workshop, Practice Directions 2.1 and 4.1, New Practice Direction on Criminal Proceedings in the Court of First Instance, Hong Kong e-Legislation, The 2nd Guardianship Conference of Hong Kong, Child Protection Conference: Dialogue on Pathway to Family, Civil Law Talk by Lord Pannick, QC, Civil Law Talk by Mr Richard Clayton, QC, and Civil Law Talk by Miss Monica Carss-Frisk, QC.

To promote exchanges with the Mainland counterparts, two professional officers attended the LOCPG Short Course on Mainland Legal Topics in Shenzhen coordinated by the Department of Justice.
 

Management Training Courses

To strengthen staff's management capability, 21 professional officers were nominated to attend management courses organised by the Civil Service Training and Development Institute, Civil Service Bureau (CSTDI, CSB). Courses included Uncertainty in an Interconnected World – Politics, Society & Policy, Communicating Policy in an Age of Contestation, Stakeholders’ Engagement in a Volatile Environment, Negotiations – Strategies and Processes for Impactful Outcomes. Persuasion and Influencing, Dialogue in the Dark, A New Era of Crisis Communication, Seizing Publicity Opportunities via Social Media, Building Alertness for Public Relations Issues, Strategic Innovation, Coaching and Counselling, Stakeholders Engagement in a Volatile Environment.

For executive development, three professional officers were nominated to attend executive development programmes organised by CSTDI, CSB, namely Advanced Leadership Enhancement Programme, Leadership in Action Programme and Innovative Leadership Programme.
 

Customer Service Training

The Department places great importance in nurturing a customer focused culture. To enhance staff’s skills in delivering quality service to the public, the Department organized two in-house workshops on Handling Customers with Emotional and Mental Problems; and Customer Service Workshop. A total of 100 colleagues attended.

We also nominated staff of different ranks to attend relevant courses held by CSTDI, CSB. In 2017, 18 staff members, including general grade staff, attended the following courses: Workshop on Quality Customer Service, Putonghua for Frontline Staff, Effective Putonghua Communication, Effective Putonghua for Quality Service, Better Spoken English for Frontline Staff, Speaking English Fluently, Complaint Management, Handling Confrontational Situations in Customer Service, Handling Difficult Customers and Confrontational Situations, and Seminar on Accessibility Issues.
 

Staff Well-being and General Training

The Department is committed to promoting staff well-being. In 2017, two in-house classes on Eat Smart and Healthy were held, with an attendance of 70 staff members.

On the other hand, 151 staff members were nominated to attend courses and seminars organised by the CSTDI, CSB and other departments on a wide range of topics that aimed at enhancing staff ’s work capability and career development. The courses included Information Technology, Information Security, Induction Course, Personal Data Protection, Intellectual Property, Office Accommodation Management, File Management, Event Management, Purchase Regulations, First Aid, Automated External Defibrillators, Occupational Safety, Use of Language, Official Writing, Government Financial Management, Basic Law, Hong Kong Legal System, Pre-retirement Seminar, Storage Allocation and Record Centre Information System, Disease Prevention, Supervisory Management, Communication, Presentation, Counseling, Selection Interview for Recruitment, Performance Appraisal Writing, Misconduct in the Public Office, and Employment of Persons with Disabilities.

Furthermore, six professional officers attended programmes held at the Academy of Governance, Tsinghua University, Nanking University, Zhejiang University and Jinan University respectively on National Studies training.

Promoting Self-Learning and Development: In-house Learning Resource Centre

To cultivate the culture of continuous self-learning, the Department maintains a comprehensive collection of books available to our staff. The collection covers a wide range of topics including general management, communication, use of language, national studies, personal development, positive thinking, stress management and healthy lifestyles. Every year, new books are added to the Learning Resource Centre to further enrich the collection.

To facilitate easy access to self-learning materials by staff, resources on IT tips as well as reference materials on training courses were uploaded onto the departmental portal. Staff also have direct access to CLC Plus, the e-learning portal for civil servants, which contains a variety of self-learning resources, toolkits and job aids on management, language, Basic Law, communication, information technology, etc.
 

Information Systems

The Department places great importance on its IT infrastructure and office automation facilities. To provide prompt and efficient legal aid services to the public, revamp of network infrastructure for the headquarters and upgrade of office automation software in other offices of the Department were completed in 2017.

The Department's Case Management and Case Accounting System (CM&CAS) supports over 500 staff users in handling day-to-day legal aid business processes such as processing applications, monitoring assigned out cases and handling legal aid payments. To cope with technology advancement and to improve the system to meet future operational needs, a feasibility study for revamping the system was under planning to be conducted in 2018.

The Legal Aid Electronic Services Portal (LAESP) provides an online gateway through which members of the public and Panel lawyers can gain access to information and transact certain legal aid business with the Department online. Members of the public can access the LAESP to download and submit legal aid Pre-application Information forms to the Department as a first step towards making an application for legal aid.

To facilitate intended applicants who prefer to obtain Pre-application Information Forms in person, the LAESP will be enhanced to provide online booking function to allow them to make advance appointment with our staff. On the scheduled appointment day and time, our staff will meet the intended applicants to briefly discuss their cases and give out the appropriate Pre-application Information Forms. The enhancement not only provides convenience and flexibility to the intended applicants but also minimizes their waiting time. The function development work had commenced in the last quarter of 2017 with a target rollout date in early 2018.
 
  Ms Doris Lui Wai-lan
Assistant Director of Legal Aid
(Policy and Development)
 

Staff Relations and Communication

The Department maintains effective communication with staff through regular meetings with various staff representative bodies such as the Departmental Consultative Committees, the Law Clerks Association and the Legal Aid Counsel Association. Resulting from the discussions at these meetings, improvements have been made concerning office accommodation, streamlining of working procedures, indoor air quality and human resources planning, etc.

The Director of Legal Aid visited each section throughout the year with a view to exchanging ideas with staff of all levels including professional officers and receiving their views on work arrangements and procedures for further review and improvement. Divisions/Sections continued to implement their respective internal communication strategies in consultation with staff. Informal meetings were also held between the Deputy Director of Legal Aid (Policy and Administration) and Senior Law Clerks I and II and general grades staff regularly to collect their views on work and to explore areas for improvement.
 

Staff Suggestions Scheme

Staff Suggestions Scheme was launched to encourage colleagues to make suggestions to the Department. It aims to facilitate the improvement and streamlining of the Department's operation and management, promote Department's image, arouse staff morale and occupational safety, thereby enhancing work efficiency. Our colleagues provided many useful and practical suggestions such as mini thank-you cards, e-fax, conference room e-booking system, regular health tips to colleagues, etc. The suggestions were carried out in the Department accordingly.
 

Staff Welfare

The Department values the general well-being of its staff. The objective of the Staff Club is to promote staff welfare by organising a wide range of activities and to provide opportunities where staff can meet and interact whilst engaging in relaxing and enriching activities.
 
 

To provide staff with opportunities to keep a healthy balance between work and relaxation, Yoga classes were held regularly. Recreational activities including the Annual Dinner, table tennis competition and mini bazaars to celebrate Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival were also held. Interest classes such as dessert making and bakery classes proved to be very popular among staff.

During the year, the Volunteer Service Group, which was formed in 2002 and aims to encourage staff to get involved in volunteer services, participated in various fund raising activities such as the Rice Selling Campaign organised by Oxfam Hong Kong, Day Fund Raising Campaign organised by Medecins Sans Frontieres, World Sight Day organised by ORBIS Hong Kong and the Chinese New Year Gift Transfer Program organised by St James' Settlement (People's Food Bank). 19 pieces of winter clothing were also donated to St James' Settlement. It was worth mentioning that the Department attained the Top Fund-raiser and the Highest Per Capita Contribution Award in the Civil Service Category of Dress Casual Day organized by The Community Chest in 2017.
 
 

Environmental Initiatives

The Department is committed to ensuring its operations and activities are conducted in an environmentally responsible manner. The Department makes efforts to minimise waste, conserve energy, promote "reuse" and "recycle" of resources and enhance staff awareness and participation in protecting the environment.

The Department undertakes regular reviews to ensure that the use of its resources is in an efficient and green manner. Details of the Department's environmental initiatives in 2017 can be found in the Department's Environmental Report at the departmental website http://www.lad.gov.hk/eng/ppr/publication/enr.html.
 

Internal Audit

The Internal Audit Section (IAS) is an independent team established to assist management to ensure that adequate control procedures and systems are in place to safeguard the Department's assets. It also carries out reviews of the various activities of the Department in order to ensure an economical, efficient and effective use of the Department's financial, human and other resources.

During the year, IAS reviewed the internal control in the handling of clients’ properties by the Official Solicitor’s Office, the payment of fees to private practitioners for legal aid criminal cases and Costing Unit’s work. It also carried out audits on the use of the Integrated Registration Information System provided by the Land Registry for conducting land searches in legal aid cases and performed periodical checks on means investigation reports, petty cash, imprest, etc.
 

Support Service to the Legal Aid Services Council

Legal Aid Services Council ("the Council") is a statutory body set up under the Legal Aid Services Council Ordinance, Cap. 489 to oversee the provision of legal aid services. The Council is responsible for advising the Chief Executive on matters of policy relating to legal aid. The Council is chaired by a non-official who is not a lawyer by profession. There are a total of 10 members comprising the Director of Legal Aid, representatives of the two legal professional bodies and lay members chosen from other fields not connected with the practice of law. Representatives of the Department attend meetings of the Council and its working party and participate in its activities in promoting public awareness and understanding of the role of the Council and its relationship with the Department.

During the year, the Department provided the Council with regular progress reports and information on different aspects of legal aid services, such as the Review of criminal legal aid fees, information relating to the expansion of the Supplementary Legal Aid Scheme and assignment of lawyers. With the support from the Council, the limits on civil and criminal legal aid cases assigned to panel lawyers were reviewed in 2017 and the revised limits will take effect in 2018.
 
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