LegCo to halt operations until October

Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) President Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen said on Thursday that all LegCo meetings will be halted until October due to damage to the complex's fire safety, security and communication systems inflicted by protestors on Monday night.

This will affect the deliberation of over 40 items of agenda for the LegCo finance committee, involving over HK$70 billion of appropriation, with most of these items concerning the city's livelihood, according to legislator and chairman of the finance committee, Chan Kin-por.

Leung made the announcement after meeting with members from the LegCo Commission, which is in charge of providing office accommodation for lawmakers and staff of the Secretariat, in the Queensway Government Offices.

Leung said the LegCo staff members are working hard to repair the damaged facilities, in a bid to resume meetings in October. But he admitted that there are lots of obstacles to achieving the goal.

Meanwhile, Leung also said it's hard to find an appropriate venue capable of accommodating about 1,000 people for lawmakers to hold meetings.

Leung disclosed that some documents, which contain information used for registration of LegCo's admission pass, were lost after the protests. But he noted that the lost documents contained no identification info and the situation was reported to the privacy commissioner for personal data.

He expressed the hope that the red alert – which advised all people inside the LegCo to leave immediately – will be lifted in next week. Yet he expected that some of the public activities in the complex, like guided educational tours, will remain suspended for some time.