Legco passes bill to reform social worker board

Lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill to reform the Social Workers Registration Board, increasing the number of government-appointed members. The board will be expanded from 15 to 27 members, with the number of appointees rising from eight to 17. All members will be required to take an oath of allegiance to the SAR. The new law also stipulates that social workers who are convicted of a national security offence will be permanently stripped of their licence. All lawmakers who spoke on the bill supported it. DAB chairman Gary Chan said reforming the composition of the board will ensure that different voices within the sector are properly represented. He said the changes have righted some wrongs, and the bill's passage shows Legco wants the sector to start afresh and return to providing professional services. Welfare Secretary Chris Sun thanked lawmakers for supporting the bill, saying the legal changes will allow the board to get back on the right track. "We believe with the strengthened composition of the board, it will encourage more young people to study social work and be a social worker. With a broadened board, it will provide better protection and certainty to the profession," he told reporters. "We believe [the new board] will strengthen the professional development of the whole profession as well as strengthen its role to ensure national [security]." In the past three weeks, all but one of the existing elected board members resigned, including former chairman Ng Yut-ming. Sun said there is no need to hold by-elections for their seats, because they left with less than a year of their terms remaining. He said the new law will be gazetted on Friday, when an oath-taking ceremony will take place and the list of appointed members will be announced. Sun added that he hopes the new board can quickly review the members of its disciplinary committee panel, as well as the social worker code of practice. He also said it should set up a mechanism to ensure the prompt handling of social worker registration for those who have committed serious crimes such as national security offences, as well as a framework for the continuous development of the profession.