Prospective applicants for civil service posts at degree or professional level can apply from tomorrow (August 3) to sit the Common Recruitment Examination and Basic Law Test (CRE and BLT) scheduled to be held on October 6 and 13 in Hong Kong.

     A spokesman for the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) today (August 2) said that valid CRE results are required of applicants for civil service posts at degree or professional level, unless applicants possess equivalent results in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination or other specified public examinations (the relevant details are available on the CSB webpage). Persons interested in applying for civil service posts at degree or professional level in the near future may wish to consider sitting the coming examination so as to be eligible to apply for these posts, which may become available before another CRE is held.

     In addition, applicants for civil service posts will be assessed on their Basic Law knowledge. The result of the BLT will be one of the considerations to assess the suitability of a candidate.
    
     Applicants for the coming CRE and BLT should be holders of a degree, or a qualification meeting the entry requirement on professional qualifications for civil service degree or professional posts, or university students who will have attained a degree in the 2018-19 academic year. Applicants may choose to take any of the CRE papers and/or the BLT paper in the coming examination.

     Persons interested in taking the examination may apply from tomorrow through the online application system on the CSB webpage at www.csb.gov.hk/eng/cre.html; or by using the CRE and BLT application form (CSB31 (7/2018)), which can be downloaded from the CSB webpage or obtained from any Home Affairs Enquiry Centre of the Home Affairs Department or Job Centre of the Labour Department. Applications must be made before 5pm on August 16 (Hong Kong time).

     For the convenience of those studying or residing outside Hong Kong, the CRE and BLT is also scheduled to be held on December 8, 2018, in seven other cities, namely Beijing, London, San Francisco, New York, Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney. Applications for taking the examination outside Hong Kong will be open from September 22 to October 5, 2018. Persons applying to sit the examination in Hong Kong will not be allowed to apply again for sitting the examination outside Hong Kong.

     More details about the coming CRE and BLT to be held in Hong Kong will be available on the CSB webpage from tomorrow. General enquiries may be directed to the Civil Service Examinations Unit by phone at 2537 6429 or by email to csbcseu@csb.gov.hk.

The following is issued on behalf of the Office of The Ombudsman:

     The Ombudsman, Ms Connie Lau, today (August 2) invited members of the public to provide information and/or views on the implementation of the Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme by the Buildings Department (BD).

     The Scheme commenced in June 2012. Owners of private buildings aged 10 years or above (except domestic buildings not exceeding three storeys), having received the BD's statutory notices of the Scheme, are required to arrange inspection and (where found necessary) repairs for the windows of their buildings. As at May 2018, the Office of The Ombudsman had received 50 complaints against the BD for failing to duly implement the Scheme since its commencement.

     Furthermore, the Office has noticed that accidents involving falling windows have occasionally happened in recent years. The windows of some old buildings are dilapidated, but the BD takes a long time to select the buildings as targets of the Scheme. There has also been a case in which a window fell from a building even though it had already been inspected under the Scheme. Such a situation invites concern. The Ombudsman has, therefore, initiated a direct investigation to examine whether there are any inadequacies and areas for improvement in the BD's implementation of the Scheme. This direct investigation covers:

(1) The BD's selection of target buildings of the Scheme;

(2) The BD's procedures for issuing statutory notices of the Scheme;

(3) The BD's mechanism for monitoring compliance with the statutory notices; and

(4) The BD's enforcement actions against breaches of requirements of the Scheme.

     To make the investigation more comprehensive, The Ombudsman is now inviting the public to send in information and/or views in writing to the Office of The Ombudsman by September 2, 2018:

Address: 30/F, China Merchants Tower, Shun Tak Centre, 168-200 Connaught Road Central, Hong Kong
Fax: 2882 8149
Email: complaints@ombudsman.hk

     The Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health today (August 2) reported that the suspected case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) pending results yesterday (August 1), upon preliminary testing, tested negative for MERS Coronavirus.

Attention TV/radio announcers:

Please broadcast the following as soon as possible:

Here is an item of interest to swimmers.

     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department announced today (August 2) that due to big waves, red flag has been hoisted at Lo So Shing Beach in Islands District.  Beach-goers are advised not to swim at the beach.

     Owing to the thunderstorm warning, the flag-raising ceremony to be conducted at Golden Bauhinia Square, Wan Chai at 8am today (August 2) will be cancelled.