Top official to determine responsible department in complex 1823 cases

A top official will determine where responsibility lies when a public complaint spans multiple departments under a new handling mechanism for the 1823 hotline, set to be implemented early next year.

Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Warner Cheuk Wing-hing said on Monday that he would ensure a “very fair” distribution of responsibility when assigning complaints that implicated more than one government department.

The reform, which will take effect in the first quarter of next year, will see Cheuk making the final call on which bureau or department should handle complaints with ambiguous or overlapping responsibilities.