7th Legislative Council of Hong Kong
The Seventh Legislative Council of Hong Kong is the current meeting of the legislative branch of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government. Its term of office began on 1 January 2022 and convened on 12 January 2022, in the last six months of Carrie Lam's tenure as Chief Executive and the first three-and-a-half years of John Lee's term of office. The legislature's term of office ended on 31 December 2025.
The December 2021 election decided control of the legislature. Originally scheduled for 6 September 2020, Chief Executive Carrie Lam postponed the election for a whole year on 31 July 2020. On 11 March 2021, the National People's Congress passed a decision to drastically overhaul the Hong Kong electoral system, which was followed by the Carrie Lam administration promulgated the Improving Electoral System (Consolidated Amendments) Ordinance 2021, which changed the general election of the seventh term of the Legislative Council from 5 September to 19 December 2021. Under the Ordinance, the membership of the Legislative Council increased from 70 to 90, and the members were elected by the Election Committee with 40 seats, functional constituencies with 30 seats, and geographical constituencies with 20 seats respectively.
Under the new "patriots only" election rules, the pro-Beijing camp won its largest majority ever, taking 89 out of the 90 seats in the chamber. The pan-democratic and localist camps were left with no representation in the legislature for the first time since the Handover, with political parties disbanded, candidates disqualified from running, and most of their supporters boycotting the election. The 2021 election registered the lowest turnout ever since the introduction of elections to the Legislative Council in 1985, with only 32.22% of registered voters turning out to vote in the functional and geographical constituencies.
The legislators elected in 2021 have been criticised for not showing up to meetings and votes and for failing to submit work reports; in the 2024 legislative year, two-thirds of the 24 bills adopted were passed with under half of all councillors present, falling short of the 45-member quorum requirement. Despite an increase in the size of the council, the number of questions asked by lawmakers has plunged, almost halving from 6,722 in 2020 to 3519 in 2023, with the quality of questions reported as having "plummeted".
Major events
- 1 January 2022: Commencement of this Council's term of office.
- 3 January 2022: Oath-taking ceremony. 3 of the members took oath in Mandarin, namely Chow Man-kong, Sun Dong and Tan Yueheng.
- 4 January 2022: Nomination for the president. Andrew Leung re-elected unopposed as the only candidate.
- 10 January 2022: Originally scheduled for election of the president but cancelled.
- 12 January 2022: Council's first session was convened.
- 19 June 2022: Resignation of Horace Cheung, Alice Mak, Sun Dong and Nelson Lam after appointed as officials of the new government headed by Chief Executive-elect John Lee.
- 18 December 2022: [2022 Hong Kong Election Committee (constituency)|Election Committee (constituency) by-election|By-election] for vacancies of Election Committee constituency. Chan Wing-kwong, Adrian Ho, Shang Hailong, William Wong elected.
- 27 December 2022: Resignation of Stephen Wong after appointed as head of Chief Executive's Policy Unit.
- 24 October 2025: Legislative Council prorogued
The secretariat made changes where lawmakers' names were replaced with "a member" or "members" in meeting minutes, which the Hong Kong Journalists Association said "would make it more difficult for the public to hold lawmakers accountable, and therefore affect how voters may vote."
The Chinese national emblem was installed in the chamber above the Hong Kong emblem for the first time.
A survey in 2023 found that half of Hongkongers were unable to name any serving lawmaker, with another 12% naming somebody not a current lawmaker.
Major legislation
Enacted
- 9 June 2022: Employment and Retirement Schemes Legislation Bill 2022 - for Mandatory Provident Fund
- 6 July 2023: District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2023
- 12 July 2023: Criminal Procedure Bill 2023
- 14 December 2023: Taxi-Driver-Offence Points Bill
- 19 March 2024: Safeguarding National Security Bill
- 26 June 2024: Extension of Government Leases Bill
- 3 July 2024: Social Workers Registration Bill 2024
- 11 July 2024: Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Bill
- 20 February 2025: Road Tunnels Bill 2024
- 26 March 2025: Courts Bill
- 7 May 2025: Protection of the Harbour Bill 2024
- 21 May 2025: Stablecoins Bill
- 11 June 2025: Housing Bill 2025 - to combat tenancy abuse
- 25 June 2025: Trade Unions Bill 2025 - to tighten union laws on national security grounds
- 23 July 2025: Legislative Council Bill 2025 - following the introduction of code of conduct
- 11 September 2025: Betting Duty Bill 2025 - to authorise basketball betting
- 11 September 2025: Tobacco Control Legislation Bill 2025
- 26 September 2025: Basic Housing Units Bill - to regulate subdivided flats
- 15 October 2025: Road Traffic Bill 2025 - to introduce licenses for ride-hailing service
Defeated
- 10 September 2025: Registration of Same-sex Partnerships Bill
Leadership
Presiding
Pro-Beijing camp
- Convenor: Martin Liao
- Deputy Convenor: Starry Lee
Non-aligned
Secretariat
- Secretary General:
- * Kenneth Chen until 31 July 2024
- * Dora Wai from 1 August 2024
List of Members
In this Legislative Council, 59 of the 90 members elected in the 2021 election were elected for the first time, or were not members of the last Legislative Council. All members are listed by seniority according to the year of the beginning of consecutive service then the order of swearing in with the president of the Legislative Council being ranked first.Members who did not serve throughout the term are italicised. Supplementary members elected in by-elections are listed below.
Changes
- 15 June 2022: Scott Leung, Kitson Yang, Connie Lam, and Gary Zhang formed the A4 Alliance.
- 6 July 2022: Sunny Tan joined the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong.
- 1 October 2022: Louis Loong joined the BPA.
- 10 December 2022: Lau Chi-pang became president of Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers.
Committees
- House Committee
- * Parliamentary Liaison Subcommittee
- Finance Committee
- * Establishment Subcommittee
- * Public Works Subcommittee
- Public Accounts Committee
- Committee on Members' Interests
- Committee on Rules of Procedure
Panels
- Panel on Administration of Justice and Legal Services
- Panel on Commerce and Industry
- Panel on Constitutional Affairs
- Panel on Development
- Panel on Economic Development
- Panel on Education
- Panel on Environmental Affairs
- Panel on Financial Affairs
- Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene
- Panel on Health Services
- Panel on Home Affairs
- Panel on Housing
- Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting
- Panel on Manpower
- Panel on Security
- Panel on Transport
- Panel on Welfare Services