The Fifth Legislative Council of Hong Kong was the fifth meeting of the legislative branch of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The membership of the LegCo is based on the 2012 election. The term of the session is from 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2016, during the term in office of the Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. Due to the new arrangements agreed in a contentious LegCo vote in 2010, the session consists of the new total of 70 seats in LegCo, ten more than previously, with 35 members elected in geographical constituencies through direct elections, and 35 members in functional constituencies, in which five District Council (Second) functional constituency seats each represent all 18 District councils of Hong Kong voted for by all resident voters in Hong Kong (who did not have a vote in any other functional constituency). The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong remained the largest party while the pan-democrats secured the one-third crucial minority. Notable new members of the LegCo members include Gary Fan from the new established party Neo Democrats and first openly gay councillor, People Power's Ray Chan Chi-chuen.

Major events

2012–13 8 November 2012: Motion on "Equal rights for people of different sexual orientations", moved by Cyd Ho, was negatived.LegCo Reporter Council Meeting 2012–2013 Issue No. 6 (8 November 2012) 13 December 2012: Motion on "Vote of no confidence in the Chief Executive", moved by the Democratic Party's Wu Chi-wai, in response to the illegal structures scandal of Leung Chun-ying's residences was voted down by the Pro-Beijing camp.LegCo Reporter Council Meeting 2012–2013 Issue No. 12 (13 December 2012) 16 January 2013: Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying presented his first policy address to the council.LegCo Reporter Council Meeting 2012–2013 Issue No. 15 (16 January 2013) 27 February 2013: The 2013–14 Budget Speech was delivered by the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, in the Legislative Council. 24 April – 21 May 2013 : Five radical pan-democrats People Power and League of Social Democrats started filibustering by moving a total of 710 amendments on the Budget Appropriation Bill debate, to press for a universal pension scheme and a HK$10,000 cash handout. The government warned that the service would shut down if the budget bill do not pass. President of the Legislative Council Jasper Tsang ordered to end the filibuster on 13 May after 55 hours spent to debate 17 of the 148 amendments. The Appropriation Bill was passed on 21 May 2013 with 684 amendments negatived.LegCo Reporter Council Meeting 2012–2013 Issue No. 28 (21 May 2013)

2013–14

9–10 October 2013: Motion under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance, moved by Kwok Ka-ki of the Civic Party, to seek to appoint a select committee to inquire into the incident of the Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po owning farmland located in the areas of the North East New Territories New Development Areas Project was negatived.The LegCo Reporter – Council Meetings 2013–2014 – Issue No. 1 (11 October 2013) 16 October 2013: Second attempt of the motion on "Vote of no confidence in the Chief Executive" by the pan democrats was negatived.LegCo Reporter Council Meeting 2013–2014 Issue No. 2 (17 October 2013) 8 November 2013: Charles Mok moved a motion under Legislative Council (Power and Privileges) Ordinance to order the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Gregory So to attend before the Panel on Information Technology and Broadcasting to give evidence in the processes of vetting and approval of domestic free television programme service licence applications, after the application for the license of the Hong Kong Television Network Limited being negatived by the Executive Council.LegCo Reporter Council Meeting 2013–2014 Issue No. 6 (8 November 2013) The motion and the amendment by Civic Party's Dennis Kwok were defeated. Thousands of protestors gathered outside of the Legislative Council building showing support for the Hong Kong Television Network Limited. 19 March 2014: Motion moved by Claudia Mo of the Civic Party under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance to appoint a select committee to inquire into the immediate termination of the contract of Li Wei-ling, a radio host of Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Company Limited ("Commercial Radio"), and the alleged political interference by the government with the editorial independence of Commercial Radio, was negatived.The LegCo Reporter Council Meetings 2013–2014 Issue No. 20 (21 March 2014)

2015–16 11 March 2016: The HK$19.6 billion extra funds for controversial Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link (XRL) project was passed by the Financial Committee in a sudden vote despite fierce protests and filibustering from the pan-democratic legislators. The pan-democrats questioned the procedure set by the acting chairman Chan Kam-lam who only approved 36 of the 19 pan-democratic legislators' 1,262 motions.

Major legislation

Enacted 17 April 2013: Import and Export (General) (Amendment) Regulation 2013 21 May 2013: Appropriation Bill 2013 22 May 2013: District Council (Amendment) Bill 2013

Proposed 18 June 2015: Motion Concerning the Amendment to the Method for the Selection of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 4 March 2016: Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2014

2015 Hong Kong electoral reform

On 18 June 2015, right before the vote, pro-Beijing legislator Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung led a walk-out of members of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA), most members of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) and other pro-Beijing legislators, leaving five Liberal Party legislators, Chan Yuen-han of the FTU and two other pro-Beijing independents remained in the chamber. The government's reform proposal failed as 8 legislators voted in favour and 28 votes against. All 27 pan democrats who had vowed to vote down the reform did so, as did one pro-Beijing legislator Leung Ka-lau representing the Medical constituency. Lam explained that the walk-out was an impromptu attempt to delay the division after the chairman denied his request for a 15-minute recess so that his party member Lau Wong-fat, who was delayed, could cast his vote in favour of the Beijing-backed reforms. However, enough legislators remained in the chamber that quorum was met and the proposal was voted down while most of the pro-Beijing legislators were outside. Nine pro-Beijing legislators, including five Liberal Party members, stayed behind out of confusion, and only eight of them voted in favour of the package, giving the rest of the world the false impression there was no support for the blueprint.

Composition

AffiliationElectionAt dissolution Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong1313 Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong07 Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions66 Liberal Party55 New People's Party22 Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions11 New Century Forum11 Economic Synergy 30 Professional Forum20 Independent97 Total for Pro-Beijing camp4242 Civic Party66 Democratic Party66 Labour Party44 People Power32 Professional Commons22 League of Social Democrats11 Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre11 Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood11 Neo Democrats11 23 Total for Pan-democracy camp2727 Non-aligned independent11 Total7070 Note: Italic represents organisations that still function but become under another affiliation.

Graphical representation of the Legislative Council

Current Legislative Council of Hong Kong seat composition by party.

Leadership

President: Jasper Tsang (DAB)

Convenors Pro-Beijing camp: Ip Kwok-him (DAB) Pro-democracy camp: Emily Lau (Democratic), 2012–2013 Frederick Fung (ADPL), 2013–2014 Alan Leong (Civic), 2014–2015 Cyd Ho (Labour), 2015–2016

List of members The following table is a list of LegCo members elected on 9 September 2012 in the order of precedence.

Members who did not serve throughout the term are italicised. Supplementary members elected in by-elections are listed below.

Key to changes since legislative election: a = change in party allegiance

b = by-election