Civil Service Bureau - Assessment of Basic Law Knowledge

Assessment of Basic Law knowledge in civil service recruitment

For the purpose of heightening public awareness of the Basic Law and promoting a culture of learning of the Basic Law in the community, all candidates applying for civil service jobs advertised from 1 September 2008 onwards will be assessed on their Basic Law knowledge.

Test result will not affect a candidate's eligibility for applying for a civil service job. It will be one of the considerations to assess the suitability of a candidate. As a general principle, the main consideration for suitability for appointment remains a candidate's qualifications, experience and calibre.

Tests on Basic Law knowledge will be set according to the different academic qualifications stipulated for different types of civil service jobs. Candidates will be assessed on the Basic Law, including its annexes, attachments and appendices, through written tests or interviews. Reference materials on the Basic Law are available in the Government Basic Law Homepage.

Participants of Basic Law written tests will be informed of their results, which are of permanent validity. Holders of test results will be exempted from sitting the relevant Basic Law written test again when applying for other civil service jobs.

The implementation details are as follows -

For civil service jobs requiring degree or professional qualifications, candidates will need to have taken a Basic Law test. For this purpose, the Civil Service Bureau would conduct Basic Law tests for prospective applicants of civil service jobs requiring degree or professional qualifications. Please click here for details.

The Basic Law test paper will be in both English and Chinese. It will consist of 15 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 20 minutes. There is no passing mark set for the Basic Law test and the full mark of the paper is 100. The test result will constitute an appropriate weighting in the candidates' overall assessment. Participants will be informed of their results, which are of permanent validity and may be used for application of degree/professional civil service jobs. Holders of test results will be exempted from sitting the Basic Law written test again when applying for other degree/professional civil service jobs or other non-degree/ non-professional civil service jobs requiring academic qualifications at Form 5 level or above. Candidates may, if they wish so, take the Basic Law test again when applications for the next round of tests are called.

Please click here for information on the application arrangements, test format, sample questions and answers, and frequently asked questions on the Basic Law test for degree/ professional grades.

For civil service jobs requiring non-degree or non-professional academic qualifications at Form 5 level or above^Note, the recruiting bureau or department concerned will incorporate assessment of Basic Law knowledge in a written test where there is one for the recruitment exercise. Where there is no written test, the recruiting entity will conduct a specific written assessment on a candidate's knowledge of the Basic Law immediately before or after the recruitment interview. The recruiting entity will announce the arrangements for the Basic Law assessment in the relevant recruitment advertisements.

The Basic Law test paper will be in both English and Chinese. It will consist of 15 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 25 minutes. There is no passing mark set for the Basic Law test and the full mark of the paper is 100. The test result will constitute an appropriate weighting in the candidates' overall assessment. The recruiting bureau or department will notify candidates of their test results within 4 weeks. Results are of permanent validity and may be used for application of other non-degree/ non-professional civil service jobs requiring academic qualifications at Form 5 level or above. Candidates may, if they wish so, take the Basic Law test again when they apply for another job. If so, the latest test results will be counted.

For civil service jobs requiring academic qualifications below Form 5 level, candidates will be tested orally on their Basic Law knowledge during recruitment interviews. The results of Basic Law assessment will be taken into account only if two candidates are considered equal in all other aspects. Sample questions and answers and frequently asked questions are available at this link.

Note: For the purpose of Basic Law assessment, civil service jobs with appointment requirements at Higher Diploma, Diploma, Higher Certificate, and Certificate level where the general minimum entry requirements are set at ‘Completion of Form 5’, or equivalent, fall under this category.