The Department of Justice today (July 31) reminded potential applicants for the post of Government Counsel (GC) that they are required to obtain a certain level of results in the Common Recruitment Examination (CRE) in order to be qualified for the post.

The GC recruitment exercise will be conducted around September this year. Similar to last year's recruitment exercise, applicants will be required to obtain a Level 2 result in the Use of English (UE) paper and a Level 1 result in the Use of Chinese (UC) paper of the CRE.

In this connection, grade C or above in Use of English in the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE) will be accepted as equivalent to Level 2 in the CRE's UE paper; and grade D or above in Chinese Language and Culture or Chinese Language and Literature in the HKALE will be accepted as equivalent to Level 1 in the CRE's UC paper.

Under exceptional circumstances a limited number of applicants who do not meet the requisite Chinese language requirement may be appointed subject to the operational needs of the department.

Since 2008, applicants for the GC post should also take a Basic Law Test (BLT). While not mandatory, the results of the BLT will be taken into account in considering the suitability of a candidate for appointment.

The next CRE and BLT will be held on October 4 and 11, 2014. Potential applicants for the GC post without the requisite results in the CRE or equivalent and/or those who wish to take the BLT are invited to apply between August 1 and 14, 2014, to sit for the relevant examination and/or test.

Further information on the CRE and the BLT is available on the homepage of the Civil Service Bureau (under the "Recruitment" section) at www.csb.gov.hk.

Ends/Thursday, Jul 31, 2014