Chapter 1 - Introduction and Controlling Officer’s Profile of Key Responsibilities

 

 

Our Profile

1.1	The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) is responsible for the territory-wide provision of recreational, sports and cultural facilities and services, supported by the Leisure Services Branch and Cultural Services Branch.
1.2	To foster community’s participation in recreation and sports activities, the Leisure Services Branch organises a variety of programmes while managing and developing recreation and sports facilities throughout Hong Kong. It also carries out beatification of the environment by planting and maintaining trees and shrubs in public parks and amenity areas, and organising community greening initiatives.
1.3	To promote cultural development and appreciation of performing and visual arts in Hong Kong, the Cultural Services Branch manages a wide range of performance facilities to provide cultural and entertainment programmes. It also provides public library services to promote reading and literary arts and provides museum services through various Hong Kong’s public museums.
1.4	We are committed to enhancing our environmental management practices in our venues/facilities/activities/programmes/events to achieve environmental protection and sustainable development. In future, we will continue our green efforts to achieve a greener environment and better quality of life for people of Hong Kong.

Expenditure and Establishment

1.5	The estimates and actual recurrent expenditure in 2022-23 were $10,890.2 million and $11,063.6 million respectively. The budget for 2023-24 was $11,819.4 million.
1.6	Our staff establishment as at 31 December 2023 was 10 291.

Vision, Mission and Values

1.7	Our vision is to – Provide quality leisure and cultural services that are commensurate with Hong Kong’s development as a world-class city and events capital.
1.8	Our mission is to – enrich life by providing quality leisure and cultural services for all; promote professionalism and excellence in leisure pursuits and cultural services; promote synergy with sports, cultural and community organisations in enhancing the development of arts and sports in the territory; preserve cultural heritage; beautify the environment through tree planting; achieve a high level of customer satisfaction; and build a highly motivated, committed and satisfying workforce.
1.9	We achieve our mission by embracing the following core values – Customer focus We continue to respond to customer needs and pledge to provide services in a courteous and user-friendly manner. Quality We pledge to deliver high-quality services in a cost-effective manner. Creativity We continue to encourage diversity and to value original ideas. Professionalism We uphold the highest standards of professionalism and ethics while maintaining a high level of performance. Result oriented Our focus at all times is to achieve the best results possible. Cost-effective We are committed to reaching our goals in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Continuous improvement We seek to continually improve our services and to respond proactively in meeting the changing needs of the community.

Overall View of Our Operation

1.10	Organisation Chart of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department
1.11	The major responsibilities of the Department are set out in the ensuing paragraphs.

Recreation and Sports

1.12	We develop and manage recreation and sports facilities and organise a wide range of leisure activities to promote recreation and sports at all levels throughout the community. As at 31 December 2023, the number of major recreational and sports facilities under our management was –

Sports centres	105
Sports grounds	25
Beaches	42
Swimming pools	45
Parks	1 691
Children’s playgrounds*	677

*	The figure on children’s playgrounds refers to “the number of venues provided with children’s playground” and a venue with more than one children’s play areas will only be counted once.

Horticulture and Amenities

1.13

We promote greening of Hong Kong through planting of trees, shrubs and other plants in public parks and amenities areas, and through organising a wide range of community greening activities. In 2023, we maintained a total of about 1 288.8 hectares of amenities area and planted about 2.64 million trees, shrubs and annuals.

Heritage and Museums

1.14

We preserve heritage and provide museum services with a view to promoting appreciation of arts, science, history, heritage and culture. In 2023, we managed 15 museums and two visual art centres. We organised a total of 92 in-house/off-site exhibitions and 21 397 in-house/outreach programmes covering the themes of arts, science, history and heritage. In addition to physical programmes, a total of 134 online programmes/sessions were organised with 138 320 viewers in 2023.

Performing Arts

1.15

We promote performing and cinematic arts through the provision of cultural facilities and presentation of programmes. In 2023, we managed 14 performance venues and two stadia, and organised about 5 000 cultural presentations, including music, dance, Cantonese and western opera, drama, theatre, multimedia performing arts and film programmes and activities.

Public Libraries

1.16

We provide, manage and develop library services to meet community needs for knowledge, life-long learning, information, research and recreation; to offer library extension activities to all ages; and to promote reading and literary arts. As at 31 December 2023, we managed 83 public libraries and a rich library collection comprising 13.67 million books and 1.71 million non-print materials.