2025 Honours List and Justices of the Peace appointments
The 2025 Honours List and Justices of the Peace (JPs) appointments are published in the Government Gazette today (July 1).
For the Honours List, the Chief Executive has given a total of 427 awards this year. The award recipients come from different walks of life with diverse backgrounds, benefitting various domains and sectors of the community, including public and community service, education, medical and public health, finance, trade and industry, innovation and technology, charity, arts and culture, sports, housing, transport, construction and urban development, environment, religion, labour and welfare, women and youth affairs, and professional services. Details are as follows:
Award |
Number |
(a) Grand Bauhinia Medal (GBM) |
3 |
(b) Gold Bauhinia Star (GBS) |
20 |
(c) Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS) |
29 |
(d) Distinguished Service Medals for the disciplined services and the ICAC |
12 |
(e) Bronze Bauhinia Star (BBS) |
46 |
(f) Medal for Bravery (Bronze) (MBB) |
3 |
(g) Meritorious Service Medals for the disciplined services and the ICAC |
46 |
(h) Medal of Honour (MH) |
111 |
(i) Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service |
76 |
(j) Chief Executive's Commendation for Government/Public Service |
81 |
427 |
The citations of the award recipients of the 2025 Honours List are provided in Appendix 1.
The Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, extends his congratulations to all award recipients and expresses gratitude for their significant contributions, hoping that they will continue to excel in their own fields and serve the community.
Mr Lee said, "I also express my gratitude to nine officers for their outstanding contributions to safeguarding national security. In the situation facing targeted malicious attacks from external forces, they have remained fearlessly committed to duty and displayed an extraordinary level of determination in discharging their duties, and actively participated in work related to the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. They deserve the honours as recognition of their significant contributions.
"Regarding the No. 3 alarm fire at New Lucky House in Jordan, which led to multiple deaths and injuries on April 10 last year, I would like to thank two citizens who bravely saved a number of trapped people, and therefore awarded the Medal for Bravery (Bronze) to these two citizens.
"I also take this opportunity to express my thanks for the contributions of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region search and rescue team deployed to assist in the search and rescue work in the quake-stricken areas in Myanmar in March and April this year, and therefore awarded the Chief Executive's Commendation for Community Service and the Chief Executive's Commendation for Government/Public Service to these officers."
The presentation ceremony for the awards will be held later this year.
Moreover, a total of 66 persons have been appointed as JPs by the Chief Executive, of whom 48 were appointed under section 3(1)(b) of the Justices of the Peace Ordinance (Cap. 510) (commonly referred to as Non-official JPs), and 18 were appointed under section 3(1)(a) of the same ordinance (commonly referred to as Official JPs).
The main function of JPs is to visit correctional institutions, detention centres or other institutions to ensure their effective management and that no individual is unfairly treated or deprived of his or her rights. JPs will ensure that complaints lodged by individuals are handled in a fair and transparent manner.
The name list of JPs appointed under section 3(1)(b) and section 3(1)(a) of the Justices of the Peace Ordinance is provided in Appendix 2.
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25
The Government today (January 8) reminded members of the public that, starting from January 25, all public transport and commercial vehicles' seated passengers must wear seat belts, and all drivers must not place more than two mobile telecommunications devices (MTDs) in front of them during driving, further enhancing road, passenger and driving safety.
All passenger's seats in public and private buses, rear passenger's seats in private light buses and goods vehicles (GVs), and driver's seats and all passenger's seats of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) must be equipped with seat belts in these vehicles first registered on or after January 25. Drivers and passengers occupying the seats of these vehicles (whether newly registered or not), where seat belts are fitted, are required to wear them. Studies show that wearing seat belts will reduce the risk of death and serious injury of drivers and passengers in head-on collisions by about 40 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.
Offending vehicle owners, drivers or passengers will be liable to a maximum fine of $5,000 and imprisonment for up to three months. All passengers occupying seats shall be responsible for wearing seat belts. Among them, any driver who still drives with a passenger aged under 15 seated in the rear seat of a GV or the passenger's seat of an SPV without wearing a seat belt will be subject to a maximum fine of $2,000.
The Government noted that the transport trades are ready for the new requirements. In franchised buses, all seats in newly procured buses have been equipped with seat belts. Together with existing double-deck buses retrofitted with seat belts on the upper-deck seats by operators under government subsidy, to date, around 3500 buses are now equipped with seat belts, representing about 60 per cent of the entire fleet in Hong Kong.
In addition, from the same day onwards, any driver must not place more than two MTDs (i.e. mobile phones, tablet computers or laptop computers) in front of them during driving. The diagonal length of each screen must not exceed 19 centimetres. The MTDs must not obstruct the driver's view of the road and traffic, as well as any mirror, device or camera-monitor fitted for viewing the roads. Offenders will be liable to a maximum fine of $2,000.
The Government has stepped up publicity and public education since November 2025. The Transport Department (TD) has strengthened collaboration with the Police, the Education Bureau, the Information Services Department, the Road Safety Council and the transport trades including public transport operators to introduce the legal requirements through websites, videos, media, social media, the "e-Bulletin for Parents" and publicity posters on traffic signal controllers across various districts. Franchised bus operators have also strengthened publicity and broadcast inside compartments and at bus stops to alert passengers to the new requirement of wearing seat belts.
Members of the public may refer to the TD's webpage on the new requirements on seat belts (www.td.gov.hk/en/road_safety/sb) and placing MTDs during driving (www.td.gov.hk/en/road_safety/mtd) or the Agent T Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AgentT.hk), or call the hotline 28042600 for details.
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25 Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25 Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25 Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25 Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
