All civil servants were requested to take an oath or to sign a declaration to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the HKSAR within four weeks starting last January.

During a LegCo meeting today, Secretary for Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said a majority of the city’s civil servants of around 170,000 people have signed the declaration already.

“For the 129 civil servants who refused to sign the declaration or ignored the instructions by the deadline, the government had followed up the cases in accordance with the Public Service (Administration) Order, asking them to give an explanation or return a signed declaration,” said Nip.

“For those who still refused to comply, we will go through relevant procedures and ask them to resign.” He added.

Meanwhile, Nip said 26 civil servants were arrested for their involvement in the anti-extradition movement, which they were all suspended from their job while being under investigation.

He also said authorities are still looking into the possibility of introducing legislation that would prohibit insulting of public officials, but stressed there is limited time for them to put forward the bill for approval in the current legislative session.