Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Applications for Common Recruitment Examination and Basic Law and National Security Law Test (Degree / Professional Grades)
The coming Common Recruitment Examination and Basic Law and National Security Law Test (Degree / Professional Grades) (CRE and BLNST) is tentatively scheduled to be held in Hong Kong on 8 and 15 October 2022 or another date within October 2022 if necessary. The application period is from 5 to 18 August 2022. Applicants may choose to take any of the CRE papers and / or the BLNST paper in this examination. They will be arranged to sit the examination on one of the above examination dates mainly according to their choice of
examination papers and will be notified by email of the examination date by late September 2022. Any requests for change of examination date / venue will not be considered. In view
of the latest epidemic situation of COVID-19, the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) will adjust the arrangements on the examination if the situation warrants and announce them on the CSB
webpage at www.csb.gov.hk/eng/cre.html. Persons who wish to take the coming CRE and BLNST should visit the said webpage regularly and refer to the relevant details on it.
Precautionary measures will be taken to safeguard the health of candidates and invigilators including setting up of body temperature screening at the designated location of the examination centres, requiring all candidates and invigilators to comply with the “Vaccine Pass” requirement, use the “LeaveHomeSafe” mobile app before entering the examination centres and wear masks, and widening the seat spacing among candidates, etc. If the situation warrants, the examination will be held on separate days to reduce the number of candidates in each examination centre to achieve social distancing.
Common Recruitment Examination:
The CRE consists of three 45-minute papers, namely Use of English (UE), Use of Chinese (UC) and Aptitude Test (AT), in multiple-choice format. Applicants may choose to attempt all, any one, or any combination of the papers.
In general, applicants for civil service posts at degree or professional level are required to obtain either Level 2 or Level 1 in the UE and UC papers of the CRE for meeting the language proficiency requirements as stipulated by individual recruiting departments / grades in the relevant recruitment advertisements. Applicants for some of these posts are also required to obtain a Pass in the AT paper.
The CRE is held independently of the recruitment process for any civil service post. Persons who wish to apply for civil service posts at degree or professional level should first obtain the requisite CRE results unless otherwise specified in the relevant recruitment advertisements. Applicants for the CRE are advised to ascertain the requirements of the civil service post(s) in which they are interested and other examination results accepted as equivalent to CRE results before deciding on which paper(s) they should attempt in the coming examination. More details of the examination, as well as the list of civil service grades which require valid CRE results for appointment, can be found on the CSB webpage.
Basic Law and National Security Law Test:
For all civil service recruitment exercises advertised on or after 1 July 2022, attaining a pass result in the BLNST is an entry requirement for all civil service jobs. The BLNST will assess candidates’ knowledge on both the Basic Law and the National Security Law. All candidates for civil service jobs must pass the BLNST in order to be considered for appointment, regardless of whether the candidates have previously taken the Basic Law Test (BLT) (either a BLT centrally conducted by the CSB or a BLT arranged by individual bureaux/departments in their past civil service recruitment exercises (degree/professional grades)) and the result. Candidates who have taken any BLT in the past and wish to apply for any civil service job advertised on or after 1 July 2022 must take the BLNST and attain a pass result in order to be considered for appointment.
The BLNST is a 30-minute bilingual paper (in both English and Chinese) comprising 20 multiple-choice questions. Answering at least 10 out of 20 questions correct will be deemed to have a pass result in the BLNST. The pass result of the BLNST is acceptable for the purpose of applying for all civil service jobs.
More details about the BLNST can be found on the CSB webpage.
Eligibility:
Applicants for the coming CRE and BLNST should be holders of degree, or a qualification meeting the entry requirement on professional qualifications for civil service degree or professional posts, or university students who will have attained a degree in the 2022-23 academic year.
Application Procedure:
Applicants should submit an application for the CRE and BLNST before 5:00 p.m. on 18 August 2022 (Hong Kong time) through one of the means below: (i) through the on-line application system on the CSB webpage; or (ii) by post to the Civil Service Examinations Unit
at Room 718, 7/F, West Wing, Central Government Offices, 2 Tim Mei Avenue, Tamar, Central, Hong Kong (date of postmark on or before 18 August 2022). Application form (CSB31 (7/2022)) can be downloaded from the CSB webpage or obtained from any Home Affairs Enquiry Centres of the Home Affairs Department or Job Centres of the Labour Department. Applications with incomplete or unclear information, late applications, duplicate applications, or applications submitted by fax or e-mail will not be processed.
Enquiries:
Enquiries may be directed to CSEU by phone at (852) 2537 6429 or by e-mail to csbcseu@csb.gov.hk.