Before the establishment of PICO, Carrie Lam has also suggested that when the contract concludes, these young people could either return to their original work and training, or they would have nurtured sufficient interest in politics that they could, for instance, participate in District Council elections.

[5] One of the functions of the Office is to provide secretariat and research support to the Chief Executive's Council of Advisers on Innovation and Strategic Development.

[6] CPU was formally established in 1989 to supplement the then Government Secretariat's work by researching and examining specific policy issues.

On 23 February 2018, the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council approved the funding, i.e. the addition of four permanent posts in the civil service, for the establishment of the Office.

In the documents submitted to the Legislative Council, the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office was not listed in the organisational chart of the proposed restructured government.

This aroused speculation from the public that the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office would be disbanded in the coming government administration.

[13] According to some government insiders, since the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office reported directly to the Chief Executive, the Lam administration would not put forward any proposals regarding the Office at that moment and its future would be decided by the next Chief Executive, such that if he sees fit, he may rename it as the "Development and Policy Reform Group".

[13] Starry Lee, the chairperson of DAB, which is the largest political party in Hong Kong, likewise pushed for the establishment of a "Development and Policy Reform Group".

[14] She was of the view that the formation of such a Unit would enable long-term planning and tighten cooperation with its Mainland counterpart, viz, the "National Development and Reform Commission".

[15] After announcing his intention to run for the Chief Executive election, John Lee Ka-chiu suggested that he would deliberate with the incumbent administration over the prospect of the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office.

[21] In contrast, Head of the Office, Betty Fung explained in 2017 that PICO would become a more transparent organisation involving various stakeholders.

[1] However, the expansion of PICO's target audience also means that it is no longer one of the most important sources of policy analysis of the CE.

PICO no longer exercises the duty of "detecting and assessing community concerns and public opinions", one of CPU's core functions.

Moreover, an unofficial duty of the CPU was to make important policy decisions based on the public opinion collected.

[30] Coordinating with the Home Affairs Department, PICO was also tasked with the implementation of the Temporary Unemployment Relief Scheme.

[31] The Scheme was launched under the Anti-epidemic Fund to provide a one-off subsidy of $10,000 to those who lost their jobs due to the fifth wave of the pandemic.

She emphasised that even if the total amount of subsidy exceeds the original estimate of $3 billion, they will not set a cap on it and will use emergency funds to pay for the additional expenses.

[33] Before the Policy Innovation and Coordination Office was officially established, several doubts as to the reform, in particular to the proposed structure of PICO, were raised by members of the Legislative Councillor.

[35] Ip Kin-yuen suggested that the PICO shall be led by non-civil servants to better bring innovative ideas to the government.

[35] In 2020, Scholars Terence Lin from Beijing Institute of Hong Kong and Macau Scholars and Kay Lam from Hong Kong Policy Research Institute also pointed out that the reformation into PICO failed to address the original defects of the Central Policy Unit.

For example, PICO has included "Education and Youth Development" and "Innovation and Technology/ Artificial Intelligence/ Re-Industrialization" as their major and strategic themes.

[37] A number of commentaries [38][39] have analysed that the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Movement reflects the lack of political sensitivity of Carrie Lam's administration.

[22] The former head of CPU, Lau Siu Kai pointed out that the government needs to recruit a group of experts exclusively focusing on politics, policy and long-term strategies.

Thus he suggested that there is a pressing need for the government to analyse the international situations and propose long-term policy reforms.

[47] During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Deputy Head of PICO Vincent Fung Hao-yin attended the birthday party of Witman Hung amidst warnings against large gatherings due to the initial spread of the Omicron variant.