The Legislative Council document said the bill, put forward by the Security Bureau, was designed to “implement Article 23 of the Basic Law, to enhance relevant laws for safeguarding national security, and to provide for related matters”.

Article 23 of the city’s mini-constitution requires Hong Kong to enact its own laws to penalise acts of treason, secession, sedition and subversion against the central government.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has emphasised that his government aimed to enact the required legislation this year.

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, the convenor of the Executive Council, the key decision-making body, welcomed the news and asked authorities to table the legislation “earlier” to allow enough time for lawmakers to scrutinise the bill.

Ip, who was the security chief during the city’s first attempt to pass the legislation in 2003, suggested that publication of a white bill for public consultation would not be necessary.

“The draft bill is a blue bill, it already has very detailed articles, so I do not see the need for a white bill consultation again,” Ip said. “When someone raised the idea of a white bill consultation back in the day, it was completely a method to delay legislation. It is unadvisable.”

A white bill is when the full draft legislation is made available to the public to canvass their views.

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A blue bill involves a draft that will only be presented to the legislature for a first reading. Authorities have said there are no firm rules governing decisions to publish a white or a blue bill. A bureau would publish a white bill for public consultation if it was technically complex.

The government in 2003 decided not to publish a white bill on its proposed national security legislation and insisted that a consultation paper could serve the purpose of seeking views on the proposals.

Ip resigned that year after she failed to pass the legislation in the wake of protests by half a million people in opposition to the bill.

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But she said on Friday she did not believe similar problems would arise again.

“After the riots in 2019, Hong Kong people know the importance of national security,” Ip said. “The government has also increased national security education in the past few years.

“I do not believe there will be large-scale opposition as we saw in 2003, but of course the government must do its job of explaining the articles well.”

The Bar Association issued a statement on Friday night, saying it hoped that the legislation could balance safeguarding national security and human rights.

The group representing barristers demanded a “sufficient” consultation with clearly drafted articles that would allow the public to better understand the law.

Law Society president Chan Chak-ming said in a statement that a “widespread” consultation should be done before Article 23 was enacted to ensure it complied with the Basic Law, national security law, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Tik chi-yuen, a centrist lawmaker, said he was not opposed to the legislation, but appealed to authorities to take account of the concerns residents might have about the bill.

“There are still quite a lot of Hong Kong people who have worries about the legislation of Article 23,” he said. “They are worried about whether it would obstruct our freedom in our daily lives or space to participate in society.

“When we do not understand such thoughts of residents … I am very worried it could cause a political storm such as we have seen before.”