EXECUTIVE Council member Professor Felice Lieh-mak yesterday supported the call for a self-regulatory professional body for teachers. She said the existing advisory body was 'toothless'. Professor Lieh-mak, who chairs the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications, was responding to a letter from the advisory council on educators' conduct appealing for support for a statutory teacher council. The advisory council on conduct, set up in April, is supposed to advise the Education Department on cases of misconduct and formulate a code of conduct for educators. But it says it cannot do its job because the Education Department declines to hand over personal information about cases for fear of infringing privacy laws. Professor Lieh-mak said: 'Teaching is a profession which needs a professional body to set the standard and carry out disciplinary functions. 'As the existing advisory council is toothless in carrying out its functions, an early review of the setting up of a statutory body to solve the problem is needed.' She said the existing advisory council was unable to carry out the functions and called for an early review of the setting up of a statutory body to solve the problem. She said the committee she chairs would discuss the matter. Chairman of the conduct council, Dr Cheng Kai-ming, has written to the chairman of the Education Commission, Professor Rosie Young Tse-tse, to urge a review of the problem. He said a code should reflect the ethical norms of the profession and could only be formulated through practice.