A 02/03-33
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 25 June 2003 at 2:30 pm
I. Tabling of Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments | L.N. No.
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| 1. | Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) (Amendment) Regulation 2003 | 155/2003
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| 2. | Prisons (Hostel) (Amendment) Order 2003 | 156/2003
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| 3. | Rules of the High Court (Amendment) Rules 2003 | 157/2003
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Other Papers| 1. | No.90 | - | Report by the Trustee of the Correctional Services Children's Education Trust for the period from 1st September 2001 to 31st August 2002
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(to be presented by Secretary for Security)
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| 2. | No.91 | - | Report by the Commissioner of Correctional Services on the administration of the Prisoners' Welfare Fund for the year ended 31 March 2003
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(to be presented by Secretary for Security)
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| 3. | No.92 | - | Clothing Industry Training Authority Annual Report 2002
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(to be presented by Secretary for Education and Manpower)
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| 4. | Report of the Panel on Housing 2002/2003
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(to be presented by Hon CHAN Kam-lam, Chairman of the Panel, who will address the Council)
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| 5. | Report of the Panel on Security 2002/2003
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(to be presented by Hon LAU Kong-wah, Chairman of the Panel, who will address the Council)
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| 6. | Report of the Panel on Constitutional Affairs 2002/2003
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(to be presented by Hon Andrew WONG, Chairman of the Panel, who will address the Council)
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| 7. | Report of the Bills Committee on Evidence (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2002
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(to be presented by Hon Margaret NG, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
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| 8. | Report of the Bills Committee on Revenue Bill 2003
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(to be presented by Hon Audrey EU, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
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| 9. | Report of the Bills Committee on Revenue (No. 2) Bill 2003
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(to be presented by Hon Eric LI, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
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II. Questions
1. Dr Hon David CHU to ask: (Translation)
The Administration advised this Council in June last year that, in view of the unclear reception of radio broadcasts inside some of the road tunnels, action was in hand to upgrade the Radio Re-broadcasting Systems of the tunnels concerned. As I have still received complaints recently from the public in this regard, will the Government inform this Council of the progress of such upgrading works?
| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for the Environment,
Transport and Works |
2. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong who have not yet obtained the Hong Kong permanent resident status so far, and the number of years for which they have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong;
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| (b) | of the reasons for these Vietnamese boat people not having obtained the Hong Kong permanent resident status; and
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| (c) | how they can obtain the Hong Kong permanent resident status?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Security
3. Hon Martin LEE to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the recent replacement of the chief executive of the BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Limited ("BOC Hong Kong"), will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
| (a) | if the Hong Kong Monetary Authority ("HKMA") has an established procedure for vetting and approving banks' applications for replacing their senior management staff; if so, of the details of the procedure and the time required for vetting and approving these applications;
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| (b) | the time taken by HKMA to approve the BOC Hong Kong's application for replacing its chief executive; whether there is any difference between vetting and approving this application and other similar applications; if so, the reasons for that; and
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| (c) | when HKMA was vetting and approving the BOC Hong Kong's application for replacing its chief executive, the reasons for the replacement given to HKMA?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
4. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
On the 27th of last month, the Director of Environmental Protection published a notice under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance stating that it had received an application from the Green Island Cement Company Limited for a licence to conduct an "incinerator" process in its Tuen Mun plant, and that objections to the granting of the licence should be made within 30 days. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether independent persons will be appointed to conduct an objective analysis of the objections received; if so, of the details of the arrangement; if not, the reasons for that;
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| (b) | how it will practically consider such objections and when the result of the application will be announced; and
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| (c) | whether, in respect of the application, an independent and impartial environmental impact assessment has been conducted; if so, of the assessment results; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
5. Hon LAU Ping-cheung to ask: (Translation)
Regarding applications for change of land use made by private developers under section 16 of the Town Planning Ordinance and through other means, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has a policy to reduce the number of approvals given to applications by private developers for change of land use; the criteria adopted by the Town Planning Board for vetting and approving applications made in the two ways mentioned above; the channels through which applicants may seek a review of or lodge an appeal against the application results;
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| (b) | exclusive of New Territories small house applications, of the respective numbers of applications for change of land use made by private developers in the two ways mentioned above, in each of the past five years, the duration of the case which involved the longest vetting time, and the vetting time for the applications which got the earliest approval; the current number of outstanding applications, as well as the estimated number of applications that may be approved; and
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| (c) | in relation to the applications made in these two ways in each of the past five years, of the respective numbers of residential developments approved, the floor areas and the numbers of flats to be produced by each development, as well as the amounts of land premium derived by the authorities from each development?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
6. Hon Michael MAK to ask: (Translation)
Medical studies have revealed that the coronavirus which has caused atypical pneumonia may have come from wild animals which include masked palm civets. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the quantity of each species of wild animals imported last year and their uses; the quantity of illegally imported wild animals seized by the relevant departments last year and the number of persons arrested for such offence, as well as the heaviest penalty imposed by the court on the persons convicted last year;
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| (b) | of the total number of suspected intoxication cases over the last three years in which people were hospitalized after consuming wild animals; and
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| (c) | whether it will consider imposing a total ban on the import of live wild animals for human consumption; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*7. Hon LAU Wong-fat to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council whether it has conducted a survey to find out, among the persons confirmed to have contracted Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ("SARS") as at the 15th of this month, the respective numbers of those who have the habit of smoking or drinking, or both, and how the incidence rates of SARS among people with such habits compare with those without; if no survey has been conducted, whether it will conduct such a survey as soon as possible?
Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*8. Dr Hon YEUNG Sum to ask: (Translation)
Currently, fresh provision shops have to apply for relevant licences for selling different types of meat and pay annual fee for each of such licences. However, the fee levels of licences for selling meat in the urban areas and in the New Territories ("NT") are different. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether cost recovery is the criterion adopted for setting the fee levels of such licences; if so, why the fee levels of licences for selling meat in the urban areas and in NT are different; if not, the authorities' criteria for setting the fee levels of such licences;
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| (b) | when it will standardize the fee levels of licences for selling meat in the urban areas and in NT; and
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| (c) | whether it will streamline the classification of licences for selling meat, so that people engaging in the relevant trade can sell different types of meat under one single licence; if it will, when the streamlining will be implemented; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*9. Hon IP Kwok-him to ask: (Translation)
According to the consultant's report on the feasibility of providing major bus interchanges in Sham Shui Po District presented to the Sham Shui Po District Council, there are as many as 54 bus routes passing through Cheung Sha Wan Road and Nathan Road and nearly half of them overlap one another in the southbound direction, thereby causing traffic congestion in that area. The consultant considers that the construction of public transport interchanges ("PTIs") and the implementation of bus-bus interchange scheme can alleviate the present congestion. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it plans to rationalize the bus routes passing through Sham Shui Po District so as to reduce route-overlapping; if so, of the timing for implementation; if not, the reasons for that;
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| (b) | of the factors it takes into account in deciding whether a PTI should be constructed; and
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| (c) | whether it has considered constructing a PTI in Mei Foo; if it has, of the details of its considerations and the estimated timing for implementing the project; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*10. Hon LEE Cheuk-yan to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the respective numbers of illegal immigrants and visitors to Hong Kong in breach of their conditions of stay who were sentenced to imprisonment by the court in each of the past three years, broken down by gender, nationality and length of sentence; and
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| (b) | the respective numbers of inmates who were serving their sentences in prison for illegal immigration or breach of conditions of stay as at 31 March this year, broken down by gender and nationality, as well as their percentages in the total number of prison inmates as at that date?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Security
*11. Hon NG Leung-sing to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that benthic corals and other precious benthos were recently suspected to have been captured illegally from the eastern waters of Hong Kong and transported to the Mainland for sale. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the benthic resources of the above waters have been captured illegally or damaged; if so, of the details;
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| (b) | of the legislation or measures in place to protect such resources from being captured illegally;
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| (c) | whether it has cooperated with the relevant authorities in the Mainland to combat the illegal capturing and selling of precious marine resources; if so, of the details and whether such cooperation will be strengthened; and
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| (d) | of the ways to enhance public awareness of marine ecosystem conservation?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*12. Hon TAM Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
It is learnt that some people have carried out land-filling on agricultural lots without providing proper drainage facilities. As a result, serious flooding frequently occurs at the comparatively low-lying areas around these lots during heavy downpours, posing a threat to the property and life of the residents concerned. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether any mechanism is in place to control land-filling on agricultural lots; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
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| (b) | whether it plans to tighten the control on this type of land-filling; if so, of the details; and
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| (c) | of its plans to prevent the blockage of drains and other drainage facilities by the construction waste generated from such works?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*13. Hon Cyd HO to ask: (Translation)
In reply to a question at the Council meeting on 26 February this year, the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food pointed out that the health authorities in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province had already had a reciprocal notification mechanism. The notification mechanism therefore had already existed before the outbreak of atypical pneumonia in Hong Kong in March this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the types of information exchanged through this notification mechanism, and whether such information includes the names of diseases, transmission means, measures for infection prevention, the number of infected cases, etc.;
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| (b) | of the mode of operation of the notification mechanism; in respect of the notification given in writing, the average time required for the health authorities which had been notified to receive the written notifications concerned; whether the notification given by way of telephone communication is confirmed in writing; if so, whether the Hong Kong health authorities are required to make written records of the relevant telephone communications and file such records before the written confirmation of such telephone communications has been received from the Guangdong health authorities; and provide the written confirmations and records of the telephone communications on infectious diseases between the health authorities in Hong Kong and Guangdong from November last year to May this year; and
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| (c) | where the telephone communications do not have written confirmations or records, how people other than the officials engaged in the telephone communications can know the contents of the communications?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*14. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)
The Fung Hon Chu Gifted Education Centre established by the Education Department ceased to enrol gifted students in early 2000. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the criteria for assessing gifted students; the number of children assessed to be gifted students in each of the past three years and its percentage in all children of school age in the territory; and
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| (b) | the current policies and measures for understanding the educational and emotional needs of gifted students and for helping them in respect of such needs; the amount of money spent on implementing these policies and measures in each of the past three years; how these expenses compare to the expenses spent on gifted education in other territories?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Education and Manpower
*15. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)
At present, when occupants of private residential premises suspect that the water seepage problem at the ceilings of their premises has been caused by damaged pipes in the premises on the upper floors, they may request the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to send its staff to conduct dye testing in those upper floor premises in order to identify the source of water seepage. However, as the staff concerned are often refused entry to the upper floor premises, and are thus unable to conduct such tests, the water seepage problem often drags on for years, and in the end the affected occupants can only resort to protracted and complicated civil proceedings. As the authority is launching a clean Hong Kong campaign at full blast, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it has assessed the impact of pipe seepage and leakage in private residential premises on environmental hygiene; if it has, of the assessment results;
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| (b) | it will introduce testing methods which are based on new technologies to enable easier and more precise identification of the source of water seepage; and
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| (c) | it will devise a mechanism to facilitate expeditious and easy solutions to such problems?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*16. Hon Albert CHAN to ask: (Translation)
It is learnt that families selected by the Social Welfare Department to provide home foster care must be families with both parents, while single parent families are not allowed to provide the service. However, in many overseas countries, such as Canada and the United States, single parent families may provide home foster care as well. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | the rule in Hong Kong disallowing single parent families in providing home foster care is discriminatory against single parent families; and
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| (b) | it will review the rule so that single parent families may provide home foster care as well?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*17. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)
In response to my question at the Council meeting on 6 November last year, the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology advised that the Government had formulated policies and issued guidelines to encourage and assist government departments in adopting open source software ("OSS"). This would also set an example for the private sector to follow so as to promote the adoption of OSS in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective percentages of government departments and public organizations using OSS in the total numbers of such departments and organizations;
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| (b) | whether it has formulated the direction, long-term and short-term objectives and timetable for implementing the above policies; if so, of the details in implementing such direction, objectives and timetable in government departments and the private sector; and
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| (c) | whether it has assessed the effectiveness of the policies concerned; if so, of the criteria for and the results of the assessment?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
*18. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)
In reply to my question in April last year, the Administration advised that the Airport Authority was negotiating with the relevant contractors for the Chek Lap Kok airport project 10 claims involving four contracts. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council whether they know if the negotiations have been concluded; if so, of the amount of settlement for each claim?
Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Economic Development and Labour
*19. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the curbing of cross-border drug-trafficking activities, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the quantities, broken down by type and origin, of drugs seized in each of the past three years;
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| (b) | of the new tricks used by drug dealers in conducting cross-border drug-trafficking activities;
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| (c) | of the difficulties encountered by law enforcement departments in combating such activities; and
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| (d) | whether concrete measures have been formulated to step up efforts to curb cross-border drug-trafficking activities?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Security
*20. Ir Dr Hon HO Chung-tai to ask: (Translation)
Regarding general health and hygiene knowledge among the public and students, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the channels for enhancing the public's general health and hygiene knowledge before the local outbreak of atypical pneumonia in March this year, and the details of these channels;
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| (b) | whether health education is included as a subject in the primary school curriculum at all levels; if so, of the areas covered by the subject for each level; and
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| (c) | whether junior secondary students are required to study the health education subject under the current curriculum design; if not, of the ways to enhance their general knowledge of health and hygiene?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Education and Manpower
*For written reply.
III. Bills
First Reading
1. Electronic Transactions (Amendment) Bill 2003
2. Import and Export (Facilitation) Bill 2003
3. Waste Disposal (Amendment) Bill 2003
4. Companies (Amendment) Bill 2003
Second Reading (Debates to be adjourned) | 1. Electronic Transactions (Amendment) Bill 2003 | : | Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
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| 2. Import and Export (Facilitation) Bill 2003 | : | Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
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| 3. Waste Disposal (Amendment) Bill 2003 | : | Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
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| 4. Companies (Amendment) Bill 2003 | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
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Second Reading (Debates to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading | 1. Evidence (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2002 | : | Secretary for Justice
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| 2. Revenue Bill 2003 | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
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| 3. Revenue (No. 2) Bill 2003 | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
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IV. Members' Motions
- The 1 July march
Hon LEE Cheuk-yan: (Translation)
That this Council appeals to all the people of Hong Kong to enthusiastically take part in "The 1 July march to oppose the enactment of legislation to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law and strive for the return of political power to the people", and to continue to fight for building a democratic, prosperous and socially just Hong Kong.
| Public Officers to attend | : | Secretary for Justice
Secretary for Constitutional Affairs |
- Establishing a labelling system for genetically modified food
Hon Fred LI: (Translation)
That this Council urges the Government to expeditiously establish a genetically modified food labelling system for prepackaged food products by adopting a "voluntary first, and then mandatory" approach in order to safeguard consumers' right to know and to choose.
Amendment to Hon Fred LI's motion
Hon Mrs Selina CHOW: (Translation)
To delete "establish a genetically modified food labelling system for" after "That this Council urges the Government to expeditiously" and substitute with "formulate guidelines to encourage food manufacturers to label"; to add "genetically modified" after "prepackaged"; and to delete "by adopting a 'voluntary first, and then mandatory' approach" after "food products" and substitute with "on a voluntary basis".
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
Clerk to the Legislative Council
