A 03/04-15
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 14 January 2004 at 2:30 pm
I. Tabling of Papers
| 1.No.50 | - | Estate Agents Authority Annual Report 2002/2003
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(to be presented by Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands)
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| 2.No.51 | - | Report of changes to the approved Estimates of Expenditure approved during the second quarter of 2003-04 (Public Finance Ordinance : Section 8)
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(to be presented by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury)
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| 3.No.52 | - | Consumer Council Annual Report 2002-2003
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(to be presented by Secretary for Economic Development and Labour)
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| 4.No.53 | - | Legal Aid Services Council Annual Report 2002-2003
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(to be presented by Chief Secretary for Administration)
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| 5. | Report of the Bills Committee on Education (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2003
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| (to be presented by Hon Cyd HO, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
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II. Questions
1. Hon IP Kwok-him to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the Leisure and Cultural Services Department ("LCSD") has decided not to renew the employment of its course instructors aged over 60 so as to bring the retirement age of course instructors employed on agreement terms in line with that of civil servants. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of course instructors employed by LCSD who will soon reach the age of 60 as well as the types of courses in which they are engaged, and the other government departments which also set the retirement age for their contract staff;
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| (b) | whether it will consider not applying the above retirement age to the course instructors employed by LCSD on agreement terms; if not, the reasons for that; and
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| (c) | whether, apart from age, other factors such as the health of the instructors concerned will be taken into account by LCSD in deciding whether or not to renew the employment of its course instructors who are over, at or will soon reach the age of 60?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Home Affairs
2. Hon Audrey EU to ask: (Translation)
Regarding body contact between police officers and prostitutes in the course of anti-vice operations, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the specific instructions, as set out in the police internal guidelines concerning anti-vice operations issued to police officers, on the conduct of police officers while posing as clients in order to gather evidence for charging vice-operators (commonly known as "covert operations");
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| (b) | the criteria adopted by the Police for determining which types of body contact are considered acceptable; and
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| (c) | the Police's justifications for its view that body contact is genuinely necessary for collecting evidence?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Security
3. Hon YEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that some parents have recently complained about intermediaries, which provide overseas studies services, not meeting the advertised descriptions in that the students were sent to overseas educational institutions of inferior qualities, the courses they took were different from those they had applied for, and the host families neglected the students in residence, etc. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the current number of intermediaries in Hong Kong providing overseas studies services to local students, and whether it knows the number of students who went overseas for further studies through these intermediaries in each of the past three years;
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| (b) | of the respective numbers of complaints received by the Education and Manpower Bureau and the Consumer Council about the services of these intermediaries in each of the past three years; and
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| (c) | how it regulates the services of the above intermediaries? |
| Public Officers to reply | : |
Secretary for Education and Manpower
Secretary for Economic Development and Labour |
4. Hon LEUNG Fu-wah to ask: (Translation)
Under the new arrangement which has come into operation since 2000, employers who have obtained special permission from the Immigration Department ("ImmD") may instruct their foreign domestic helpers ("FDHs") to perform motor driving duties incidental to domestic duties. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the number of applications from employers that ImmD received, the number of applications it approved and the percentage of this number in the annual average number of FDHs, as well as the number of rejected cases and the reasons for rejection, in each year from 2000 to 2003;
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| (b) | the mechanism and criteria adopted by ImmD in vetting these applications, and whether it has carried out a comprehensive review on the vetting mechanism and the criteria, as well as on their effectiveness; if it has, of the outcome; if not, whether it will do so; and
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| (c) | the monitoring measures adopted by ImmD against employers who instruct their FDHs to perform motor driving duties not incidental to domestic duties; and of the total number of such cases found since the implementation of the arrangement and how they have been handled?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Security
5. Hon Martin LEE to ask: (Translation)
It was reported that the contractor of the flood prevention project of the Drainage Services Department had dumped a large amount of debris at the "buffalo fields" in the Kam Tin wetlands in late October last year. There have been comments that the incident shows the futility of the Government's system to monitor the transportation of site wastes to designated locations for dumping. According to the Trip Ticket System for monitoring wastes from government sites, a truck carrying debris should first obtain a ticket on leaving the construction site, then dump the debris at the designated location and finally have the ticket stamped and returned to the construction site. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | how it will penalize the above contractor and monitor fly tipping of public fills and construction and demolition ("C&D") wastes by contractors; and whether it will review the Trip Ticket System; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
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| (b) | of the respective amounts of contractors' fly tipping of public fills and C&D wastes, and the numbers of cases in which the dumping locations were not the ones marked on the trip tickets in each of the past three years; and
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| (c) | of the measures to deal with owners who dump debris at their land which has ecological value and engage in other activities which will upset the ecology of their land?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
6. Dr Hon LO Wing-lok to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
| (a) | the criteria adopted by the Hospital Authority ("HA") in determining whether or not to award year-end bonuses to its management staff;
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| (b) | whether HA plans to award year-end bonuses to them this year; if it does, of the estimated total amount; and
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| (c) | whether HA has reviewed if the award of year-end bonuses despite the fiscal deficits conforms to the principle of proper use of public funds; if it has; of the results; if not, whether such a review will be conducted?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*7. Hon Cyd HO to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the president of a local tertiary institution has suggested that the Government should include, in the consultancy study contracts to be awarded in the future, a term to the effect that the core research teams concerned must comprise a certain percentage of Hong Kong people, so as to enable the Government to commission the local tertiary institutions to conduct more of its consultancy studies in the future. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective numbers of Government-commissioned consultancy studies conducted by the tertiary institutions in Hong Kong in each of the past five years, as well as the study topics and the amounts of consultancy fees involved; and
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| (b) | of the percentages of the consultancy fees that were paid to the eight University Grants Committee-funded tertiary institutions, in the Administrations' total expenditure on consultancy fees in each of the past five years?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
*8. Dr Hon David CHU to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that in recent months, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority ("HKMA") has received 36 complaints from bank depositors claiming that money totalling about $1.9 million had been stolen from their accounts. They suspect that criminals got hold of their personal identification numbers ("PINs") while they were using the automatic teller machines ("ATMs") and then withdrew money from their accounts. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the locations of the ATMs at which the criminals got hold of the victims' PINs;
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| (b) | the Police's ways to curb such crimes, and whether beat officers have been asked to keep watch on the activities in the vicinity of ATMs; and
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| (c) | the progress of the study, undertaken by HKMA with banks and relevant institutions, on upgrading the security level of ATM cards?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Security
*9. Hon CHAN Kwok-keung to ask: (Translation)
At present, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department recruits through subcontractors staff to clean roads, including carriageways and flyovers. These street cleaners are often seen to be working at road shoulders even when there are vehicles moving on the carriageways or flyovers. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has issued instructions on ways to safeguard the safety of cleaners responsible for cleaning the above carriageways and flyovers;
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| (b) | whether any street cleaners were injured or killed in traffic accidents while at work in the past three years; if so, of the dates of the traffic accidents, the casualties involved and other details; and
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| (c) | if there were such traffic accidents, whether the authorities checked if the subcontractors involved had taken out employees' compensation insurance for the street cleaners concerned; if checking was done, of the results; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*10. Hon NG Leung-sing to ask: (Translation)
With regard to the complaints about the services relating to overseas studies provided by education consultancy firms in Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the handling procedures followed by the authorities upon receipt of the above complaints;
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| (b) | whether it will consider implementing measures such as a registration system to regulate these education consultancy firms, so as to safeguard the interests of local students planning to study abroad; and
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| (c) | of the measures in place to enhance its assistance to local students seeking to study abroad?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Education and Manpower
*11. Hon Mrs Sophie LEUNG to ask: (Translation)
With the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement ("CEPA") fully implemented on the first of this month, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of its plans and measures to encourage manufacturers, including those who intend to return to Hong Kong, to set up factories in Hong Kong; if it has no such plans, of the reasons for that;
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| (b) | of the promotion strategies formulated to attract local and overseas investors and manufacturers to invest or set up factories in Hong Kong, and whether it has estimated, as a result of the promotion and incentive measures, the number of factories drawn to Hong Kong and the number of new local jobs created for each industry annually in the next few years; if so, the results of its estimation; and
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| (c) | in the light of the recent discussions in the community on the prospects of the local industries and manufacturing sector after the implementation of CEPA, whether it has assessed the role of the local industries and manufacturing sector in Hong Kong's economic development in the next decade; if so, of the assessment results?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
*12. Hon LI Fung-ying to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that, in order to optimize the use of resources, the Fire Services Department ("FSD") is considering the adoption of a classification system under which priorities are set in the light of the condition of the patients as reported by the callers for ambulance service, and ambulances will then be deployed accordingly to send patients to hospitals. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the numbers of urgent calls for ambulance service in 2002 and 2003 respectively, with a breakdown of such cases by the class determined according to the criteria of the above classification system, and the time lapse between the making of a call for service and the arrival of an ambulance at the scene to pick up the patient;
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| (b) | the time FSD plans to implement the classification system, and whether there will be public consultation before its implementation;
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| (c) | the details of the staff training programmes before implementing the classification system; and
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| (d) | the measures FSD will take, after implementing the classification system, to prevent delay in treating patients due to inaccurate information supplied by the caller for ambulance service?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Security
*13. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)
In July last year, approval was given by this Council to the Administration for it to use $500 million to fund research projects conducted in Hong Kong or the Mainland on controlling infectious diseases. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the justifications for capping the amount of funding at $800,000 per research project, and the measures to support research institutions in carrying out large-scale research projects with a cost above the cap;
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| (b) | whether expenses on upgrading laboratory or research facilities fall within the scope of funding;
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| (c) | of the number of funding applications received so far and, among them, the respective numbers of applications submitted by individual local institutions, multiple local institutions and joint applications by local and Mainland institutions; the research institution(s) involved in each application;
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| (d) | of the number of applications vetted, the respective amounts of funding applied for and approved for each of the research projects which are related to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or other emerging infectious diseases, and the commencement dates of work of the funded projects;
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| (e) | whether the relevant authorities and the Grant Review Committee coordinate the sharing of research results by the funded research institutions, with a view to enhancing the cost-effectiveness and progress of their researches;
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| (f) | of the ownership of the intellectual property rights of the research results of the funded projects; and
(g) whether the Administration has treated research projects conducted locally and in the Mainland with the same standards with regard to the assessment criteria, the scope of research that may be financed and the amount applicable, monitoring of research progress and the ownership of the intellectual property rights of the research results of such projects?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*14. Hon Howard YOUNG to ask: (Translation)
It is reported that certain designs of some Private Sector Participation Scheme ("PSPS") estates occupied in recent years, such as the Broadview Court in Sham Wan of Aberdeen, adversely affect the occupants. For example, refuse storage chambers are only about two feet away from the flats of the occupants and the chimneys of the back-up power generators of elevators are facing the windows of flats. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
| (a) | if the Housing Authority ("HA") has set specific requirements for the designs of PSPS estates and requires that the contractors' designs should meet such requirements;
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| (b) | the number and types of complaints received by HA about the designs of PSPS estates in each of the past ten years; and among them, the number of cases already resolved; and
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| (c) | the number of PSPS flats newly completed in each of the past ten years and, among them, the number of flats returned to HA by occupants who considered that there were design problems?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*15. Hon WONG Sing-chi to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the problem of conducting commercial activities on government land which is occupied without authorization or in breach of land grant conditions, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the location, area and years of occupation of individual pieces of government land with the above situation in the past five years, the commercial activities undertaken, as well as the government department(s) responsible for regulating such activities and the details of the follow-up actions taken; whether the authorities have assessed the turnover of such commercial activities and the amount of rent payable; if so, of the assessment results; and
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| (b) | the follow-up actions the authorities have taken against the unauthorized occupation of government land for use as premises for the sale of food or food processing, so as to ensure food hygiene and safety as well as safeguard public health; whether the authorities will consider conducting inter-departmental joint operations to resolve the problem?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*16. Hon Michael MAK to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the prevention of the spreading of infectious diseases, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective numbers of cases of various types of infectious diseases reported over the past three months, and how these figures compare to the relevant figures of the same period in each of the past three years;
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| (b) | whether the Administration has studied why, despite the implementation of measures for preventing the recurrence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and massive outbreaks of other infectious diseases, there are still outbreaks of infectious diseases in the community; if it has, of the results of the study; and
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| (c) | whether the Administration will expedite the establishment of the Centre for Health Protection, enhance its connection with neighbouring areas or nations and those currently affected by an outbreak of infectious disease, and release information to the public on strengthening protection against infectious diseases as soon as there are signs of such an outbreak in Hong Kong?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*17. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the programme validation service provided by the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation ("HKCAA") for private institutions since 2000, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the procedure and criteria adopted by HKCAA for validating programmes offered by institutions and the time normally required to complete the validation;
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| (b) | the number of programmes the validation of which were passed within six months and its percentage in all programmes for which validation were completed; and
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| (c) | the names of the programmes the validation of which were passed within six months and the institutions involved, and whether the time taken for validating these programmes was shorter than that normally required; if so, of the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Education and Manpower
*18. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
The Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112) provides that sums received in respect of, or which in any way derive directly or indirectly from, the performance in Hong Kong by a non-resident entertainer are chargeable to Profits Tax, and the tax is chargeable in the name of the payer of the sums (usually the organizer of the performance). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows if the organizer of the Hong Kong Harbour Fest had deducted an amount equivalent to the total tax payable when it paid the remuneration to overseas entertainers who performed in the event; if so, of the amount of deduction; if not, how the organizer will secure funds to meet the tax liability?
Public Officer to reply
: Financial Secretary
*19. Dr Hon TANG Siu-tong to ask: (Translation)
The first batch of over 2 000 listed Chinese medical practitioners ("CMPs") were accepted as registered CMPs in November last year. The Hospital Authority is progressing with the plan of setting up 18 Chinese medicine out-patient clinics by 2005, and the Administration is also consulting the relevant parties on the role of registered CMPs under the relevant labour legislation. As the Chinese medicine profession has progressively been gaining professional status, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it will amend the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282) to bring Chinese medicine expenses and CMPs' fees into the ambit of "medical expenses" in the Ordinance and hence into the coverage of mandatory employee insurance; if it will, of the legislative timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and
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| (b) | it will adopt measures to encourage the insurance sector to include Chinese medicine expenses and CMPs' fees in the coverage of optional medical insurance; if so, of the details of the measures; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for Economic Development and Labour
*20. Dr Hon LAW Chi-kwong to ask: (Translation)
An environmental group revealed early last month that tonnes of boulders were illegally excavated from the riverbed of the Tung Chung River, of which the Government owns the land title, and the boulders were then sold to a government contractor for construction of an artificial lake, resulting in serious ecological damage to the river. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective dates on which the Civil Engineering Department ("CED") and the consultancy firm it hired to supervise the project learnt that the boulders came from the Tung Chung River; given that the construction contract had stipulated that the boulders should come from lawful sources, of the reasons why CED did not immediately ban such boulders from being transported into the construction site; whether there has been dereliction of duty on the part of the staff of CED and the consultancy firm; if so, how they will be penalised;
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| (b) | of the respective dates at which other government departments, including the Islands District Office, Lands Department, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Territory Development Department, came to notice the above activities and the follow-up actions taken by these departments; given that it was reported that the illegal excavation has been conducted for a long time on the government land without their noticing it, whether it has assessed if there are loopholes in the monitoring system concerned; if the assessment result is in the affirmative, how it will plug these loopholes; if the assessment result is in the negative, of the justifications for that;
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| (c) | of the number of complaints received in the past three years about illegal excavation of natural materials for works and, among them, the number of cases in which the offenders were prosecuted and convicted;
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| (d) | whether it has reviewed if the penalties on acts of eco-vandalism stipulated in the existing legislation in respect of rivers lying respectively on Government and private land have adequate deterrent effects; if it has, of the results; if not, the reasons for that;
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| (e) | whether any immediate measures other than legislative means will be put in place to deter acts of eco-vandalism in rivers; if so, of the details of such measures; and
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| (f) | whether it will consider giving up the use of natural boulders in the above construction project for the artificial lake or similar government projects; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
: Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*For written reply.
III. Bills
First Reading
Vocational Training Council (Amendment) Bill 2003
Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned) | Vocational Training Council (Amendment) Bill 2003 | : | Secretary for Education and Manpower
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Second Reading (Debate to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading| Education (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2003 | : | Secretary for Education and Manpower
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IV. Motions
Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
Secretary for Justice to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that the Summary Disposal of Complaints (Solicitors) Rules, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 251 of 2003 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 26 November 2003, be amended -
| (a) | in section 4(2) -
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| (i) | in paragraph (a)(ii), by repealing "and" at the end;
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| (ii) | in paragraph (b), by repealing the full stop at the end and substituting "; and";
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| (iii) | by adding -
"(c) stating that if the relevant person does not notify the Council representative as required by paragraph (b), the matter shall be disposed of by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.";
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| (b) | in section 5(1), by repealing "at any time within 21 days thereafter" and substituting ", at any time within 21 days thereafter but before the receipt by the Council representative of notification from the relevant person as to whether he wishes to discuss the matter with the Council representative,".
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V. Members' Bills
Second Reading (Debate to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading | Ling Liang World-Wide Evangelistic Mission Incorporation (Amendment) Bill 2003 | : | Hon Kenneth TING
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VI. Members' Motions
- Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
Hon HUI Cheung-ching to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that in relation to the Particulars Relating to Candidates on Ballot Papers (Legislative Council) Regulation, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 263 of 2003 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 17 December 2003, the period for amending subsidiary legislation referred to in section 34(2) of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 1) be extended under section 34(4) of that Ordinance to the meeting of 4 February 2004.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
- Supporting the import and export industries
Hon HUI Cheung-ching: (Translation)
That this Council urges the Government to expeditiously study how Hong Kong's import and export industries will be affected by the implementation of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement and the changes to be introduced by European countries and the United States in 2005 to the export quota system for major textile products from Hong Kong and the Mainland, and to formulate corresponding measures.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
- Better health care financing policy
Hon Michael MAK: (Translation)
That, as the existing health care financing policy fails to enable the public to receive sustained good-quality health care services, this Council urges the Government to work out a better health care financing plan in the light of overseas experience and to consult the public, so as to expeditiously formulate a long-term new policy that is workable.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
Clerk to the Legislative Council
