A 03/04-18
Legislative Council
Wednesday 18 February 2004 at 2:30 pm
Agenda
I. Tabling of Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments | L.N. No.
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| 1. | Specification of Public Office | 21/2004
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| 2. | Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Public Pleasure Grounds) (Amendment of Fourth Schedule) Order 2004
| 22/2004
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Other Papers | 1.No.58 | - | Occupational Safety and Health Council Annual Report 2002-2003
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(to be presented by Secretary for Economic Development and Labour)
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| 2.No.59 | - | Equal Opportunities Commission Annual Report 2002/03
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| (to be presented by Secretary for Home Affairs)
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II. Questions
1. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask:(Translation)
The results of a public opinion survey conducted by a non-government organization at the end of last month revealed that 63% of the public did not support Mr. TUNG Chee-hwa as the Chief Executive, whereas 16% did. As compared to the rating obtained in October last year, the rate of satisfaction with the SAR Government's performance in handling its relations with the Central People's Government ("CPG") dropped by 10 percentage points. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it has:
| (a) | conducted any public opinion surveys in respect of the above topics; if so, of the results of the surveys;
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| (b) | monitored, on a long-term basis, the results of public opinion surveys on the above topics conducted by non-government organizations and implemented improvement measures accordingly; if so, of the details of its monitoring work and measures; and
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| (c) | assessed if the drop in the rate of satisfaction with the SAR Government's performance in handling its relations with CPG is attributable to its performance in relaying to CPG the public's aspirations for democracy; if so, of the results of the assessment?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Home Affairs
2. Hon WONG Yung-kan to ask:(Translation)
There have been complaints from members of the public about the environmental hygiene problem in the community caused by the droppings of wild birds such as crows and pigeons, and that they are often disturbed by the screech of crows. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has studied the current breeding situation of wild birds such as crows and pigeons in the territory, as well as the impact of these wild birds on environmental hygiene; and
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| (b) | of the measures to reduce the nuisances caused by wild birds to the public?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
3. Hon CHAN Yuen-han to ask:(Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it has assessed if additional laws and regulations or heavier penalties are necessary to facilitate more effective monitoring of the production of those factories which have been registered in accordance with the origin rules under the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement ("CEPA"), so as to ensure that the products concerned are in compliance with the requirements of these rules; if it assesses that these are not necessary, of the reasons for that;
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| (b) | it has increased the manpower for inspection of the above factories to strengthen the efforts against illegal trans-shipment; and
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| (c) | in the course of assessing whether the factories are capable of producing products covered by the certificate of origin under CEPA, the authorities have enquired with the labour unions and associations or stakeholders of the trade about the production capability of these factories, or have relied solely on the information provided by the persons-in-charge of the factories?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
4. Hon Michael MAK to ask:(Translation)
On 3 December last year, the State President told the Chief Executive ("CE") during the latter's duty visit in Beijing that he believed that the Hong Kong community could reach a broad consensus on constitutional development. During his visit to Hong Kong in the middle of last month, one Mainland legal scholar remarked that the Central Authorities would definitely exercise to the end their authority on Hong Kong's constitutional development. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has assessed if the President's comments that he believed the Hong Kong community could reach a broad consensus on constitutional development would contradict the scholar's comments that the Central Authorities would exercise their authority to the end on Hong Kong's constitutional development; if it has, of the assessment results; and
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| (b) | of its efforts to facilitate the Hong Kong community to reach a broad consensus on constitutional development, for instance, whether it will invite officials of the Central Government to visit Hong Kong to exchange views with various sectors directly?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
5. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask:(Translation)
Under the Information Technology ("IT") in Education Project, a grant has been made to schools for the 2002/03 and 2003/04 school years for appointment of an additional teacher to share the teaching load of members of the IT coordination team of the schools concerned. The period of appointment of these teaching posts will expire at the end of August this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether the period of appointment of the above posts will be extended; if so, of the details about the source of funding and length of extension etc; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Education and Manpower
6. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask:(Translation)
It has been reported that quite a number of pigs in Yuen Long and Kam Tin areas have died of foot-and-mouth disease. Under the relevant legislation, pig carcasses have to be properly wrapped and covered with disinfecting powder, and be disposed of only at specified pig carcass collection points. However, some pig farmers just dug pits in their farms to bury such pigs, and the disposal of carcasses in such a way may help the disease to spread. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | how it ensures that pig farmers will transport pig carcasses to the pig carcass collection points in accordance with the law;
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| (b) | whether there is any chance for the carcasses of pigs which died of foot-and-mouth disease to spread the disease if they are not properly treated before being buried in the pits dug by pig farmers in their farms; and
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| (c) | of the measures the authorities have in place to curb the spread of the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*7. Hon Miriam LAU to ask:(Translation)
In the light of the judgement delivered by the Court of Final Appeal on 9 January this year regarding the Wan Chai North Reclamation Scheme, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it will shelve various reclamation projects under planning; if so, of the details of such projects; and
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| (b) | it will revise the South East Kowloon Development project and the reprovisioning arrangements for Kwun Tong Public Cargo Working Area and the typhoon shelters in South East Kowloon; if so, of the details of such revisions; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*8. Hon Bernard CHAN to ask:(Translation)
To enhance protection against terrorist attacks, the United States ("US") Government has, starting 5 January this year, implemented the new measures which require most of the visitors entering the US on visa to have fingerprints and digital photographs taken of them. Moreover, the US Government plans to require airlines to place armed plain clothed sky marshals on certain international flights flying to, from and over the US airspace. It also plans to require airlines and travel agencies to submit data on passengers who have reserved tickets for flights scheduled to take off from the US, so that background checks on the passengers may be conducted in advance and when they undergo boarding procedures, the authority concerned can, according to the potential risks they pose, adopt different levels of security checks or forbid them from boarding. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it has assessed the impact of the above measures, upon their implementation, on Hong Kong people visiting the US, the adequacy of privacy protection for them, and the feasibility of placing armed sky marshals on aircrafts of Hong Kong-based airlines; if it has, of the outcome; if it has not, whether it will conduct such an assessment?
| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
(in the absence of Secretary for Security)
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*9. Hon Cyd HO to ask:(Translation)
In 2002-03, the Government outsourced information technology ("IT") projects at a total value of about $1.5 billion. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the items, contractor, cost and progress of each of the outsourced IT projects, broken down by the relevant policy bureau; and
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| (b) | whether the authorities have assessed the savings in manpower resources as well as the expenditure on staff salary and fringe benefits achieved by the outsourcing of the above projects; if so, of the number and ranks of posts deleted and the amount of expenditure saved; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
*10. Dr Hon LAW Chi-kwong to ask:(Translation)
Regarding government departments' handling of family violence cases, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective total numbers of family violence reports to the Police and other government departments in the past three years, with a breakdown by gender of the abused, relations between the abused and the alleged abuser (including whether the abused is the abuser's husband, wife, child or parent; and the same applies below) as well as the type of abuse;
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| (b) | for the cases mentioned in (a) above,
(i) of the number of alleged abusers prosecuted and, among them, the respective numbers of those who were sentenced to imprisonment, bound over, put on probation and acquitted; the maximum, minimum and average term of imprisonment; and for cases in which the abusers were put on probation, a breakdown by the relations between the abused and the abusers and the average validity period of the probation orders; and(ii) of the number of cases in which prosecution was withdrawn, and the reasons for withdrawal; and
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| (c) | given that since January 2003, the Police can refer cases to the Social Welfare Department for follow-up without the consent of the abused/alleged abuser, of the total number of referrals made by the Police so far, broken down by the relations between the abused and the alleged abusers?
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| Public Officer to reply | : |
Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
(in the absence of Secretary for Security)
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*11. Ir Dr Hon HO Chung-tai to ask:(Translation)
It has been reported that the University of Hong Kong, the City University of Hong Kong and Lingnan University are joining hands to establish a library link network with a view to saving resources and facilitating the borrowing of books by students. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
| (a) | the average amount of expenditure on ordering books and periodicals by institutions of higher education funded by the University Grants Committee in the past year;
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| (b) | the total estimated amount of savings that can be achieved by the universities under the above scheme; and
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| (c) | if the scheme will be extended to other universities; if so, of the details?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Education and Manpower
*12. Hon Emily LAU to ask:(Translation)
On 10 December last year, in reply to a supplementary question raised by a Member in respect of my question on the Green Island Cement Company Limited, the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands advised that following investigation of the case, The Ombudsman was of the view that the Lands Department ("LD") had made mistakes, and had put forward a series of recommendations for improvement, all of which had been accepted by LD. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council of:
| (a) | the mistakes made by LD as identified by The Ombudsman, and whether any officials have been held responsible for such mistakes; if so, of the details;
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| (b) | the recommendations made by The Ombudsman to LD; and
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| (c) | the details and progress of the implementation of such recommendations by LD?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*13. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask:(Translation)
Regarding the seeking of psychological counselling by young people in Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the number of cases involving young people aged below 30 seeking psychological counselling has shown an upward trend in Hong Kong in the past three years;
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| (b) | of the percentage of young people receiving psychological treatment among people in the below-30 age group, and the percentage of such young people suffering from serious emotional or mental disorder;
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| (c) | whether the authorities have reviewed the adequacy of the private/public sector psychological counselling services available to young people in Hong Kong, and whether they have assessed if the future demand for such services will increase; if they have made such a review and assessment, of the respective results;
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| (d) | of the average waiting time for young people to receive psychological counselling services at present, and the measures in place to alleviate the shortfall of services; and
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| (e) | whether the authorities will step up publicity to encourage young people under mental stress due to work or family problems to care for their mental health and seek professional assistance?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*14. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask:(Translation)
The Information Technology for Quality Education Five-Year Strategy 1998/99 to 2002/03 ended in the last school year. The Education and Manpower Bureau has commissioned the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to conduct the Overall Study on Reviewing the Progress and Evaluating the Information Technology in Education ("ITEd") Projects 1998/2003, which aims to evaluate the effectiveness of ITEd as launched from 1998 to 2003 and chart the course for the next stage of development in the use of IT in Hong Kong's school education. According to the Fact Sheet of the Overall Study, the study is expected to be completed in December this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the expected time for the launch of a new strategy on ITEd; and
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| (b) | whether the authorities will continue to promote ITEd before the above study is completed; if they will, whether the resources to be allocated will be maintained at the existing level?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Education and Manpower
*15. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask:(Translation)
At present, it is necessary to apply for the Government's approval before felling or relocating trees on government or private land. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of applications received last year for felling or relocating trees as well as the total number of trees involved and, among these, the respective numbers of applications involving government and private land; and
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| (b) | among the above applications, the respective numbers of applications that have been approved or rejected by the authorities, as well as the respective numbers of trees involved?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*16. Hon Bernard CHAN to ask:(Translation)
It has been reported that between January and November 2003, the Independent Commission Against Corruption referred cases involving 223 government employees to the Secretary for the Civil Service and heads of government departments concerned for consideration of taking disciplinary or administrative actions. The figure represents a 57% increase over the same period in 2002, and the number of cases involving dereliction of duty or association with undesirable elements has even more than doubled. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | how the Secretary for the Civil Service and heads of government departments have followed up the above cases, and of the actions taken against the government employees concerned; and
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| (b) | of the measures in place to curb government employees' dereliction of duty or association with undesirable elements?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for the Civil Service
*17. Ir Dr Hon HO Chung-tai to ask:(Translation)
It was reported that during the trial of a magistracy case, a part-time court interpreter had arbitrarily added personal opinions and gestured to the witness in the course of interpreting the evidence given by the witness. The magistrate consequently suspended the trial and ordered a retrial on the grounds that what the interpreter did had seriously prejudiced the principle of fair trial. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the amount of public money wasted in this incident;
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| (b) | whether, upon their appointment, part-time court interpreters are provided with guidelines on their duties and responsibilities to ensure that they will truly and faithfully discharge their duties; and
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| (c) | of the mechanism the authorities have in place to monitor the performance of part-time court interpreters?
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Public Officer to reply
:Chief Secretary for Administration
*18. Hon Emily LAU to ask:
The policy of charging non-eligible persons for receiving medical attention and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases ("STD") at clinics under the Department of Health has been implemented since 1 April 2003. For example, these persons are charged $700 and $1,910 per attendance at Social Hygiene clinics and Human Immuno-deficiency Virus ("HIV") clinics respectively. As many sex workers are not Hong Kong residents and hence are non-eligible persons, there are criticisms that the policy discourages these people from seeking medical attention and treatment at such clinics. It has also been reported that there is a 30% drop in the number of samples obtained at clinics for HIV testing from April to September 2003, as compared to that for the same period in 2002. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council whether:
| (a) | they had assessed the public health implications of the fee-charging policy before its implementation; if so, the justifications for its implementation;
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| (b) | there has been a drop in attendance rates at clinics by non-eligible persons for treating STD;
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| (c) | they are aware of the concern of sex workers with regard to the fee-charging policy; if so, the measures in place to address their concern;
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| (d) | they will re-assess the public health implications of the fee-charging policy; and
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| (e) | they will lower the charges for non-eligible persons' attendance at clinics for STD; if so, by how much; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*19. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask:(Translation)
Regarding the requirement that visitors should provide their personal data before entering private residential buildings or public housing blocks, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has assessed if the practice of requiring visitors to put down their personal data including identity card numbers and/or to produce identification documents on security grounds before entering residential buildings constitutes an infringement of privacy; if it has, of the assessment results;
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| (b) | as there is no legislation requiring visitors to disclose their identity card numbers to security guards, but visitors who refuse to do so may be refused entry to the buildings concerned, whether it will consider enacting legislation to prohibit the above security measure; if not, whether the authorities have examined the effectiveness of these measures and if such measures may result in visitors' personal data being stolen for illegal purposes; and
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| (c) | whether the authorities will review the effectiveness of the current practice of recording the identity card numbers of visitors who wish to enter a public housing block, or whether they will consider taking other forms of security measures?
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Public Officer to reply
:Secretary for Home Affairs
*20. Hon Albert CHAN to ask:(Translation)
It is learnt that in recent years some people hid themselves to evade debts and their family members, having lost contact with them, reported to the Police that they were missing. Moreover, those family members who used to live with these debtors are often harassed by debt-collecting agents. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the respective numbers of people reported missing in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by gender and age groups of five years;
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| (b) | the reasons why the people mentioned in (a) above have gone missing and the estimated number among them who have hidden themselves to evade debts; and
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| (c) | the measures to ensure that family members of the missing debtors will not be harassed?
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| Public Officer to reply | : |
Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
(in the absence of Secretary for Security) |
*For written reply.
III. Motions
Proposed resolution under the Loans Ordinance
Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury to move the following motion:
RESOLVED, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 3(1) of the Loans Ordinance, that the Government be authorized to borrow, for the purposes of the Capital Works Reserve Fund established by resolutions passed under section 29 of the Public Finance Ordinance (Cap. 2), a sum or sums not exceeding in total $6,000,000,000 or equivalent by way of securitizing Government revenue receivable from the tolls on any or all of the bridges and tunnels specified in the Schedule and such other Government revenue receivable from any or all of those bridges and tunnels as specified by the Financial Secretary.
SCHEDULE
- Aberdeen Tunnel.
- Cross-Harbour Tunnel.
- Lion Rock Tunnel.
- Shing Mun Tunnels.
- Tseung Kwan O Tunnel.
- Tsing Ma Bridge.
- Ma Wan Viaduct.
- Kap Shui Mun Bridge.
IV. Members' Motions
- Policy on broadcasting
Hon SIN Chung-kai: (Translation)
That, to tie in with the introduction of Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting, this Council calls upon the Government to review the existing policy on broadcasting, affirm the importance of public broadcasting service, and establish public access television channels which may be operated by public organizations for the broadcast of programmes produced by non-profit making or non-government organizations, community groups and the public, so that the needs of the socially disadvantaged groups in the realm of information dissemination can be catered for and safeguarded, with a view to opening up opportunities for the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong.
| Amendments to Hon SIN Chung-kai's motion
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| (i) | Hon NG Leung-sing:(Translation)
To delete "affirm the importance" after "the existing policy on broadcasting," and substitute with "examine the necessity, role and mission"; to add "encourage operators to" after "of public broadcasting service, and"; to delete "which may be operated by public organizations" after "establish public access television channels"; and to delete "public" after "with a view to opening up opportunities for the" and substitute with "entire".
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| (ii) | Hon Howard YOUNG: (Translation)
To add "public," after "for the broadcast of programmes produced by"; to add "; all public channels should be monitored by a committee that has credibility, so as to prevent the broadcast of programmes which have contents that are obscene, indecent, defamatory, discriminatory, and incite social violence" after "community groups and the public"; to add "all walks of life, including" after "so that the needs of"; and to add "and the creative industry," after "the socially disadvantaged groups".
Amendment to Hon Howard YOUNG's amendment
Hon Andrew CHENG: (Translation)
To delete "all public channels should be monitored by a committee that has credibility" after "community groups and the public;" and substitute with "the public access television channels should be regulated by the Broadcasting Authority".
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Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
- Participation in public affairs by young people
Hon WONG Sing-chi: (Translation)
That, as many young people participated in the march on 1 July last year, which demonstrated their increasing concern for public and social affairs, this Council urges the Government to provide additional resources for schools and social organizations so that they have adequate funding to promote civic education, and the government departments concerned should also actively encourage young people to register as voters and exercise their civic rights in elections, as well as give strong impetus to District Councils' efforts in developing youth councils as a forum for facilitating discussion of and participation in public and social affairs by young people, thereby enhancing their sense of commitment and mission towards society, as well as helping the community in nurturing leaders.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Home Affairs
Clerk to the Legislative Council
