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A 05/06-16
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 8 February 2006 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments | L.N. No.
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| 1. | Undesirable Medical Advertisements (Amendment) Ordinance 2005 (Commencement) Notice 2006 | 16/2006
| | 2. | Employment (Increase in Penalty for Offences under Section 63C) Ordinance 2006 (Commencement) Notice | 17/2006
| | 3. | Road Traffic (Traffic Control) (Amendment) Regulation 2005 (Commencement) Notice | 18/2006
| | 4. | Waste Disposal Ordinance (Amendment of Fourth Schedule) Notice 2006 | 19/2006
| | 5. | Public Health (Animals and Birds) (Licensing of Livestock Keeping) (Amendment) Regulation 2006 | 20/2006
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Other Papers
| 1. | No.60
| - | Employees' Compensation Insurance Levies Management Board
Annual Report 2004/2005
| (to be presented by Secretary for Economic Development and Labour)
| | 2. | No.61
| - | Employees Compensation Assistance Fund Board
Annual Report 2004-2005
| (to be presented by Secretary for Economic Development and Labour)
| | 3. | No.62
| - | Occupational Deafness Compensation Board
Annual Report 2004-2005
| (to be presented by Secretary for Economic Development and Labour)
| | 4. | No.63
| - | Pneumoconiosis Compensation Fund Board
Annual Report 2004
| (to be presented by Secretary for Economic Development and Labour)
| | 5. | No.64
| - | Report by the Controller, Government Flying Service on the Administration of the Government Flying Service Welfare Fund for the year ended 31 March 2005
| (to be presented by Secretary for Security)
| | 6. | No.65
| - | Report by the Commissioner of Correctional Services of Hong Kong Incorporated on the Administration of the Correctional Services Department Welfare Fund for the year ended 31 March 2005
| | (to be presented by Secretary for Security)
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II. Questions
1. Hon Andrew CHENG to ask: (Translation)
In early December last year, some private clinics and medical centres operating as a conglomerate were found to have administered vaccines not registered in Hong Kong on people. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the Department of Health ("DH") has tracked down all the clinics and medical centres which acquired such vaccines and contacted all those who have been injected with such vaccines, and whether the DH has seized all such unused vaccines;
| | (b) | of the respective legislation or codes of practice breached by doctors of private clinics, persons-in-charge of medical centres and doctors employed by such centres for possessing or using pharmaceuticals which are not registered in Hong Kong, and the legal and professional consequences that they have to bear; whether the persons involved in the above vaccination incidents will be held liable; if so, of the details; and
| | (c) | whether it will take measures to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents; if so, of the details?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
2. Hon Howard YOUNG to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the Hong Kong Tourism Board has estimated that the number of inbound tourists will reach 27 million this year, representing an increase of 17% over last year. The rapid growth in the number of tourists leads to an increase in the demand for tour bus services. However, as the Government imposes a limit on the number of non-franchised buses ("NFBs"), tour buses are in short supply. Licence fees and rentals for tour buses have been elevated as a result of speculative activities, thereby increasing the operating costs of travel agents. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has assessed if the current number of NFBs operating tour services is sufficient to meet the future market demand; if so, of the assessment results and supporting data; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | whether it will review regularly the measures for regulating the operation of NFBs; if it will, of the next review date; as the tourism industry is dissatisfied with the authorities' stringent regulation on the operation of NFBs and restriction on the number of such buses, whether the authorities will consider conducting interim reviews on such regulation and restriction; and
| | (c) | of the measures in the short and medium terms to help the industry solve the problem of insufficient tour buses to meet the demand arising from the rapid increase in tourists?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
3. Hon Margaret NG to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the measures adopted by the Government for dealing with animal abuse, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it will consider imposing heavier fines on animal abusers to enhance the deterrent effect;
| | (b) | how it will improve the procedures adopted by law enforcement agencies for handling reports by the public on animal abuse cases, and to strengthen publicity and education among the public, especially the young people, on animal protection, so as to make them understand that they should respect life; and
| | (c) | whether it will review the existing legislation on animal protection to see if there are any outdated provisions; if so, of the specific details of the review plan?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
4. Hon Jeffrey LAM Kin-fung to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the introduction of environmentally-friendly vehicles to reduce vehicular emissions, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the results to-date of the operational tests conducted on the five electric-petroleum hybrid motor cars purchased by the Government last year; and how such vehicles compare to ordinary petroleum motor cars in terms of emissions, fuel consumption and repair and maintenance costs; and
| | (b) | whether it will consider offering tax concessions to encourage the public to switch to environmentally-friendly vehicles?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
5. Hon TAM Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
As a number of cases of abuse of elderly persons have recently come to light, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the number of cases of abuse of the elderly handled by the relevant authorities in each of the past three years and, among them, the respective percentages of cases involving psychological abuse and physical abuse; and
| | (b) | the measures to prevent abuse of the elderly and enhance protection for them?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
6. Hon Patrick LAU Sau-shing to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the Court of Final Appeal recently ruled that land in "adverse possession" in the New Territories were not affected by the New Territories Leases (Extension) Ordinance, and that for the land in the New Territories taken in possession both before and after 1997, it was not necessary to take 1997 as the commencement date in calculating the number of years of adverse possession of the land concerned. These rulings apply to the illegally occupied private or government land in the New Territories. Moreover, the New Territories Land Boundary Survey Plans currently in use by the Government were drawn up in 1904. Such plans are not only too sketchy and incomplete but are also outdated. Although the Lands Department has been updating the relevant land boundary information, the progress is too slow and hence grey areas or inaccuracies have long existed in some of the land boundaries. As a result, the locations of some of the leased land as shown in the land boundary plans do not tally with their actual locations. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | as the existing legislation provides that a piece of government land will become the occupant's property after it has been continuously occupied for 60 years, whether the authorities have assessed the number of Government land lots in the New Territories which have become the land of the relevant occupants as a result of the above provisions and rulings; of the sizes of the land involved and the amounts of revenue foregone in terms of land premium and Government rent etc, as well as the measures taken by the authorities to prevent government land in the New Territories from unauthorized occupation;
| | (b) | whether it has any policies or measures to prevent and deal with legal proceedings on ambiguous or controversial New Territories land boundaries arising from the relevant rulings; and
| | (c) | of the measures taken by the authorities to rectify the mistakes in the land boundary records, so as to avoid privately owned land lots being incorrectly shown as government land on the relevant records, thereby causing the land owners concerned to be regarded as having taken possession of government land while the private land as shown on the relevant records are left in disuse?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*7. Hon Miriam LAU to ask: (Translation)
I have noticed that the pavements along certain sections of Nathan Road are often obstructed, resulting in pedestrians having to walk on the road and competing with vehicles for road space. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective numbers of verbal warnings given and prosecutions instituted in the past three years in respect of illegal hawking, on-street promotional stands, unauthorized expansion of business areas by shops and the occupation of areas larger than permitted by newspaper stands on the pavements along Nathan Road;
| | (b) | whether it will step up the above prosecution actions to keep the pavements along Nathan Road unobstructed; and
| | (c) | of the details of the measures to be implemented by the authorities to address the problem of competition between pedestrians and vehicles for road space along Nathan Road?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*8. Hon James TIEN to ask: (Translation)
Recently, a number of juveniles were arrested allegedly for serious offences such as robbery, criminal intimidation, criminal damage and wounding, etc, with the youngest one being 11 years old only. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of juveniles arrested in each of the past three years, and the percentage of such juveniles in all the persons arrested, broken down by the category of offences allegedly committed by them;
| | (b) | whether it has looked into the causes of juvenile crime and ascertained if there is a trend of juveniles committing offences at a younger age; if it has, of the results; and
| | (c) | of the measures to curb juvenile crime?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security
*9. Hon LAU Wong-fat to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the titles, specific contents and dates of training programmes organized for District Council ("DC") members in the past three years;
| | (b) | how the authorities, in organizing the above training programmes, assess whether their contents can meet the actual operational needs of DC members, and whether the views of DC members have been sought in this regard; and
| | (c) | whether it will consider setting up a training board for DC members, with DC members included in its membership, to study the training needs of DC members, design the contents of training programmes and work out the specific implementation details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs
*10. Hon Bernard CHAN to ask: (Translation)
With respect to the price war in non-life insurance market and the action taken by the Government in this regard, will the Government inform this Council of the cause of this price war, the current situation and the details of the actions taken by the authorities in this regard, as well as the results of the preliminary assessment conducted by the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance on the impact of the price war on the relevant market?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
*11. Hon Albert Jinghan CHENG to ask: (Translation)
It was reported that, when handling a traffic accident involving a person suspected of drink-driving in January this year, the police officer at the scene did not assess the alcohol level of that person immediately by using the portable breath screening device (commonly known as "breathalysing"). The screening breath tests were conducted in a seven-seat station wagon that that person subsequently called to the scene. Although the results of the first breath test indicated that his alcohol level exceeded the prescribed limit, the police officer breathalysed that person twice again, and these test results indicated that the prescribed limit had not been exceeded. The Police did not conduct further investigation to ascertain if that person had committed the drink-driving offence. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the Police have guidelines to specify the breathalysing procedures; if so, whether the breathalysing arrangements in the above case complied with the prescribed procedures, and whether special treatment was given to the person concerned;
| | (b) | whether persons suspected of drink-driving are given the right to choose the place for breathalysing, and whether they can be breathalysed in places other than a police station or the scene of incident; and
| | (c) | how many times a person suspected of drink-driving is normally required to be breathalysed in a breath test; if more than once is required, how the Police will handle the discrepancies in the test results, and whether there are on-site testing methods which are more sophisticated than breathalysing?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*12. Ir Dr Hon HO Chung-tai to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it has assessed the position of disparity in household income and the relevant trend of the Gini Coefficients for Hong Kong in the next five years; if so, of the assessment results; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (b) | it will take measures to prevent the problem of disparity in household income from worsening?
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Public Officer to reply : Financial Secretary
*13. Hon LI Fung-ying to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that in the first 11 months of 2005, there was a substantial increase, by more than 25%, compared to the same period in 2004, in the number of cases in which the Independent Commission Against Corruption suggested that the government departments concerned should take disciplinary or administrative actions against civil servants who had been involved in corruption reports. Among such cases, those involving association with undesirable elements were particularly serious, as their number had increased substantially from 3 to 32. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective numbers of civil servants who were subject to disciplinary or administrative actions over the past three years, broken down by department and nature of case; and among such civil servants, the number of those who had lodged appeals and the results of such appeals;
| | (b) | of the details about the existing guidelines and monitoring mechanisms formulated by various government departments against civil servants associating with undesirable elements;
| | (c) | whether it has examined the reasons for the substantial increase in the number of such cases; and whether it will re-examine and assess if the existing guidelines are clear enough regarding civil servants who had operational need to associate with undesirable elements; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that and how it can prevent the unclear guidelines from imposing additional psychological burden on civil servants and affecting their performance; and
| | (d) | of the measures to prevent the continuous increase in the number of such cases?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Civil Service
*14. Hon Audrey EU to ask: (Translation)
The Government requires that, in general, non-official members appointed to any advisory or statutory bodies should not serve for more than six years in any one capacity, and a person should not serve as a member on more than six boards or committees at the same time. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of members appointed to advisory or statutory bodies since the current Chief Executive assumed office;
| | (b) | among the members mentioned in (a), whether any of them has served a term exceeding six years on a board or committee, or for more than six years in the same post of a board or committee, or has served as a member on more than six boards or committees; if so, of the names of the boards or committees and of the members concerned, their posts, the dates of their appointment and duration of their service, as well as the rationale for appointing them; and
| | (c) | of the measures to ensure that all bureaux and departments strictly meet the above requirement in the appointment of non-official members to advisory or statutory bodies?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs
*15. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the disbursement of contractual payments to contractors of information technology ("IT") projects, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the criteria adopted by government departments for deciding whether payment is to be disbursed in stages or upon completion of the entire project; differences between these two disbursement arrangements in terms of administrative procedure and the number of government departments involved; and provide a breakdown by the disbursement arrangement on the number of contracts for IT projects awarded by government departments in the past three years;
| | (b) | of the time usually taken for full settlement of contractual payments after completion of a project; and
| | (c) | whether it will draw up measures to expedite the disbursement of payments to the contractors to avoid small and medium-sized enterprises from abandoning the projects due to cash flow problems; if it will, of the details of the measures; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
*16. Hon LEUNG Kwok-hung to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the domestic rental income of the Housing Authority ("HA"), will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the domestic rental incomes generated respectively by the following building categories in each year during the period between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, as well as their respective percentages in the relevant total incomes of the years concerned:
| (i) | buildings completed before 1973;
| | (ii) | buildings completed between 1973 and 1999, together with a breakdown of such figures by geographical distribution (urban areas, extended urban areas and the New Territories); and
| | (iii) | buildings completed after 1999, together with a breakdown of such figures by geographical distribution (urban areas, extended urban areas and the New Territories); and
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| | (b) | the reasons for the increase in the total domestic rental income in 2004-05 as compared to the two preceding years; and whether HA plans to reduce or waive public housing rentals; if not, of the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
*17. Hon WONG Kwok-hing to ask: (Translation)
Regarding efforts to enhance road safety and combat red-light jumping by motorists, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the progress of the plan to install overhead traffic signals at 40 locations;
| | (b) | the progress of the feasibility study conducted on the installation of vehicular countdown or flashing green devices at traffic lights; and
| | (c) | the current percentage of prosecutions using evidence from cameras, among all red-light jumping prosecutions?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*18. Hon CHEUNG Hok-ming to ask: (Translation)
In reply to my question on the cross-boundary ferry terminal in Tuen Mun on 27 April last year, the authorities advised that they would "try to facilitate the tenant's work with a view to enabling the early commissioning of the cross-boundary ferry terminal". The target completion date originally set by the tenant for the modification works of the terminal was December 2004 and was subsequently postponed to late April 2005. Nevertheless, it has been reported that the works have not yet been completed. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the details and updated progress of the modification works undertaken by the tenant;
| | (b) | of the reasons for the Government not specifying, in the tenancy agreement signed with the tenant, the deadline for completing the works and the penalties concerned;
| | (c) | of the measures taken by the authorities to facilitate the tenant's work with a view to enabling the early commissioning of the terminal;
| | (d) | whether the authorities have set a target commissioning date for the terminal; if not, of the reasons for that; and
| | (e) | of the circumstances under which the authorities will consider putting up this project for re-tendering?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
*19. Hon TAM Heung-man to ask: (Translation)
Under the new accounting standards, government and non-profit-making bodies registered as body corporates or limited companies, such as hospitals, the Vocational Training Council, universities, school sponsoring bodies and social service agencies should, like other companies, engage valuers to make valuations every year on the property they hold, and the price changes should be included in their profits. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | as the engagement of valuers will exert financial pressure on non-profit-making bodies, whether the authorities will discuss with the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants with a view to exempting non-profit-making bodies from valuating their property, so as to alleviate their financial burdens; if they will, of the details; and
| | (b) | if the authorities will not conduct the discussion, the reasons for that and whether they will consider subsidizing the engagement of valuers by non-profit-making bodies; if not, the reasons for that and whether the authorities will assist non-profit-making bodies in avoiding the situation in which, because their shareholders or members do not make valuations in accordance with the new accounting standards due to the excessively high valuation costs, the auditors of their accounts express reservations in their reports; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
*20. Hon Abraham SHEK to ask:
A social service organization has estimated that some 2 000 children are undertaking various menial work, such as cleaning, refuse collection and scavenging in dustbins for saleable items, in dirty and even hazardous environments in order to help their families make ends meet. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it will provide subsidies to these children so as to free them from such menial work;
| | (b) | how it cares for the physical and mental health of these children;
| | (c) | as many of these children come from families receiving payments under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme, whether it will consider increasing such payments; and
| | (d) | how the Commission on Poverty will tackle this problem at the district level?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*For written reply.
III. Members' Motions
- Reports of the Subcommittee on West Kowloon Cultural District Development
Hon Alan LEONG Kah-kit: (Translation)
That this Council endorses the Phase I and Phase II Reports of the Subcommittee on West Kowloon Cultural District Development.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
- Improving the notification mechanism for contamination of potable water supply to Hong Kong and enhancing coordination in the supply of potable water to Hong Kong
Hon Albert Jinghan CHENG: (Translation)
That, as Hong Kong has to pay a high water price under the current water supply agreement between the HKSAR Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government while there is no assurance of the water quality, and many incidents of contamination of potable water have recently occurred in the Mainland, in which some local officials were even found to have hidden the truth; moreover, with the industrial and economic developments as well as the population growth in the Pearl River Delta ("PRD") region, the demand for potable water in the region has substantially increased, but the water pollution problem has worsened and led to a continuing decrease in clean and potable water; furthermore, as the existing notification mechanism for contamination of potable water supply to Hong Kong still has deficiencies, this Council urges the HKSAR Government, in discussing the finalization of the specific details of a new water supply agreement, to improve jointly with the Guangdong Provincial Government the existing notification mechanism for contamination of potable water supply to Hong Kong, including imposing a time limit for notification; and to discuss ways to enhance coordination in the supply of potable water to Hong Kong and allow flexibility in determining the supply quantity, so as to avoid drawing unneeded water when there was overflow from local reservoirs and hence resulting in wastage; in addition, if the Guangdong Provincial Government establishes a mechanism for the planning and coordination of water supply in the PRD region, the HKSAR Government should actively take part in the related work.
| Amendments to motion
| | (i) | Hon WONG Ting-kwong: (Translation)
To delete ", as Hong Kong has to pay a high water price under the current water supply agreement between the HKSAR Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government while there is no assurance of the water quality, and many incidents of contamination of potable water have recently occurred in the Mainland, in which some local officials were even found to have hidden the truth; moreover, with the industrial and economic developments as well as the population growth in the Pearl River Delta ('PRD') region, the demand for potable water in the region has substantially increased, but the water pollution problem has worsened and led to a continuing decrease in clean and potable water; furthermore, as the existing notification mechanism for contamination of potable water supply to Hong Kong still has deficiencies," after "That"; to delete "and" after "time limit for notification;" and substitute with "to formulate a contingency mechanism jointly operated by Guangdong and Hong Kong for dealing with unexpected incidents of water supply;"; and to delete "in addition, if the Guangdong Provincial Government establishes a mechanism for the planning and coordination of water supply in the PRD region, the HKSAR Government should actively take part in the related work" after "resulting in wastage;" and substitute with "and to discuss the further upgrading of the quality standard of potable water supply to Hong Kong".
| | (ii) | Hon Fred LI: (Translation)
To delete "as to" after "the supply quantity, so" and substitute with "that both sides may review the supply quantity according to needs on a monthly basis; the HKSAR Government should also examine expanding the existing reservoirs or further perfecting the interconnection of reservoirs, so as to increase the water storage capacity of local reservoirs, and should"; and to delete "and hence resulting in wastage" after "overflow from local reservoirs" and substitute with ", such course of action could not only reduce wastage but also help relieve the drought situation in Guangdong in recent years".
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Public Officer to attend : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works
- Policy on public service broadcasting
Hon Audrey EU: (Translation)
That this Council urges the Government to ensure that public service broadcasting in Hong Kong:
| (a) | respects editorial independence;
| | (b) | defends the freedom of the press and freedom of speech;
| | (c) | opens up public access channels at an early date;
| | (d) | provides diversified information; and
| | (e) | caters for the needs of the minority and the socially disadvantaged groups.
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| Amendments to motion
| | (i) | Hon SIN Chung-kai: (Translation)
To add ", in developing" after "to ensure that"; to add ", it shall" after "Hong Kong"; to delete "respects" after (a) and substitute with "respect and adhere to"; to delete "defends" after (b) and substitute with "defend"; to delete "opens" after (c) and substitute with "open"; to add ", so as to allow public participation" after "at an early date"; to delete "provides" after (d) and substitute with "provide"; to delete "and" after "diversified information;"; to delete "caters" after (e) and substitute with "cater"; and to add "; and (f) allocate adequate resources to expedite the development of digital broadcasting, so as to allow the development of public service broadcasting to sustain in an era of digital convergence" after "disadvantaged groups".
| | (ii) | Hon LI Kwok-ying: (Translation)
To add "(c) provides fair, balanced and objective public affairs programmes; (d) has the responsibility to comprehensively introduce and promote to the public the various public policies of the Government;" after "freedom of speech;"; to delete the original "(c)" and substitute with "(e)"; to delete the original "(d)" and substitute with "(f)"; and to delete the original "(e)" and substitute with "(g)".
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Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology
Clerk to the Legislative Council
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