A 05/06-22

Legislative Council

Agenda


Wednesday 29 March 2006 at 11:00 am

I. Tabling of Papers

Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments L.N. No.
1. Hospital Authority Ordinance (Amendment of Schedules 1 and 2) Order 2006 60/2006
2. Mental Health (Declaration of Kowloon Psychiatric Observation Unit as Mental Hospital) and Declaration of Mental Hospital (Consolidation) (Amendment of Schedule) Order 2006 61/2006
3. Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules 2006 62/2006
4. Banking (Specification of Public Sector Entities in Hong Kong) (Hong Kong Trade Development Council and Ocean Park Corporation) Notice 63/2006

Other Papers

1. No.77-AIDS Trust Fund 2004-2005 Annual Accounts
together with the Director of Audit's Report
(to be presented by Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food)

2.No.78-Report by the Trustee of the Correctional Services Children's Education Trust for the period from 1 September 2004 to 31 August 2005
(to be presented by Secretary for Security)

3.No.79-Audited Statement of Accounts of the Hong Kong Rotary Club Students' Loan Fund together with the Director of Audit's Report for the year ended 31 August 2005
(to be presented by Secretary for Education and Manpower)

4.No.80-Audited Statement of Accounts of the Sing Tao Foundation Students' Loan Fund together with the Director of Audit's Report for the year ended 31 August 2005
(to be presented by Secretary for Education and Manpower)

5.No.81-Hong Kong Tourism Board
2004/2005 Annual Report
(to be presented by Secretary for Economic Development and Labour)

6.No.82-Vocational Training Council
Annual Report 2004/2005
(to be presented by Secretary for Education and Manpower)

7.No.83-Employees Retraining Board
Annual Report 2004-2005
(to be presented by Secretary for Education and Manpower)

8. Report of the Subcommittee on Waste Disposal Ordinance (Amendment of Fourth Schedule) Notice 2006 and Public Health (Animals and Birds) (Licensing of Livestock Keeping) (Amendment) Regulation 2006
(to be presented by Hon Fred LI, Chairman of the Subcommittee)

9. Report of the Bills Committee on Waste Disposal (Amendment) Bill 2005
(to be presented by Hon Audrey EU, Chairman of the Bills Committee)

II. Questions for Written Replies

1. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)

It is learnt that the utilization rates of the gas-fired generating units at the Black Point Power Station of the CLP Power Hong Kong Limited ("CLP") are on the low side due to the unstable supply of natural gas as a fuel and a lower-than-expected growth in the local demand for electricity. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
    (a) given that the CLP is drawing up a proposal to build a liquefied natural gas receiving and storage terminal for the Black Point Power Station, whether the authorities will, when vetting and approving the proposal, request the CLP to adopt measures to ensure a stable supply of natural gas, so as to avoid the new asset from being left idle; if so, of the relevant details; if not, the reasons for that; and

    (b) whether they have set up a mechanism whereby, when the supply of natural gas is stable in the future, the CLP will be restricted in the use of coal-fired units which have higher emission levels of air pollutants in generating power; if not, of the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Economic Development and Labour

2. Hon Bernard CHAN to ask:

Will the Government use the following table to provide this Council with the latest data on the number of persons paying the provisional salaries tax for the 2005/06 year of assessment?

Amount of provisional salaries tax for the 2005/06 year of assessment
(HK$) 		Number of payers of provisional salaries tax Percentage of payers of provisional salaries tax in the total work force
0

1-1,000

1,001-2,000

2,001-5,000

5,001-10,000

10,001-15,000

15,001-20,000

20,001-30,000

30,001-40,000

40,001-50,000

50,001-60,000

60,001-70,000

70,001-80,000

80,001-90,000

90,001-100,000

100,001-200,000

200,001-500,000

500,001-1,000,000

over 1,000,000



Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury

3. Hon WONG Ting-kwong to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that, in his Report on the Work of the Government, delivered at the Fourth Session of the Tenth People's Congress of the province, the Governor of Guangdong Province pointed out that Guangdong would continue to make joint efforts with the governments of Hong Kong and Macau this year to promote inward investment and present the Greater Pearl River Delta to the world through overseas visits. The investment promotional efforts would target at large enterprises in developed countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, Europe and South Korea. Regarding the cooperation plans between the governments of Guangdong Province and Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council of:
    (a) the results of the economic and trade cooperation forum in the United States and Canada jointly held for the first time by the governments of Guangdong and Hong Kong last year;

    (b) the specific arrangements for the investment promotion visits to countries and regions including the United States, Japan, Europe and South Korea this year; and

    (c) whether the governments of Guangdong and Hong Kong will draw up any long term plan to jointly promote external economic and trade cooperation; if they will, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology

4. Hon MA Lik to ask: (Translation)

Since its last meeting in November 2004, the Chief Executive's Council of International Advisers ("CECIA") established by the former Chief Executive has not held any further meeting. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) whether CECIA has ceased to operate; if so, of the reasons for that; and

    (b) if CECIA has not ceased to operate, its work since the last meeting, its future work plans, whether there are changes in its composition, and whether the authorities expect a change of the role it plays; if so, of the details?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology

5. Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG to ask: (Translation)

In connection with assessing and supporting students with dyslexia, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) as a school had refused to let a boy with dyslexia and poor academic results repeat, resulting in his parents' arranging him to attend another school to repeat his study, whether the authorities have devised an assessment mechanism based solely on the abilities of individual students with dyslexia to determine whether they should proceed to the next school level, so that they are not subject to the existing quota for repeaters applicable to all primary schools, which makes it impossible for them to repeat; if they have, of the details of the mechanism; if not, whether the authorities will consider doing so;

    (b) how it will ensure that schools will implement appropriate adaptation measures for students with dyslexia and whether parents of these students have lodged complaints with the Education and Manpower Bureau about inadequate adaptation measures; and

    (c) as the authorities require that schools having students with specific learning difficulties ("SpLD") should nominate at least one teacher to attend the course on "Understanding, assessing and teaching pupils with SpLD", of the number of schools in Hong Kong which meet this requirement?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

6. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)

Since 1 July 2002, the Government has gradually incorporated the Housing Branch ("HB") of the Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau into the structure of the Housing Department ("HD"), and the Housing Authority ("HA") has, with effect from 1 April 2003, become responsible for funding the activities undertaken by the former HB. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) of the existing permanent posts in HD with major responsibilities that were within the purview of the former HB, and the total annual payroll costs of such posts; and

    (b) given that a substantial part of HA's revenue comes from public housing tenants, whether the authorities have assessed if it is fair to require HA to bear the payroll costs of such posts?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands

7. Hon Abraham SHEK to ask: (Translation)

In April last year, the Secretary for the Civil Service advised that the Civil Service Bureau ("CSB") had put forward proposals to refine the arrangements for reimbursement of medical expenses to eligible persons (i.e. civil servants, pensioners and their eligible dependants), and consultation would be conducted with the staff side of the four central consultative councils. However, I have recently received complaints from several pensioners alleging that drugs of better efficacy were not prescribed to them when they attended the out-patient clinics of public hospitals, and thus they had to purchase these drugs from private pharmacies. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) of the results of the consultation mentioned above and whether CSB has unilaterally made the relevant decision;

    (b) whether there have been recent changes in the Hospital Authority's policy regarding the prescription of drugs for eligible persons seeking medical consultation; if so, of the details of and reasons for such changes; and

    (c) whether it has assessed if the practice of not prescribing drugs of better efficacy to eligible persons is in breach of the provisions on medical benefits in the Civil Service Regulations?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Civil Service

8. Hon LEE Wing-tat to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council, in the form of the following table, of the employment of people with disabilities in government departments and public organizations as at the end of each of the past three years?


Government departments Public organizations
Number of full-time employees Number of part-time employees Number of full-time employees Number of part-time employees
Persons with Down's syndrome



Mentally-handicapped persons



Visually-impaired persons



Hearing impaired persons



Physically disabled persons



Discharged mental patients



The chronically ill



Total number of employees with disabilities



Percentage of employees with disabilities in the total number of employees





Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Civil Service

9. Ir Dr Hon HO Chung-tai to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that because of inadequate enrolment this year, nine primary schools have been ordered by the Education and Manpower Bureau to stop taking in primary one students with effect from the coming school year. Among them, eight schools have recently completed their school improvement programmes ("SIPs"), involving a total works cost of $200 million. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) whether the authorities have, before embarking on the above SIPs, considered the problem of inadequate enrolment at the schools concerned arising from a fall in population; and

    (b) as the schools concerned have to stop taking in new students after spending a substantial amount of public money on the SIPs, whether the authorities will include new measures in their future school provision planning, so as to prevent the recurrence of similar cases?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

10. Hon LI Kwok-ying to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that fluorescer was detected in the paper napkins provided by some of the chain eateries in Taiwan last year, and the recently released findings of the quality supervision sample tests on paper tissues in the first quarter of 2006 in Guangdong Province have shown that 30% of the samples tested contained bacteria contents exceeding the prescribed standards. On the other hand, as recycled paper is made from the recycling of waste paper in assorted colours, bleaching treatment with fluorescent bleaches is therefore required. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) whether it has conducted regular sample tests on the contents of fluorescer and bacteria for various kinds of paper tissue products on the local market; if it has, of the test results and whether the scope of the sample tests covers napkins made of recycled paper, paper tissue products sold at major supermarkets, and paper tissues given away by restaurants and newspaper stands for free; if it has not, whether it will consider conducting regular sample tests annually;

    (b) as it has been reported that European and American countries have imposed restrictions on the contents of fluorescent bleaches in paper products that may come into contact with food, and Taiwan has even stipulated that transferable fluorescent substances are forbidden in paper products such as paper napkins, sanitary napkins and diapers, whether the authorities have reviewed the lack of legislation for monitoring the use of fluorescent bleaches in Hong Kong; if so, of the details and results of the review; if not, the reasons for that; and

    (c) whether it has studied the impact of fluorescer on human health, and the measures to enhance public awareness of such substances?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Economic Development and Labour

11. Dr Hon Joseph LEE Kok-long to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) of the number of elderly persons, i.e. persons aged 65 or above, in each administrative district and its percentage in the elderly population in Hong Kong, as well as the number of singleton elderly persons in each district;

    (b) whether it has identified the elderly persons who are "indigent"; if it has, of the population of such persons at present and a breakdown by districts; if not, the reasons for that; and

    (c) whether it has assessed the respective needs of the elderly in various districts for medical, health, housing and recreational and sports facilities and services, and considered formulating regional policies on services for the elderly and introducing flexible arrangements for resource deployment among districts, in order to provide cross-District services when necessary; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

12. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)

The existing Scheme of Control Agreements between the Government and each of the two power companies will expire in 2008, and the Stage II Consultation launched by the Government on the future development of the electricity market in Hong Kong will end shortly. It has been reported that the proposals put forward in the consultation paper have received negative responses from the two power companies, with one of them indicating that the consultation paper has strained its relationship with the Government. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) whether it will, after the end of the above Stage II Consultation, put forward more specific proposals and launch Stage III Consultation; if so, of the details of the work and the timetable concerned; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b) of the difficulties encountered in the authorities' negotiations with the two power companies, and whether the proposals put forward in the above consultation paper will be revised or withdrawn as a result; and

    (c) whether it has drawn up any contingency plan for the possible outcomes of the negotiations mentioned in (b) (including the failure to reach new scheme of control agreements due to a breakdown of the negotiations with the two power companies); if it has, of the details of the plan, and whether it includes the control, takeover or acquisition of the two power companies by the authorities in order to safeguard public interests; if it has not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Economic Development and Labour

13. Hon Albert CHAN to ask: (Translation)

In reply to my question at the Council meeting on 27 October 2004, the Government indicated that the Civil Aviation Department had since October 1998 implemented various flight noise mitigating measures to minimize the impact on the communities near the flight path. For example, to avoid aircraft overflying densely populated areas in the early hours, arrangements were made for flights departing Hong Kong between 11pm and 7am to use the southbound route via the West Lamma Channel as far as possible, while flights arriving in Hong Kong between midnight and 7am were directed to land from the waters southwest of the airport. However, according to the data provided by the Government in its reply to my question at the Council meeting on 2 March 2005, the problem of flight noise during the above hours had worsened in the past few years. I have learnt that up till now flight noise during the above hours still often causes nuisance to residents of many housing estates, making it difficult for them to fall asleep. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) of the figures on flight noise levels which reached 70 to 74, 75 to 79, and up to or over 80 decibels ("dB") during the above hours, as recorded by various noise monitoring stations in the past year;

    (b) of the types of aircraft the flight noise levels of which reached 80 dB or above in the past year and their operating airline companies; and

    (c) whether the existing flight noise mitigating measures will be improved to reduce the nuisance caused to residents; if so, of the details?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Economic Development and Labour

14. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that, having investigated the leak of personal data of around 20 000 people who complained against the Police, the task force of the Independent Police Complaints Council ("IPCC") has attributed the cause of the incident to negligence on the part of the outsourced contractor who uploaded the information concerned to a server for the sake of convenience, thus leading to the leak of the data. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
    (a) whether there are specific terms in the service contract between IPCC and the contractor stating the penalties to be imposed on the contractor in the event of data leak; if so, of the details of the relevant terms; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b) whether the contractor will be penalized because of the above incident; if so, of the details of the penalties; and

    (c) how IPCC will prevent the recurrence of similar incidents?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

15. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)

In reply to a question raised on 4 May last year, the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food ("SHWF") advised that the authorities had issued a letter to 369 subvented organizations in 2003 to encourage them to implement measures to promote the employment of persons with disabilities ("PWDs"), and 21 of them had set internal indicators in regard to the employment of PWDs. The SHWF also advised that ongoing efforts would be made to encourage more organizations to carry out such work. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council of:
    (a) the internal indicators set by the 21 organizations mentioned above, and the respective numbers of PWDs currently employed by them;

    (b) the current number of subvented organizations which have set the relevant internal indicators; and

    (c) the progress made in encouraging subvented organizations to employ PWDs and whether new measures have been drawn up in this respect?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

16. Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask: (Translation)

Regarding the utilization of resources by Hospital Authority ("HA"), will the Government inform this Council of the following:
    (a) at the end of each of the financial years between 2000-01 and 2006-07:

    (i) in respect of each hospital cluster, the population served, the provisions and doctors and nurses per 1 000 persons, as well as the respective numbers of beds for general, infirmary, mentally-ill and mentally-handicapped patients and the number to each type of such beds per 1 000 persons; and

    (ii) in respect of each public hospital, the amount of provisions allocated, as well as the provision for and the number of beds in each clinical department; and

    (b) the extension projects launched in individual public hospitals between the financial years 2000-01 and 2006-07; details of the additional manpower and provisions provided for these hospitals by HA upon the completion of the extension projects; and among the additional manpower of such hospitals, the respective numbers of such staff transferred from other hospitals in the same cluster and those who were/will be newly appointed, and the principles on which the relevant decisions were based?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

17. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask: (Translation)

It is learnt that in order to increase the generation of electricity for sale to the Mainland, CLP Power Hong Kong Limited ("CLP Power") has put into operation all the coal-fired generating units in the Castle Peak Power Station. Research findings have indicated that this power station is the main source of air pollutants for districts in New Territories West such as Tung Chung and Tuen Mun. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) whether it has assessed the implications, on the annual environmental costs and health care expenditure of Hong Kong, of air pollutants and greenhouse gases emitted from CLP Power's coal-fired generating units in the territory in the course of generation of electricity for sale to the Guangdong Province; if so, of the outcome of the assessment;

    (b) whether it has assessed the implications on the annual environmental costs and health care expenditure of Hong Kong if the electricity sold to the Guangdong Province is generated in the Mainland rather than in Hong Kong as is currently the case; if so, of the outcome of the assessment; and

    (c) how the statistics on residents in New Territories West who suffer from respiratory illnesses compare with those in Hong Kong as a whole?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works

18. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)

Currently, housewives are excluded from the Mandatory Provident Fund ("MPF") Scheme. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
    (a) it knows the approaches adopted by overseas countries and regions in providing livelihood protection for housewives at old age; if so, of the details; and

    (b) it will include housewives in the MPF Scheme; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

19. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask: (Translation)

In respect of my question raised on the 1st of this month concerning curbing the proliferation of Mikania micrantha, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) whether it has conducted any survey on the respective areas of land covered by Mikania micrantha within the jurisdiction of the Lands Department and the Highways Department; if it has, of the survey results; if not, whether it will do so; if it will, of the details and timetable; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b) of the number of hectares of land on which Mikania micrantha was removed by using the herbicide "Sulfometuron-methyl" last year; and

    (c) whether it has any plan to use Sulfometuron-methyl to fully replace the practice of hand-weeding for removal of Mikania micrantha in all places other than sites near water sources or active agricultural lands; if it has, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works

20. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)

Regarding poverty alleviation initiatives, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a) as the authorities intend to announce the latest information on indicators of poverty around March/April every year, of the specific date of announcement for this year and the details of the latest information; how such indicators will guide the formulation and policy planning of anti-poverty strategies, and how the authorities will, on the basis of the relevant indicators, review the effectiveness of the poverty alleviation initiatives undertaken by various government departments;

    (b) given that the authorities have indicated in the paper submitted to the Commission on Poverty in November last year that a study has been commissioned to look into income mobility in Hong Kong and the results are expected to be available in the middle of this year, of the progress and preliminary findings of the study;

    (c) whether it will consider following the successful experience of overseas countries in poverty eradication and requesting various government departments and relevant public organizations to set time-bound targets on poverty eradication (e.g. to lower unemployment and underemployment rates within one year, or to totally eradicate child poverty within three years); and

    (d) whether it will conduct a study on social alienation of the poor; if so, whether the scope of the study will cover the impact of adverse labelling on people in poverty; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Financial Secretary

III. Bills

First Reading

Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2006

Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned)

Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2006 : Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology

Second Reading (Debates to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading

1. Appropriation Bill 2006 : Financial Secretary

    (i)Proposed resolution under Rule 69(3) of the Rules of Procedure of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

    Hon James TO to move the following motion:

    RESOLVED that head 122 be reduced by $45,100,000 in respect of subhead 000.

    (ii)Proposed resolution under Rule 69(3) of the Rules of Procedure of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

    Hon James TO to move the following motion:

    RESOLVED that head 122 be reduced by $80,000,000 in respect of subhead 103.
2. Waste Disposal (Amendment) Bill 2005 : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works

IV. Motions

  1. Proposed resolution under the Hong Kong Export Credit Insurance Corporation Ordinance


    Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology to move the following motion:

    Resolved that the contingent liability of the Hong Kong Export Credit Insurance Corporation under contracts of insurance shall not at any time exceed the sum of 15,000 million dollars.

  2. Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance

    Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food to move the motion in the Appendix.

  3. Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance

    Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food to move the following motion:

    Resolved that the Waste Disposal Ordinance (Amendment of Fourth Schedule) Notice 2006, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 19 of 2006 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 8 February 2006, be amended, in section 2, by adding -

      "(2A) The Fourth Schedule is amended by adding -

      "13A. Any person who keeps poultry pursuant to a valid exemption permit issued under section 9A of the Public Health (Animals and Birds) (Licensing of Livestock Keeping) Regulation (Cap. 139 sub. leg. L).".".
Clerk to the Legislative Council