A 05/06-7

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 16 November 2005 at 11:00 am

I. Tabling of Papers

Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments	L.N. No.
Securities and Futures Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule 5) Notice 2005	197/2005

Other Papers

1. No.28	-	Report of the Director of Audit on the Accounts of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the year ended 31 March 2005
(to be presented by the President)
2. No.29	-	Report No. 45 of the Director of Audit on the results of value for money audits - October 2005
(to be presented by the President)
3. No.30	-	Accounts of the Government for the year ended 31 March 2005
(to be presented by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury)
4. No.31	-	Report on the Administration of the Immigration Service Welfare Fund prepared by the Director of Immigration Incorporated in accordance with Regulation 12(b) of the Immigration Service (Welfare Fund) Regulation
(to be presented by Secretary for Security)
5. Report of the Bills Committee on Marriage (Introduction of Civil Celebrants of Marriages and General Amendments) Bill
(to be presented by Hon Margaret NG, Chairman of the Bills Committee)

II. Questions

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

As the Hospital Authority ("HA") has implemented the Contract Medical Officers Scheme and a progressive reduction of the remuneration for new recruits year by year, there is severe disparity in remuneration among junior medical practitioners who perform the same duties but joined HA in different years. In addition, the contracts of those medical practitioners who have completed six years of training are due to expire at the end of June next year. I have learnt that quite a number of such medical practitioners intend to leave HA upon the expiry of their contracts. Coupled with the wastage of senior medical practitioners in recent years, there will thus be a succession gap and shortage in experienced medical practitioners in public hospitals. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:

(a)	the current remuneration of the above frontline medical practitioners whose contracts are about to expire and, for comparison purposes, a list of the remuneration of those who had joined HA earlier; and whether HA will renew the contracts of such medical practitioners as Resident Specialists next year; if it will, of the details of the renewal arrangements, including their rank, remuneration and fringe benefits;
(b)	as the authorities have indicated that HA is considering establishing a mechanism for converting some well-performing contract staff to permanent terms of employment, of the criteria to be adopted by HA in deciding whether or not the employment terms of a contract medical practitioner will be so converted, and when such arrangement will be implemented; and
(c)	in addition to the arrangements on employment terms, of the specific training arrangements to be made by HA to attract medical practitioners whose contracts are about to expire to continue to work and receive training in HA; the results of HA's assessment of the impact of failing to retain such medical practitioners on the future medical services of Hong Kong, and the number of HA's existing medical practitioners who are willing to renew their contracts, and the reasons for those who are not?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

2. Hon LEE Cheuk-yan to ask: (Translation)

Regarding the new round of negotiations, to be conducted under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, on the issue of market access concerning trade in services, will the Government inform this Council of the details of:

(a)	the requests tendered by Hong Kong, China ("HKC") for further liberalization in trade in services of other World Trade Organization ("WTO") Members;
(b)	the requests tendered by other Members of WTO for further liberalization in trade in services of HKC and, among such requests, of those which are not covered by the initial and revised offers submitted by HKC in April 2003 and June 2005 respectively; and
(c)	the consultation conducted before the submission of the initial and revised offers, including the parties consulted and the form of consultation; and whether it has assessed the impacts of such offers on the local economy and labour market; if so, of the outcome of the assessment?

Public Officer to reply : Financial Secretary

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

It is learnt that the Hospital Authority ("HA") has been trying out a new chip-distribution arrangement at the general out-patient clinics on Hong Kong Island since October this year. Under the new arrangement, members of the public have to collect the consultation chips on a first-come-first-served basis in the afternoon prior to the day of consultation. As the demand for general out-patient services is large, very few consultation chips are still available for distribution on the day of consultation. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:

(a)	the respective numbers of attendance quotas for the morning, afternoon and evening sessions at each of the clinics on each day of consultation, and the respective numbers of attendance quotas for the morning and afternoon sessions available for distribution on a queuing basis on each day of consultation when the new arrangement was being tried out between 4 October and 3 November this year;
(b)	whether HA has reviewed the above arrangement; if it has, of the review results, and whether it will consider reserving some consultation chips for distribution on the day of consultation for the benefit of those who need to seek consultation on that day or those who cannot spare the time to queue for collecting consultation chips on the previous afternoon; and
(c)	whether HA will gradually implement the new arrangement at clinics in other districts; if so, of the specific timetable, and whether additional resources will be allocated to improve the queuing problem with general out-patient services?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

4. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)

Regarding the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization ("the Conference") to be held in Hong Kong next month, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	as there have been criticisms that the authorities' promotional messages are over-simplified and incomprehensive, how the authorities will assist Hong Kong people in understanding the agenda items of the Conference and encourage them to discuss these issues; of the current progress of the work and the estimated total expenditure incurred in this respect;
(b)	how it will enhance its communication with local and overseas non-governmental organizations, and whether it will brief them daily during the Conference on the status of the negotiations and its position on the issues under negotiation; and
(c)	of the measures which Hong Kong, as the host of the Conference, will adopt in respect of the Conference arrangements, the appointment of Conference facilitators and the negotiations on agricultural subsidies and drug patents, to ensure that developing countries will be treated in a fair manner and their special needs given due consideration; and whether international human rights organizations will be invited to assess independently whether the consensus reached at the Conference is in violation of the principles of protection of human rights and freedoms enshrined in the international human rights treaties?

Public Officer to reply : Financial Secretary

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

At present, only public rental housing ("PRH") households with a living density higher than 5.5 square metres internal floor area ("IFA") per person will be categorized as overcrowded households, and hence eligible to apply for transfer to larger flats. However, the space allocation standard that the authorities currently adopt for new PRH tenants is a minimum area of seven square metres IFA per person. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	whether it will consider relaxing the qualifying living space density for transfer applications from less than 5.5 square metres IFA per person to seven square metres IFA per person, so as to bring it in line with the density standard adopted for new PRH tenants; if not, the justifications for that;
(b)	of the measures to enable more overcrowded households to be transferred to PRH flats in the same estates or districts, such as setting aside a number of flats in some PRH estates soon to be completed for local transfer application by the overcrowded households in the districts concerned; and
(c)	whether it will increase the annual transfer quota for overcrowded households?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands

6. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)

Regarding the Local Student Finance Scheme and the Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students, will the Government inform this Council of the following over the past five years:

(a)	whether it set upper limits and ratios for the grants, low-interest loans and non-means-tested loans for each year; if so, of the reasons and the ratios; if not, how it addressed the situation where the amounts of assistance and loans applied for exceeded the estimates;
(b)	the annual numbers of cases of repayment of low-interest loans and non-means-tested loans, the loan amounts and the amounts of interest arising from the loans involved; the respective numbers of cases where the loans amounted to $100,000 or above, $200,000 or above, and $300,000 or above made through low-interest loans or non-means-tested loans or both, and the respective loan periods, and the average and highest loan amounts in each category; and
(c)	how the study and living expenses of the applicants in the above schemes were calculated; the average amount of subsidy for study and living expenses given to each student with a breakdown by academic level and discipline (e.g. arts, science and medicine), and details and timetable of the authorities' review of the above grant and loan schemes?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

*7. Hon KWONG Chi-kin to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that Plover Cove Reservoir, the major recipient reservoir of water from Dongjian, recently experienced an unusual algal bloom which caused low oxygen levels in the water, resulting in extensive deaths of fish. The scene of dead fish all over the place arouses much concern about the water quality there. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	whether the reasons for the deterioration in water quality of the Reservoir have any connection with the Dongjian water; the types of pollutants in the water of the Reservoir and whether the existing filtering facilities of the Water Supplies Department can filter out all the pollutants;
(b)	whether the existing facilities of the filter station and the "aerated system" to be installed can eliminate all the heavy metals and organic matter contained in the water of the Reservoir; if not, whether the authorities have other measures to improve the water quality of the Reservoir; and
(c)	of the estimated expenditure on improving the water quality of the Reservoir and whether it will exceed the budget; if so, whether such over-spending will become recurrent every year?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works

*8. Hon LEUNG Kwok-hung to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government provide this Council with a breakdown, by management modes (i.e. direct in-house management and outsourced management), of the average per-square-metre rentals and percentages of rental adjustment of each of the shopping centres and carparks under the Hong Kong Housing Authority, the respective numbers of cleaning workers and security staff employed for such premises, as well as the average monthly salaries of such employees, in each of the past five years? Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands

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

It has been reported that the soil on almost 40 percent of the agricultural land in the Pearl River Delta Region in the Mainland has been contaminated by heavy metals. Thus, the vegetables from the Region for export to Hong Kong contain high levels of lead and cadmium. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

(a)	it has adopted international safety standards or formulated safety standards that are applicable to Hong Kong in order to monitor the level of heavy metal contents in vegetables imported from the Mainland; if it has, of the types of heavy metals, safety standards and the justifications for adopting the standards concerned;
(b)	the levels of heavy metal contents in various vegetables produced locally or imported from the Mainland or abroad exceeded local safety standards, and the highest, lowest and average levels of heavy metal contents in the vegetables produced in and imported from various regions, as shown in the findings of the sample tests conducted in the past year; and
(c)	it has formulated measures to reduce the import of vegetables the heavy metal contents of which are on the high side but do not exceed the safety standards, and whether it has collected analytical data on the levels of metal contents in the soil in which imported vegetables are grown, in order to reduce the risk of excessive intake of harmful substances by the public through vegetable consumption?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

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

As cycling is a form of exercise conducive to physical and mental health, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the numbers, names and routes of cycling tracks provided in the urban and country park areas respectively;
(b)	whether there is any plan to provide more cycling tracks in the above areas; if so, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	whether there is any plan to step up publicity to the public, so as to encourage them to cycle to and from their work places and take it as a form of exercise?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works

*11. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)

The Director of Audit's Report No. 37 published in October 2001 put forward a number of recommendations on the mechanised street cleansing services provided by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department ("FEHD"), which included reducing the scheduled idle time for the street washing operation. FEHD had responded that reviews and studies would be conducted on the issue. However, recently it has been reported in the press that the operation hours of some street washing vehicles are less than half of those prescribed by FEHD. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the number of spot checks carried out by FEHD on the mechanised street cleansing services each year since the publication of the above Report in 2001;
(b)	whether, in its spot checks conducted in the past year, FEHD detected any cases of cleansing staff not working according to the time schedule prescribed by FEHD; if so, of the details of the cases concerned, and the measures taken by FEHD in handling such cases; and
(c)	whether FEHD has enquired about the situation described in the above press report; if so, of the findings; if not, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

*12. Hon Albert CHAN to ask: (Translation)

Recently, I have received many complaints from members of the public that some foreign domestic helpers whose employment contracts had been terminated prematurely had stayed in Hong Kong for a long period of time on the grounds that they had disputes with their employers over the employment contracts. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:

(a)	the number of cases in which foreign domestic helpers extended their stay in Hong Kong on the above grounds in each of the past three years and the duration of their stay; and
(b)	the measures to prevent the above situation?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

*13. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)

In his Policy Address delivered last month, the Chief Executive stated that the Government would take the lead in reducing power consumption. Starting from January 2006, power consumption in all government office buildings would be reduced by 1.5% annually. Also, the authorities had issued internal guidelines last year requiring government bureaux and departments to set the temperature of the air-conditioning systems in their offices at 25.5 degree Celsius during summer, so as to reduce electricity consumption. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:

(a)

of the annual average per-square-metre amount of electricity consumed by the offices of each bureau or departments under its purview set up in government-owned premises and the expenditure on electricity, and the average temperatures set for the air-conditioning systems in these offices in summer, in each of the past three financial years; as well as the corresponding figures for offices in leased premises; and

(b)

whether they plan to extend the electricity saving programme to offices in leased premises; if not, of the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works

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

An organization recently sent four teenagers to 486 retail shops and news-stands throughout the territory to try to buy cigarettes, and the success rate was as high as 87%. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	whether, in the light of the above success rate, it has reviewed the effectiveness of the Tobacco Control Office's enforcement efforts against the sale of tobacco products by shops to persons under the age of 18 years; if so; of the result of the review; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	of the total number of complaints received by the authorities in the past three years about the sale of tobacco products by shops to persons under the age of 18 years, and the number of persons prosecuted as a result; as well as the new measures to curb this illegal activity; and
(c)	of its specific plans to prevent young people from picking up the habit of cigarette smoking?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

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

Will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the respective annual quantities of water and electricity power consumed, and the expenses thus incurred, by various Government bureaux and departments in each of the past three years; the respective percentages of recycled water and renewable power in the relevant quantities of water and electricity power consumed, and their scopes of application; and
(b)	whether it plans to increase the percentages in the use of recycled water and renewable power; if so, of the specific targets and timetables; if not, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works

*16. Hon LEE Cheuk-yan to ask:

Will the Government inform this Council of the position it will take on the following issues at the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization ("WTO") to be held in Hong Kong next month:

(a)	the requests of the G20 and other developing countries for substantial reduction in domestic support by various WTO Members and elimination of all forms of export subsidies by the developed countries on agricultural products;
(b)	limiting the rights of owners of patents on pharmaceuticals in order to ensure access by the least developed countries to affordable medicines;
(c)	establishing numerical targets and indicators on WTO Members' commitments for liberalization of services, as advocated by the developed countries; and
(d)	the deliberation that basic public services, such as water, health care and education should be regarded as "services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority"?

Public Officer to reply : Financial Secretary

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

Some Mainland dentists have recently placed in Hong Kong newspapers and magazines advertisements detailing their services and charges. However, Hong Kong dentists are not allowed to do the same. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it:

(a)	has assessed the impact of advertisements of Mainland health care services on the providers of medical services in Hong Kong; and
(b)	will discuss with the dental profession ways to further enhance the transparency of dental services and charges in Hong Kong, e.g. relaxing the restrictions on advertising in Hong Kong by local dentists; if so; of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

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

With regard to the unemployed persons aged between 14 and 30 who are receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") payments, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the number of such recipients at the end of each of the past three years, broken down by age groups each covering five years; and among these recipients, the respective percentages of those who had been receiving CSSA payments for more than one year, as well as whether it has assessed if such percentages are on the high side;
(b)	of the percentage of such recipients in the unemployed population, and how it compares to the relevant figures in developed countries; and
(c)	whether it has looked into the causes of unemployment of these persons, and of the measures in place to assist and encourage them to seek employment?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food

*19. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that a consultancy firm's has pointed out that the transparency in Hong Kong's property market is inadequate and property developers tend to exaggerate the floor areas of the properties put up for sale and vigorously create an impression that the market is in dire demand for properties. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it:

(a)	has studied and followed up the above claims; if so, of the results;
(b)	has assessed if the self-regulatory mechanism currently adopted by the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong for governing the sale of uncompleted residential properties ("URPs") by its members can ensure that the sales brochures provide comprehensive and accurate information about the properties put up for sale, such as the saleable floor areas calculated in a uniform way and the planned land uses of the adjacent sites; if so, of the assessment results; and
(c)	will re-consider regulating the sales descriptions of URPs by way of legislation; if not, of the measures it will adopt to safeguard the interests of potential buyers?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands

*20. Hon LEUNG Kwok-hung to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council of:

(a)	the number of persons from the Mainland currently serving sentences in Hong Kong, together with a breakdown by their terms of imprisonment (under two years, two to under seven years, seven to under 10 years, 10 years or longer); and
(b)	the progress and details of the discussions between the authorities in Hong Kong and the Mainland on the arrangements for the transfer of sentenced persons?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

*For written reply.

III. Bills

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

Marriage (Introduction of Civil Celebrants of Marriages and General Amendments) Bill : Secretary for Security

IV. Motions

Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance

Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works to move the following motion:

Resolved that the Construction Workers Registration (Fees) Regulation, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 166 of 2005 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 19 October 2005, be amended -

(a)	in section 9 -
	(i)	in subsection (1)(a), by repealing "on the same date" and substituting "at the same time";
	(ii)	in subsection (2)(b), by repealing "in any other case" and substituting "in the case where the fee so prescribed for each application is not of the same amount";
(b)	in section 10 -
	(i)	in subsection (1)(a), by repealing "on the same date" and substituting "at the same time";
	(ii)	in subsection (2)(b), by repealing "in any other case" and substituting "in the case where the fee so prescribed for each application is not of the same amount";
(c)	in section 11(1)(b) and (8)(b), by adding "expiry" before "date specified";
(d)	in section 13(1)(b) and (2), by adding "expiry" before "date specified".

V. Members' Motions

1. Reducing and remitting the duty on ultra low sulphur diesel
   
   Hon Miriam LAU: (Translation)
   
   That, as the persistently high oil prices and high diesel prices have significantly increased the costs of doing business, and have hit various trades and industries, especially the public transport trade and the whole transport industry, weakened the competitiveness of Hong Kong's logistics industry and seriously affected people's livelihood, this Council urges the Government to adopt effective measures to assist the transport industry in opening up new sources of income and cutting expenditure, and to actively consider reducing and remitting the duty on ultra low sulphur diesel for one year until the end of 2006, by which time the situation should be reviewed, so as to alleviate the hardship of the transport industry, relieve public transport operators' pressure to increase fare, and strengthen the position of Hong Kong's logistics industry.
   
   Amendment to motion
   Hon SIN Chung-kai: (Translation)
   
   To add "welcomes the Government's extension of the concessionary duty rate on ultra low sulphur diesel, and" after "this Council"; to delete "adopt effective measures to assist the transport industry in opening up new sources of income and cutting expenditure, and to actively consider reducing and remitting the duty on ultra low sulphur diesel for one year until the end of 2006, by which time the situation should be reviewed" after "urges the Government to" and substitute with "further adopt the following measures: (a) setting up duty-free petrol filling stations in frontier closed areas so as to relieve the burden on the cross-boundary freight transport trade; and (b) re-allowing public light bus owners to apply for subsidies to replace their diesel light buses with liquefied petroleum gas ('LPG') light buses under the LPG light bus scheme, and increasing the number of LPG filling stations so as to shorten the queuing time for refilling LPG vehicles, with a view to encouraging public light bus owners to replace their diesel light buses with LPG light buses"; to delete "of" after "so as to alleviate the hardship" and substitute with "suffered by"; and to add "due to fluctuations in oil prices" after "the transport industry".
   
   Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
   
   
2. Fair competition law
   
   Hon LEE Wing-tat: (Translation)
   
   That this Council supports the expeditious enactment of a cross-sector law on fair competition and the setting up of a fair competition commission with the powers of investigation and the privilege of confidentiality.
   
   Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Economic Development and Labour
   
   

Clerk to the Legislative Council