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A 07/08-14
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 16 January 2008 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments | L.N. No.
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| Road Traffic (Driving Licences) (Amendment) Regulation 2008 | 3/2008
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Other Paper
| No.57 | - | Legal Aid Services Council
Annual Report 2006-2007
| | (to be presented by Secretary for Home Affairs)
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II. Questions
1. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the Hong Kong Monetary Authority ("HKMA")'s monitoring banks' compliance with the guideline capping the loan-to-value ratio for residential mortgage lending at 70% ("70% guideline"), i.e. the mortgage loan amount should not exceed 70% of the market value of the residential property concerned, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether exception is allowed under the 70% guideline; if so, of those persons eligible for mortgage loans with loan-to-value ratios exceeding 70% ("mortgage exceeding 70%"), illustrated with actual examples; if not, the actions HKMA will take when it is aware that someone has obtained a mortgage exceeding 70%, illustrated with actual examples;
| | (b) | given that the aim of HKMA introducing the 70% guideline is to maintain stability in the banking system by avoiding banks from being exposed to excessive risk in mortgage financing, whether senior civil servants who are granted mortgages exceeding 70% by banks are required to make declaration to the Government, in order to avoid undermining the effectiveness of the 70% guideline and prevent any conflict of interests; if declaration is not required, how HKMA ensures strict compliance with the 70% guideline by all parties concerned; and
| | (c) | how the Government has followed up cases in which senior civil servants have obtained mortgages exceeding 70%?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
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2. Hon CHAN Yuen-han to ask: (Translation)
At present, in the calculation of the amount of assistance payable to recipients under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") Scheme, the earnings from employment have to be deducted, but a maximum of $2,500 of earnings can be disregarded each month. Such an arrangement aims at encouraging CSSA recipients to find and remain in employment. However, quite a number of CSSA recipients have relayed to me that the current arrangement often makes them "work more but earn less" because their earnings from employment, after deducting the employment-related expenses, are more or less the same as the amount of CSSA payments deducted. Earlier, a young man on CSSA had been found to have earnings from employment and was therefore required by the Social Welfare Department ("SWD") to return the overpaid CSSA. It was suspected that his failure to cope with the pressure of livelihood had led to his committing suicide subsequently. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | in each of the past three years, of the number of CSSA cases in which disregarded earnings ("DE") were allowed and the average amount of DE, the number of cases in which DE was the maximum allowable amount of $2,500 per month, and the number of cases in which DE had been allowed and the recipients left the CSSA net subsequently;
| | (b) | whether SWD has conducted regular home visits with regard to each CSSA case to understand in depth the needs and difficulties of the recipients' daily lives; and
| | (c) | whether it will review the effectiveness of the DE arrangement and reconsider revising its details, so that the CSSA recipients who secure employment again can actually be financially better off, thereby achieving the aim of encouraging CSSA recipients to find employment?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Labour and Welfare
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3. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)
Recently, some members of the public have reflected to me that on the polling day of the District Council election on 18 November last year, some people who claimed to be from a certain policy research centre conducted an exit poll outside the exits of polling stations, enquiring electors who had cast their votes about their voting preferences. These people claimed that they had been commissioned by the Government to conduct the poll. Some of them even entered the polling stations to conduct the poll. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council whether:
| (a) | they have commissioned any policy research centre to conduct any exit poll; if so, of the details and the reasons for that, and when the results of the exit poll will be released;
| | (b) | they have permitted any institution to conduct any exit poll inside polling stations; if so, of the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | measures are in place to monitor if institutions conducting exit polls have released the information obtained from the polls to outsiders, or used such information to assist certain candidates in canvassing votes more effectively during the election?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
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4. Hon Albert Jinghan CHENG to ask: (Translation)
In Hong Kong in recent years, franchised buses were involved in a number of traffic accidents and it is often heard that the vehicle bodies of the double-decked buses involved in the accidents were severely damaged after colliding with other vehicles, and passengers on the upper deck who were thrown out of the buses were injured or died. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | apart from stipulating the design and construction requirements of franchised buses in the Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations, whether the Government has prescribed other requirements in respect of the vehicle bodies of buses (such as the materials used, structural safety and impact resistance, etc.); if so, of the details;
| | (b) | whether there is a requirement that for the new buses purchased by the various franchised bus companies in Hong Kong, all the body components assembled in Hong Kong must be produced by the original manufacturers; if there is no such requirement, whether it has assessed if using components not produced by the original manufacturers will weaken the impact resistance of the vehicle bodies of buses; if such an assessment has been made, of the results; and
| | (c) | following the occurrence of a number of the above accidents, whether the Government has reviewed the structural safety standard prescribed for the vehicle bodies of franchised buses; if so, of the results; if not, the reasons for that?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Transport and Housing
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5. Hon James TIEN to ask: (Translation)
There have been public comments that the current penalties and sentences for dangerous driving are too lenient, and this is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to curb the offence. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of a breakdown, by the class of the vehicles involved, of the number of prosecutions instituted in relation to dangerous driving in the past three years, and how the penalties imposed by the court on the persons convicted compare with the maximum penalties for the offence;
| | (b) | whether it has looked into the reasons why drivers of public transport vehicles drove dangerously, and how these reasons differ from those for drivers of private cars who committed the same offence; and
| | (c) | whether it has studied if there are any measures that can more effectively curb the act of dangerous driving, such as in appropriate cases, seeking the promulgation of a sentencing guideline by the Court of Appeal; if it has, of the details of such measures?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Transport and Housing
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6. Hon TAM Heung-man to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the impact of the sub-prime mortgage problem in the United States on Hong Kong's economy, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has made use of data to monitor if currently there is a considerable outflow of funds from Hong Kong's economy or a risk of hot money attacking the linked exchange rate because of the sub-prime mortgage problem, and whether the Government has formulated relevant contingency measures;
| | (b) | of the Government's estimated impact of the sub-prime mortgage problem on Hong Kong's export trade and exports of services, and whether the Government has formulated relevant contingency measures; and
| | (c) | whether it has assessed the possibility of stagflation (i.e. concurrent emergence of economic slowdown and high inflation) in Hong Kong under the impact of the sub-prime mortgage problem and other external economic factors as well as the emergence of negative real interest rates in Hong Kong; if it has, of the assessment results and what relevant alert measures the Government has put in place?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
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*7. Hon KWONG Chi-kin to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | among the new cases received by occupational health clinics, of the respective numbers of cases confirmed and not confirmed as occupational diseases in each of the past five years, the age distribution of the patients concerned as well as the trades they were engaged in, broken down by the type of occupational disease (including silicosis, tenosynovitis of hand or forearm, occupational deafness, tuberculosis, occupational dermatitis, asbestosis, compressed air illness, gas poisoning and others);
| | (b) | of the percentage of the confirmed cases in (a) in the total number of confirmed occupational disease cases in Hong Kong in the same year;
| | (c) | of the current waiting time for the new cases of the above clinics; the average waiting time for patients suspected to be suffering from occupational diseases to receive necessary treatment after their first attendance, and the average time for them to recover after receiving treatment;
| | (d) | how the current number of patients, the current number of new and old cases as well as the current workload of each doctor (e.g. the number of patients required to be treated per hour) of the above clinics compare with those of the orthopaedic and thoracic out-patient clinics of the Hospital Authority;
| | (e) | of the criteria adopted by doctors at occupational health clinics for diagnosing whether a patient is suffering from occupational disease, and whether such criteria are consistent with those adopted by other medical institutions;
| | (f) | whether occupational disease cases confirmed by specialists at public hospitals must eventually be referred to and verified by occupational health clinics; and
| | (g) | whether, in the past three years, there were occupational disease cases confirmed by occupational health clinics in which the employers or insurance companies concerned had objected to or challenged the diagnoses concerned (including bringing the cases to the court for its ruling); if there were such cases, of the number of cases involved and whether, when such type of cases was brought to the court for its ruling, the attending doctors of occupational health clinics had responsibility for explaining the diagnosis results in court for the patients?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Labour and Welfare
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*8. Hon TAM Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
Given that recently, politically exposed persons have successively received intimidation letters, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the number of relevant reports received by the Police in each of the past three years, the respective numbers of government officials and Members of the Legislative Council involved in these reports, and the number of cases detected; and
| | (b) | the measures to expedite the detection of such cases in order to uphold the rule of law?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Security
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*9. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
A member of the public has approached me for assistance, saying that he had suffered losses earlier due to the bursting of communal flushing water pipes in his public rental housing ("PRH") unit. When he claimed compensation from the Hong Kong Housing Authority ("HA"), the HA's representative indicated that under clause IV(4) of the Tenancy Agreement for his PRH unit, "the landlord shall not be under any liability whatsoever to the Tenant or any member of the Tenant's family or any servant or licensee of his in respect of any damage sustained to the person or property of the Tenant or such other person caused by or through or in any way due to the overflow of water or drainage from any part of the building of which the said flat forms part." Therefore, "HA does not have any contractual liabilities in the incident". In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of tenants' claims received by HA in the past three years and the relevant amount of claims, broken down by the nature of the cases (including losses arising from the bursting of flushing water pipes, fire and Police investigation, etc.) and age of the PRH building concerned (less than 10 years, 10 to 20 years, 21 to 30 years and 31 years or above);
| | (b) | among the cases in (a), whether HA had accepted the claims concerned and awarded compensation; if it had, of the number of such cases and the ultimate amount of compensation awarded in each case; and whether the tenants concerned had lodged appeals against HA's decisions; if they had, of the number of appeals and among them, the number of those allowed; and
| | (c) | apart from the above clause, whether there are other similar exemption clauses in HA's Tenancy Agreements or the laws of Hong Kong?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Transport and Housing
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*10. Dr Hon YEUNG Sum to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | each year from 2005 to the first 10 months of 2007, of the number of unauthorized building works ("UBWs") newly erected, and the number of new UBWs among the UBWs removed;
| | (b) | among the cases in which removal orders were issued during the above period, of the number of cases each year in which the owners concerned removed the UBWs in question on their own before the specified deadlines; regarding the cases of non-compliance of the removal orders, of the respective numbers of cases in which prosecution or no prosecution has been brought against the owners concerned, and the number of convicted cases and the penalties imposed;
| | (c) | among the cases in which warning notices were issued during the above period, of the respective numbers of cases each year in which the owners concerned removed the UBWs in question on their own before the specified deadlines and those cases in which the Buildings Department ("BD") registered the warning notices against the title of the subject premises in the Land Registry ("LR"), and the current number of the latter cases; and
| | (d) | given that currently, members of the public are not able to check, free of charge, from LR's web page if there is a record of the above registration of a warning notice against the title of a particular premises or unit, whether the authorities will consider providing such additional service to allow members of the public to check from that web page, free of charge, such records and the list of the 1 000 target buildings identified for BD's annual large-scale operation to remove UBWs?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Development
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*11. Hon LI Fung-ying to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the Ambulancemen Grade and the Fire Services Communications Centre of the Fire Services Department are both experiencing the problem of manpower shortage. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective numbers of staff who departed and who newly joined the above Communications Centre in the past three years, broken down by rank;
| | (b) | focusing on the current problem of manpower shortage, how the authorities make appropriate arrangements for mobilizing emergency ambulances; and
| | (c) | whether, in view of the above problem of manpower shortage, the authorities have taken measures to retain staff; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Security
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*12. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)
In view of the media reports about the detection of veterinary drug residues in canned pork by the authorities in Singapore, the Centre for Food Safety ("CFS") has recently taken 19 samples of canned pork products for testing and found a trace amount of nitrofuran metabolite in two of them. Moreover, the State General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has detected the presence of potassium bromate in a potato chip product, which is available for sale in Hong Kong, but the local agent concerned has not recalled the product. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the criteria adopted for determining whether food products can contain a certain chemical substance;
| | (b) | whether the sale of food products containing nitrofuran metabolite or potassium bromate at present constitutes a breach of the legislation; if not, whether the authorities will amend the legislation to prohibit the sale of food products containing such substances;
| | (c) | whether it has approached the authorities in Singapore for the test results mentioned above; if so, whether it has examined why CFS has detected the presence of nitrofuran metabolite in two samples only; if it has not sought the test results, of the reasons for that; and
| | (d) | given that the aforesaid agent has not voluntarily recalled the problem food product, and the legislation mandating food businesses to recall problem food has yet to be introduced, how the authorities currently assist the public in deciding whether or not to consume the problem food products they have bought?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Food and Health
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*13. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that following an incident in which a person was bitten by stray dogs in Ma Tin Pok Village of Yuen Long at the end of December 2007, staff of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department ("AFCD") caught and detained 16 stray dogs including new-born puppies in the vicinity. I have learnt that some villagers pointed out that those stray dogs ("construction site dogs") were abandoned by a construction site nearby upon completion of works. Since the incident, various animal protection organizations in the community had contacted AFCD to indicate their willingness to adopt these dogs, but AFCD rejected their requests. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the above 16 stray dogs have been or will be euthanized; if not, of their current health conditions, and whether adoption will be arranged for them;
| | (b) | why AFCD rejected the animal protection organizations' adoption requests; and whether the department has formulated any internal guidelines on handling stray dogs caught; if it has, whether its rejection of the adoption requests is in compliance with such internal guidelines; if it is in compliance, of the details of the guidelines; if it is not in compliance, the reasons for not acting according to the internal guidelines; and
| | (c) | focusing on the problem of construction site dogs, of the number of construction site inspections conducted by the authorities last year; the number of non-compliance cases (including failure to have the dogs licensed, or failure to cause the dogs to be vaccinated against Rabies and micro-chipped, etc.) found during those inspections, the respective numbers of verbal warnings issued, prosecutions instituted and convictions, as well as the penalties imposed?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Food and Health
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*14. Hon LEE Wing-tat to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the removal of unauthorized building works ("UBWs"), will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | among some 520 000 UBWs at present, of the respective numbers of new UBWs, UBWs constituting obvious danger to life or property, UBWs constituting a serious health hazard or environmental nuisance and UBWs which do not belong to the category of priority removal, and the districts in which the various types of UBWs are mainly located;
| | (b) | whether it will consider allocating additional resources to remove more UBWs each year, with a view to removing within five years all UBWs with high priority for removal;
| | (c) | given that the Government has already outsourced the inspection and administrative work of large-scale clearance operations, whether the Government has assessed the effectiveness of outsourcing the above work in enhancing the enforcement actions against UBWs, and whether it will consider outsourcing more of such work, so as to further expedite the progress of removing UBWs;
| | (d) | whether, in the past five years, the authorities had assisted owners' corporations ("OCs") in exercising the powers conferred by law to remove by OCs UBWs found in their buildings, and then recover the costs so incurred as civil debts from the owners concerned; if so, of the number of such cases and the results of debt recovery; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (e) | whether the Buildings Department ("BD") will make a performance pledge that it will, within specified periods, categorize the UBWs cases reported to BD by OCs, issue removal orders in respect of UBWs with high priority for removal, and issue warning notices in respect of other UBWs as well as register such notices against the title of the subject premises in the Land Registry?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Development
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*15. Hon TSANG Yok-sing to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that electric vehicles are now quite common in overseas countries, and such vehicles are expected to become popular in the next five to 10 years. Yet, people from the automobile industry have pointed out that the government policies and measures for promoting electric vehicles are inadequate, and even hinder the popularization of such vehicles. As a result, electric vehicles produced in Hong Kong can only be sold to Europe but not in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of its existing policies and measures for promoting the use of electric vehicles;
| | (b) | whether it has plans to enhance the relevant policies and measures so that more people would switch to using electric vehicles, thereby reducing air pollution; if it has such plans, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | whether it will consider the trade's suggestions of drawing up relevant specifications for electric vehicles so that such vehicles are allowed to run on expressways, and award sites at nil land premium, with reference to the existing arrangement for dedicated liquefied petroleum gas filling stations, for building charging stations for electric vehicles?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Transport and Housing
(in the absence of Secretary for the Environment)
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*16. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)
To facilitate expeditious and cost-effective provision of Wi-Fi service in public places, the Government has made available government properties and facilities in public streets, such as lamp posts and road bridges/footbridges, at nominal rental to authorized service providers for the installation of Wi-Fi antennas. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of providers who have submitted applications for the installation of Wi-Fi antennas on lamp posts and the total number of lamp posts involved; and
| | (b) | whether it has drawn up measures to ensure that the relevant government departments, such as the Transport Department, and the power companies will actively facilitate the installation works of the service providers; if it has, of the details of such measures; if not, the reasons for that?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development
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*17. Hon LEE Wing-tat to ask: (Translation)
Recently, the Public Policy Research Institute ("the Institute") of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University commissioned by the Home Affairs Bureau to conduct a telephone poll on West Kowloon Cultural District was alleged to have deviated from the professional guidelines when conducting the poll. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of opinion surveys, commissioned by the Home Affairs Bureau in the past two years, for carrying out by civil organizations, together with a breakdown by the organizations commissioned;
| | (b) | whether another organization will be commissioned to conduct the above poll afresh; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (c) | whether it will suspend commissioning the Institute to conduct other opinion surveys; if so, when the suspension will end; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (d) | whether the chance for the Institute to be awarded government contracts to conduct opinion surveys in the future will be affected when it is proven that the Institute has deviated from the professional guidelines; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Home Affairs
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*18. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)
I have received a complaint from a member of the public that his application for using his smart identity ("ID") card for public library services was unsuccessful because the information stored in his smart ID card could not be retrieved. The library staff told him that there had been similar cases in the past and the problem might be related to the fact that the surface of the chip in the ID card had oxidized. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of reports received each year by the Government about failure to retrieve information from smart ID cards since their introduction in June 2003; whether it has looked into the causes of such failure, and its impact on the verification of the identity of members of the public (for example, using the e-channels for immigration control) by law enforcement agencies;
| | (b) | of the durability requirements for the smart ID cards which were specified in the contract awarded by the Government for the supply of such ID cards, whether it has assessed if the aforesaid oxidization reflects the failure of the ID cards concerned to meet the specified durability requirements; if the assessment result is in the affirmative, of the remedial measures; and
| | (c) | how the authorities will deal with cases involving failure to retrieve information from smart ID cards, and whether they will replace ID cards for the cardholders concerned free of charge?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Security
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*19. Hon Daniel LAM Wai-keung to ask: (Translation)
The statutory no smoking areas have been expanded since 1 January 2007. Yet, quite a number of members of the public have reflected to me that they frequently see people smoking in parks which have been designated as no smoking areas (especially in the early hours of the morning and at night), and such acts cause nuisance to other park users. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of persons prosecuted for smoking in statutory no smoking areas since 1 January 2007;
| | (b) | given that some members of the public continue to smoke in no smoking areas in defiance of the smoking ban, whether the Government plans to increase the manpower of the Tobacco Control Office of the Department of Health to step up law enforcement; and
| | (c) | given that some parks are currently manned by the management staff of the service contractors only in the afternoon and as a result, the situation of illegal smoking in these parks is very serious in the early hours of the morning, and it is forecast that a huge fiscal surplus will be recorded in the current financial year, whether the Government plans to deploy management staff to man these parks round the clock?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Food and Health
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*20. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)
The Housing Authority decided in June 2003 that new public rental housing ("PRH") units would no longer be provided with metal gates. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the names of the completed PRH estates the units in which have not been provided with metal gates;
| | (b) | in respect of the estates referred to in (a), of the types of design to which their housing blocks belong, the number of units in each block, and the total number of units which have been allocated to tenants; and
| | (c) | of the names of PRH estates currently under construction and the number of housing blocks involved, the number of units in each block, as well as the respective estimated costs to be incurred by the Housing Department if all units are provided with collapsible or sliding stainless steel gates?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Transport and Housing
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*For written reply.
III. Bills
First Reading
Munsang College and Heep Yunn School (Change of Corporate Names and General Amendments) Bill 2008
| Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned)
| | Munsang College and Heep Yunn School (Change of Corporate Names and General Amendments) Bill 2008 | : | Secretary for Education
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IV. Members' Motions
- Coping with inflation
Dr Hon YEUNG Sum: (Translation)
That, as the inflation cycle has returned recently, quite a number of public transport operators and public utilities have applied for increase in fares or charges, and the prices for food and oil supplies continue to rise, thus aggravating the burden on the public, this Council urges the Government to adopt measures to cope with inflation so as to alleviate the pressure of livelihood on the public; such measures should include:
| (a) | assessing the public's affordability when considering applications for fare increase by public transport operators;
| | (b) | lowering the rates of permitted return of the two power companies to single digit so as to reduce electricity charges when formulating the new Scheme of Control Agreements;
| | (c) | discussing with the Mainland authorities to further open up the livestock market in order to protect the interests of Hong Kong consumers, and requesting the major food suppliers to ensure the supply of major food items and foodstuffs from the Mainland so as to prevent the prices of food items from increasing heftily due to insufficient supply; and
| | (d) | increasing the amount of Old Age Allowance to prevent the quality of life of the elderly from declining.
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Amendments to motion
| (i) | Hon Frederick FUNG: (Translation)
To delete "as" after "That," and substitute with "the problem of disparity between the rich and the poor in Hong Kong continues to worsen, wages of the grassroots have not increased and"; to add "waiving the rates and Government rent for the whole of the next financial year, subject to a ceiling of $5,000 per quarter per household; (b) waiving the rent of public rental housing for one to two months; (c)" after "(a)"; to delete the original "(b)" and substitute with "(d)"; to delete the original "(c)" and substitute with "(e)"; and to delete "and (d)" after "from increasing heftily due to insufficient supply;" and substitute with "(f) adopting the method whereby the rates of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance payments are determined on the basis of the inflation forecast, and shortening the adjustment cycle; and (g)".
| | (ii) | Hon Tommy CHEUNG: (Translation)
To delete "the inflation cycle has returned recently," after "That, as"; to add "recently" after "public utilities have"; to delete "and oil supplies continue to rise, thus aggravating" after "the prices for food" and substitute with "including flour, meat and edible oil, etc, have also risen sharply, which will definitely push up inflation and aggravate"; to delete "to" after "this Council urges the Government" and substitute with ", in anticipation of recording a substantial surplus, to expeditiously"; to delete "lowering the rates of permitted return of the two power companies to single digit so as to reduce electricity charges when formulating" after "(b)" and substitute with "the Government having to effectively monitor the two power companies to ensure that they will implement the reduction in their rates of permitted return, although such rates have been lowered to single digit in"; to delete "further open up the" after "the Mainland authorities to" and substitute with "abolish the quota system for supplying livestock to Hong Kong and freely determine the import volume according to market supply and demand, expeditiously providing additional support facilities such as lairages in slaughterhouses, etc, to ensure the further opening up of Hong Kong's"; to delete "and foodstuffs" after "the supply of major food items" and substitute with ", foodstuffs and key ingredients, including grain flour, for the manufacture of food"; to delete "and" after "increasing heftily due to insufficient supply;"; and to add "; and (e) conducting a comprehensive review of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ('CSSA') system, including reviewing the period of conducting regular reviews and the weightings of individual consumption items in the Social Security Assistance Index of Prices, so as to assist CSSA families in coping with the impact brought about by inflation" immediately before the full stop.
| | (iii) | Hon CHAN Kam-lam: (Translation)
To delete "as" after "That," and substitute with "although Hong Kong's economy continues to recover, the public at large still cannot fully benefit, moreover,"; to delete "recently" after "the inflation cycle has returned"; to delete "and" after "for increase in fares or charges,"; to add "also" after "food and oil supplies"; to delete "public" after "the burden on the" and substitute with "livelihood of the public; in this connection"; to delete "lowering the rates of permitted return of" after "(b)" and substitute with "reducing the electricity charges chargable by"; to delete "to single digit so as to reduce electricity charges when formulating" after "the two power companies" and substitute with "immediately after"; to add "take effect" after "the new Scheme of Control Agreements"; to delete "and" after "increasing heftily due to insufficient supply;"; and to add "waiving the rates for one year, subject to a ceiling of $5,000 per quarter; (e) freezing various Government fees and charges which affect people's livelihood; (f) actively studying various measures to reduce the tolls of the Eastern Harbour Crossing, Western Harbour Crossing and Route 3 (Country Park Section), including buying them out or extending their franchise periods; (g) providing two additional months of Social Security Allowance and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance payments; and (h)" after "(d)".
| | (iv) | Hon CHAN Yuen-han: (Translation)
To delete ", as" after "That"; to add "using the fiscal surplus to waive the fees and charges for public facilities and services provided by the Government; (c) drawing up a new water supply agreement with the Guangdong Province with payment based on the supply quantity, so as to lower the water charges payable by the public; (d)" after "(b)"; to delete the original "(c)" and substitute with "(e) enhancing competition among oil companies in Hong Kong, and waiving the levy on processed oil when oil prices are persistently high so as to stablize oil prices; (f)"; to delete "to further open up" after "discussing with the Mainland authorities" and substitute with "not to impose export quotas on food and foodstuffs exported to Hong Kong, and requesting to further open up"; to delete "protect the interests of Hong Kong consumers, and requesting the major food suppliers to" after "the livestock market in order to"; to delete the original "(d)" and substitute with "(g)"; and to add "and providing living supplement to the poor elders not on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance in order" after "the amount of Old Age Allowance".
| | (v) | Hon Emily LAU: (Translation)
To delete "and" after "increase in fares or charges,"; to add "and the cost of living is sky-rocketing" after "food and oil supplies continue to rise"; to delete "and" after "increasing heftily due to insufficient supply;"; and to delete "Old Age Allowance to prevent the quality of life of the elderly from declining" and substitute with "Normal Old Age Allowance (OAA) and Higher OAA to $1,000 per month, and relaxing the asset limit of OAA recipients aged 65 to 69 to $200,000, so as to improve the livelihood of the poor elders; (e) waiving the rents payable by public rental housing tenants for three months and the rates for the 2008-2009 financial year, subject to a ceiling of $5,000 per household, so as to alleviate the increasing financial burden on the grassroots; (f) providing transport subsidy for the working poor living in remote areas with a view to improving the livelihood of the working poor and people with low income; and (g) offering public transport half-fare concessions to people with disabilities, or providing them with transport subsidy, and improving facilities in order to reduce the barriers to the disabled" immediately before the full stop.
| | (vi) | Hon LEE Cheuk-yan: (Translation)
To add ", and discussing with the MTR Corporation to offer fare concessions for rides on all its lines to full-time students aged above 12" after "fare increase by public transport operators".
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| Public Officer to attend | : | Financial Secretary
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- Protecting the rights and interests of animals
Hon Albert HO: (Translation)
That, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Bill 2006 was passed by this Council last year to increase the penalty for cruelty to animals, yet incidents of animal cruelty still continue to occur; in order to protect the rights and interests of animals, this Council urges the Government to adopt various measures to ensure that animals are protected under the law; the relevant measures should include:
| (a) | comprehensively reviewing and amending the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance, including reviewing the definition of cruelty to animals and making abandonment of animals an offence of animal cruelty;
| | (b) | improving the licensing and regulatory system for the sale and breeding of pets and consulting the public before amending the Public Health (Animals and Birds) Ordinance and the relevant regulations, extending the animal registration system to cover cats and other kinds of animals that are commonly kept as pets, improving the licensing and regulatory system for pet shops and breeding farms, introducing legislation to regulate the sources of animals for sale in pet shops, requiring that all such animals should come from licensed breeding farms, and stepping up enforcement actions against unlicensed breeding, so as to stop the entry of animals from unknown sources into the pet market;
| | (c) | enhancing the transparency of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department in its handling of stray dogs and cats, treating the animals kindly, abandoning the "Trap-and-Kill" method, cooperating with community organizations in jointly promoting the "Trap-Neuter-Return" programme, and using humane means to deal with the problem of stray dogs and cats, with a view to reducing their number in the community;
| | (d) | requiring law enforcement officers to actively handle the reports on cruelty to animals from the public, considering drawing on overseas experience to set up "animal police" teams specially tasked to investigate cases of animal cruelty and abandonment, and rigorously enforcing the law to curb the situation of animal cruelty and abandonment from becoming prevalent; and
| | (e) | studying the provision of places at suitable locations for animals to move around, including providing more parks and leisure venues which are accessible to dogs and cats.
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Amendments to motion
| (i) | Hon WONG Kwok-hing: (Translation)
To add "although" after "That,"; to delete "yet" after "to increase the penalty for cruelty to animals,"; to delete "and" after "becoming prevalent;"; and to add "; (f) actively identifying suitable locations for the provision of public toilets for dogs, so as to make available suitable places for dogs to toilet and improve the environmental hygiene of streets; and (g) actively identifying suitable locations for placing dog excreta collection bins in areas or streets where public toilets for dogs cannot be provided, and increasing the frequency of cleaning and washing to improve environmental hygiene" immediately before the full stop.
| | (ii) | Hon Audrey EU: (Translation)
To add "as" after "That,"; to delete "last year" after "passed by this Council"; to delete "and" after "becoming prevalent;"; and to add "; (f) regulating by licensing hospice service for animals; and (g) improving the situation of fragmentation of responsibilities in dealing with the rights and interests of animals, and clearly designating a responsible department to avoid confusion over the implementation of policies" immediately before the full stop.
| | (iii) | Hon CHOY So-yuk: (Translation)
To add "as quite a number of people in Hong Kong are concerned about incidents of animal cruelty in recent years, which have aroused discussions in the community and this Council about protecting the rights and interests of animals, the Government had also introduced" after "That,"; to add ", which" after "the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Bill 2006"; to add "," after "this Council last year"; to add "and, on the premise of respecting animals' right to live, appropriately address the problem of stray animals and reduce their numbers, educate the public to be responsible pet owners, face up to and actively handle reports on cruelty to animals, and strictly penalize the perpetrators" after "animals are protected under the law"; to add "advising pet shops and private/domestic pet breeders that when selling pets to prospective pet keepers, the former should follow the practice of animal groups in dog adoption by confirming that the deeds of mutual covenant of the buildings where the dog keepers live state that the keeping of dogs is not objected to, so as to reduce the chance of the dogs concerned being abandoned in the future; (d)" after "(c)"; to delete the original "(d)" and substitute with "(e) further educating the public on the concept of animal care and responsible pet ownership, and providing incentives to encourage people to arrange their pets to undergo sterilization and regular physical examinations; (f) ensuring that all dogs are implanted with microchips to fully implement the existing statutory requirements, thereby enabling the relevant authorities to track down the owners of the abandoned dogs according to the stored information and enforcing the penalties; (g)"; and to delete "and (e)" after "becoming prevalent;" and substitute with "(h) further educating the public to, before proceeding to keep dogs, carefully consider and ascertain that the deeds of mutual covenant of the buildings where they live state that the keeping of dogs is not objected to and to truly behave as responsible pet owners, so as to reduce the chance of the dogs concerned being abandoned in the future; and (i)".
| | (iv) | Hon Mrs Selina CHOW: (Translation)
To delete "enforcement actions against" after "stepping up" and substitute with "publicity and education to crack down on"; to add "step up law enforcement actions and" after "law enforcement officers to"; to add "additional" after "studying the provision of"; and to add ", and studying whether it is possible to appropriately relax the ban on dog keeping in public housing estates" immediately before the full stop.
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| Public Officer to attend | : | Secretary for Food and Health
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Clerk to the Legislative Council
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