A 07/08-19

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 27 February 2008 at 11:00 am

I. Tabling of Papers

1.	No.73	-	Education Scholarships Fund Audited Statement of Accounts together with the Auditor's Report and Trustee's Report on Administration of the Fund for the year ending 31 August 2007
(to be presented by Secretary for Education)
2.	No.74	-	Estimates for the year ending 31 March 2009 Volume IA - General Revenue Account Volume IB - General Revenue Account
(to be presented by the Financial Secretary)
3.	No.75	-	Estimates for the year ending 31 March 2009 Volume II - Fund Accounts
(to be presented by the Financial Secretary)

II. Questions for Written Replies

1. Hon Andrew CHENG to ask: (Translation)

Since 22 August 2004, the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation had, in collaboration with the New World First Bus Services Limited ("NWFB"), implemented a concessionary interchange scheme whereby West Rail passengers could enjoy free rides on Routes 701 and 702 of NWFB at Nam Cheong Station. However, the above scheme was discontinued upon the rail merger on 2 December 2007. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	whether it knows the daily average number of trips made by passengers who benefited from the above concessionary interchange scheme during its implementation, broken down according to the following table - Year Daily average number of trips made by passengers who benefited from the interchange concessions Route 701 Route 702 Mondays to Saturdays General holidays (including Sundays) Mondays to Saturdays General holidays (including Sundays) 2004 (from 22 August onwards) 2005 2006 2007 (up to 1 December)
(b)	whether the Government was informed, when discussing the merger with the two railway corporations, that the MTR Corporation Limited ("MTRCL") would not extend the above concessionary interchange scheme after the rail merger; if so, of the details; and
(c)	whether the Government will consider persuading MTRCL to resume the above concessionary interchange scheme; if so, of the details?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing

2. Hon LAU Wong-fat to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the current number of open sewers, as well as the location and length of each open sewer, broken down by 18 District Council districts; and
(b)	whether the Government has any plan for decking all the above sewers; if so, of the detailed timetable concerned, and what plans the Government has in place to make good use of the land obtained from decking such sewers?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Development

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

Regarding the arrangement that members of the public are interviewed alone by police officers in individual interview rooms in police stations, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the number of complaints received by the Government in the past three years from members of the public alleging that they had been threatened and assaulted by police officers in the above interview rooms, and among them, the number of substantiated cases;
(b)	how the Police monitor the proceedings of the above individual interviews; whether the installation of closed-circuit television surveillance system in those interview rooms is required; if not, of the reasons for that; if so, whether the activation of such surveillance system during the interviews is required; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	how the Government protects the human rights of members of the public being interviewed alone as aforementioned?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

4. Hon James TIEN to ask: (Translation)

In reply to a question raised by a Member at the Council meeting on 6 June 2007, the former Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands said that the Hong Kong Housing Authority was converting Housing for Senior Citizens ("HSC") units with consistently high vacancy rate (usually the old-style units with shared kitchen and toilet facilities) into normal public rental housing ("PRH") flats or other uses by phases. The Secretary further said that apart from better utilizing the resources, the conversion scheme would fundamentally resolve the daily living problems that tenants might encounter in sharing the use of facilities. It has also been reported recently that in order to increase the supply of PRH flats to continue to meet the target of maintaining the average waiting time for PRH at three years, the Housing Department has decided to convert some HSC units into normal PRH flats, and has issued Notices-to-Quit to the elderly tenants living in such flats. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	apart from the above reasons mentioned by the Secretary, whether there are other reasons for implementing the above conversion scheme; if so, of the details; and the details of the scheme (including the PRH estates involved since last year, and whether the scheme will be extended to other PRH estates, etc.);
(b)	focusing on the reasons referred to in (a) for implementing the above conversion scheme, whether it has explored if there are alternatives to that conversion scheme; if there are alternatives, of the details and the reasons for not adopting them; and
(c)	whether it has examined the difficulties that the elderly tenants of the above flats will encounter when they move to other flats; if so, of the details and the measures to deal with such difficulties?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing

5. Hon Audrey EU to ask: (Translation)

Since the end of last year, I have received quite a number of requests for assistance from persons transferred from Thailand to serve their sentences in Hong Kong under the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Ordinance (Cap. 513). They said that as the Thai Government had announced the granting of pardons to prisoners in celebration of their King's 80th birthday last December, the remission of sentences for prisoners in Thailand should also apply to them. Some of them should even be immediately discharged under the pardons. Yet, some persons who have served their sentences when taking account of the remission had to stay in prison because of the delay of the relevant authorities in Hong Kong in obtaining the remission documents from the Thai Government, which is very unfair to them. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	in the past three years, of the number of persons transferred to Hong Kong to serve their sentences under the above Ordinance and the jurisdictions which imposed sentences on them, as well as the respective ages of the youngest and the oldest persons among them; of the number of persons who had served additional time in Hong Kong due to the failure to obtain remission documents from the jurisdictions concerned, and list the duration of the additional time served by, and the jurisdiction which imposed sentence on each of them;
(b)	among the persons who are currently serving their sentences in Hong Kong under the above Ordinance, how many of them should have been discharged due to the remission of sentences but are still in prison due to the failure to obtain remission documents from the relevant jurisdictions; of the duration of the additional time they have hitherto served and the jurisdictions which imposed sentences on them; and whether the authorities have taken any follow-up action other than contacting the Governments concerned through their consuls in Hong Kong, so as to avoid those persons being kept in prison; if they have, of the details, including the number of persons involved and the jurisdictions which imposed sentences on them; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	whether the relevant authorities will consider providing appropriate relief to the above persons who have served additional time; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

6. Hon Daniel LAM Wai-keung to ask: (Translation)

The Government already entered into the new Scheme of Control Agreements with the two local power companies respectively, with their permitted rate of return being adjusted downwards to 9.99%. However, while the authorities stated that electricity tariffs would hopefully be adjusted downwards by about 10% in future, the two power companies immediately responded that the rate of downward adjustment of electricity tariffs could only be determined having regard to the impact of various factors, and refused to undertake that the rate of electricity tariffs reduction would be equivalent to that estimated by the Government. The two power companies even took the lead at the end of last year to announce an upward adjustment of electricity tariffs for this year. Some members of the public have relayed to me that under the circumstances of high inflation at present, electricity tariffs going up instead of going down has seriously affected the livelihood of the disadvantaged. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	what counter measures the Government has in place to deal with the situation that the two power companies refuse to reduce electricity tariffs on various grounds, or nominally reduce electricity tariffs by a small amount only; and
(b)	whether the Government will reconsider studying the introduction of competition to the electricity market as soon as possible, so as to provide more room for the downward adjustment of electricity tariffs?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment

7. Dr Hon YEUNG Sum to ask: (Translation)

Under the existing Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme, Senior Secondary Fee Remission Scheme, School Textbook Assistance Scheme and Student Travel Subsidy Scheme, the Student Financial Assistance Agency ("SFAA") may exercise its discretion to approve the relevant applications to ensure that applicants genuinely in need can obtain financial assistance. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the criteria for exercising the above discretion by SFAA;
(b)	in the past five years, of the respective numbers of cases in which SFAA exercised its discretion to grant half or full fee remission or half or full grant under each of the above schemes; and
(c)	of the channels through which applicants of the above schemes may seek SFAA's discretionary approval for their applications?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education

8. Hon CHEUNG Hok-ming to ask: (Translation)

In addition to procuring its own vehicles and hiring drivers to provide services for government officers, the Government also implements the Taxi Hiring Scheme, under which government officers are allowed to use hourly-hired taxis for official duty journeys. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the number of hirings and expenditure incurred in using hourly-hired taxis by various government departments in the past three years;
(b)	in comparison with maintaining a government fleet, of the amount of public money saved under the above Scheme in each of the past three years; and
(c)	of the current procedures, mode of operation and details of the charges for using hourly-hired taxis, and whether standardised guidelines on the above Scheme have been drawn up for various government departments?

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

9. Hon Abraham SHEK to ask: (Translation)

Last month, a nine-year-old girl who was well behaved and excelled academically committed suicide allegedly due to a slight decline in her recent academic performance. The incident has aroused public concern whether children have adequate ability to face up to adversity. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the respective numbers of children aged 12 or below who attempted to commit suicide and who died of suicide in each of the past three years, broken down by their grade in school;
(b)	whether the authorities have measures in place to enhance children's ability to face up to adversity; if so, of the details of such measures; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	whether it has put in place new measures and methods over the past three years to assist teachers and parents in early identification of suicide-prone children; if so, of the details and effectiveness of such measures and methods?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education

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

Regarding teachers undertaking the duties of teacher-librarians, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	concerning primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong respectively, whether it knows -
	(i)	the number and percentage of teacher-librarians with a bachelor's degree or higher qualification, and how the percentage compares to the corresponding percentage of all teachers;
	(ii)	the number and percentage of teacher-librarians at Graduate Master/Mistress ("GM") rank, and how the percentage compares to that of GMs among all teachers;
	(iii)	the number and percentage of teacher-librarians at Assistant Master/Mistress ("AM") rank, and how the percentage compares to that of AMs among all teachers;
	(iv)	the number of teachers who became teacher-librarians in the past five years and its percentage among all teacher-librarians;
(b)	whether it had conducted in the past five years any survey or study on teacher-librarians teaching subjects other than library lessons; if it did, of the results of the survey or study; if not, whether it will do so; and
(c)	whether it will review afresh the teaching duties of teacher-librarians in the hope that they can promote reading and support teaching and learning in schools in a more professional way?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education

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

According to the statistics of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority, less than 60% of the telephone numbers currently allocated to fixed and mobile network operators have been assigned for use by the public and the remaining ones are lying idle; and with the existing allocation rate, the eight-digit telephone numbers may be exhausted in seven years. The Authority has therefore proposed that the operators be charged an annual fee of $3 per telephone number allocated to them, regardless of whether or not the numbers have been assigned to customers, to encourage efficient use of telephone numbers and return of unused numbers to the authorities, thereby deferring the migration of the existing eight-digit telephone numbers to longer-digit numbers. Regarding the management of telephone numbers, will the Government inform this Council whether:

(a)	it has assessed if the passing on the said annual fee by most operators to the consumers will render the proposed measure not achieving the expected result but adding to the burden of consumers instead; if the assessment result is in the affirmative, of the measures in place to deal with the situation;
(b)	it has considered if it will be more effective, as compared to the proposed measure of charging annual fee on all telephone numbers, to impose punitive charges on operators only in respect of the numbers which have not been assigned to customers upon the expiry of a certain period of time; and
(c)	it will, by making reference to the Personalized Vehicle Registration Marks Scheme, select the special telephone numbers which are more attractive to the public for sale by open auction and use the proceeds for alleviating poverty?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development

12. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)

Regarding veterinary surgeons and their services, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	whether it has assessed the reasons why only 30 to 50 complaints were received by the Veterinary Surgeons Board ("VSB") in each of the past five years; if it has, whether such reasons include the public being generally unaware of the channels for lodging complaints about veterinary services; if so, whether the Government will consider stepping up the publicity for VSB's function in dealing with complaints;
(b)	of the number of veterinary surgeons convicted in the past five years of contravening the Veterinary Surgeons Registration Ordinance (Cap. 529), with a breakdown by offences and penalties imposed on them;
(c)	of the authority currently responsible for dealing with complaints about unlicensed veterinary services; in the past five years, the number of such complaints received by the authority, the number of substantiated cases, and the penalties imposed on the persons concerned; and
(d)	whether it knows the number of cases heard by various levels of courts in each of the past five years in which civil remedies against veterinary surgeons were sought, as well as the respective numbers of successful cases among them?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health

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

Regarding the bedspace apartments (commonly known as "cage homes") and cubicle apartments, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the respective estimated numbers of people living in cage homes and cubicle apartments at present, broken down by age groups (each covering five years);
(b)	apart from allocating public rental housing ("PRH") units to people living in cage homes and cubicle apartments, what other measures are in place to help them improve their living environment;
(c)	of the number of people living in cage homes or cubicle apartments who were allocated PRH units in the past three years and, among them, the number of those who were allocated PRH units in the urban area;
(d)	in respect of the Waiting List of non-elderly one-person applicants for PRH as at the end of 2007,
	(i)	of the respective numbers and percentages of applicants in various age groups (below 30, 31 to 40, 41 to 50 and over 50); and
	(ii)	of the respective numbers and percentages of applicants living in cage homes or cubicle apartments, and when all of them are expected to be allocated PRH units;
(e)	of the rate of increase in the average per-square-metre rent of cage homes and cubicle apartments in the past three years; whether it has assessed the impact of removing rent control and security of tenure for private domestic accommodation on people living in cage homes and cubicle apartments; and
(f)	given that the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has, since 1994, repeatedly urged the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to eliminate inadequate housing in the form of cage homes, whether it has drawn up a timetable for the elimination of cage homes and cubicle apartments?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing

14. Hon Albert CHAN to ask: (Translation)

In reply to my question on 28 February last year, the Government indicated that measures had been taken to encourage government departments to reduce the use of plastic bags. However, I have learnt that government departments still use large quantities of black plastic bags for collecting garbage, broken branches and fallen leaves, and for carrying recovered waste. Some members of the public have reflected to me that the use of large quantities of black plastic bags by the Government has not only produced adverse visual impact, but has also increased plastic waste. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the quantity of plastic bags, and the quantity of it which is non-biodegradable, used by each government department last year; and
(b)	whether there are new measures in place to reduce the use of plastic bags by government departments; if so, of the details of such measures; if not, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment

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

Regarding dental services, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	as I have found in my investigation that over 60% of members of the public do not visit dentists regularly for dental examination and scaling, and nearly 70% of them consider that the dental services provided by the Government are inadequate, whether the Government has, apart from providing the existing services, formulated any new plan and allocated additional resources to improve dental services; if it has not, of the reasons for that;
(b)	as the Government had advised in its reply to my question in May last year that it planned to release later in 2007 a consultation document to consult the public on individual health care service reforms and health care financing arrangements (but the date for releasing the consultation paper has been repeatedly deferred), when the public will be consulted on dental services;
(c)	as the charges for dental examination and scaling often exceed $200 per visit, and the charges for fixing dentures can be as high as $10,000, whether it has assessed how the issuance of health care vouchers worth only $250 in total to the elderly can actually help in promoting their oral health, and whether it will separately issue dental care vouchers to the elderly; if it will not, of the reasons for that; and
(d)	given that in reply to a question raised by a Member of this Council on 23 May last year, the Government said it would listen to the views of the dental profession on the implementation of a dental care scheme for secondary school students, of the views received and whether it will make reference to the views of the profession to extend the coverage of such scheme to children and the elderly; if it will not, of the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health

16. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that without conducting any preliminary verification, the Equal Opportunities Commission ("EOC") launched an investigation in July last year into a complaint which alleged that the headline of a report in a newspaper constituted disability vilification against the mentally ill, and requested the newspaper to send representatives to attend a conciliation meeting with the complainant. However, it was subsequently established that the allegation made in the complaint was not true. Moreover, due to misinterpretation of the legislation, EOC last year rejected a complaint against an airline company about its refusal to allow a disabled person to board a plane. Furthermore, EOC spent $370,000 in January this year to organize a seminar which lasted for only one day, and hence was criticized by some EOC members and the public for being too extravagant and wasting public money. As the above incidents have aroused public concern, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:

(a)	whether they have discussed with the EOC members to assess if there are problems with the governance of EOC;
(b)	of the measures to improve and enhance the governance of EOC; and
(c)	whether they have considered requesting EOC to replace those senior management staff who are found derelict in their duties?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs

17. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)

Recently, some members of the public relayed to me that the provisions of the Patents Ordinance (Cap. 514) and the Registered Designs Ordinance (Cap. 522) failed to effectively deter acts of infringing on the intellectual property rights of inventors. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the respective numbers of complaints about infringements of patents and registered designs received by the government departments concerned in each of the past five years; and
(b)	whether it will reconsider criminalizing such acts of infringement; if it will, of the details and the timetable; if not, the reasons for that?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development

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

It is learnt that in recent months some amusement game centres ("AGCs") have introduced amusement game machines with gambling elements, which allow players to place their bets with tokens. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	whether staff of the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority ("TELA") had found such type of amusement game machines during their inspections of AGCs in the past two years; if so, of the number of such cases;
(b)	how TELA determines if the games provided by amusement game machines are those subject to regulation by the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148); and
(c)	whether it has examined if the introduction of such type of amusement game machines by AGCs will encourage gambling and turn the venues concerned into some sort of gambling establishment; if so, of the outcome?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs

19. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)

Regarding cases of avian influenza infections, will the Government inform this Council:

(a)	of the following information about the cases of birds and human beings being infected with avian influenza viruses on the Mainland and in Hong Kong in the past six months; Month Mainland Hong Kong Species of birds/ human being Strains of viruses Provinces and cities (number of cases) District Council districts (number of cases) September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 (up to 25th February) Total
(b)	given that avian influenza virus was found in a bird carcass recently collected at the Cheung Sha Wan Wholesale Food Market, and that area is infested with house crows all along, apart from the existing measures (including cleaning markets and alerting poultry farmers and poultry farm workers), how the authorities will further prevent infected birds from coming into contact with poultry and house crows, whether they will consider raising the level of the contingency measures, and what measures the authorities have in place to especially assist the residents of the affected areas; and
(c)	given that it has been reported that due to the surge in local prices of products, some members of the public will cross the boundary to buy poultry meats not thoroughly cooked on the Mainland and bring them back to Hong Kong, what follow-up measures the authorities have in place, and whether they will consider educating the public to make them aware that they may bring avian influenza virus to Hong Kong through those meats?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health

20. Hon LAU Wong-fat to ask: (Translation)

According to the paper provided by the Labour and Welfare Bureau for the meeting of the Finance Committee of this Council on 1 February this year, while the Government has planned to use allocations from the Lotteries Fund to establish two Integrated Rehabilitation Services Centres to provide day and residential care services for mentally and physically handicapped people ("MPHP"), there is still a shortfall of about 2 600 places for day care services and about 3 500 places for residential care services. The services provided by the Government are therefore still far from adequate in meeting the demands of MPHP. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

(a)	it has estimated the respective demands of MPHP for residential and day care services in the next five years; if so, whether the Government will provide them with adequate services; if it will, of the details in respect of those two types of services; if it will not, the reasons for that; and
(b)	it has any plan to raise, through the 18 District Councils, public concern about the service needs of MPHP; if so, of the details?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Labour and Welfare

III. Bills

First Reading

Appropriation Bill 2008

Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned)

Appropriation Bill 2008 : The Financial Secretary

Clerk to the Legislative Council