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A 07/08-23
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 16 April 2008 at 11:00 am and
Thursday 17 April 2008 at 9:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments | L.N. No.
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| 1. | Airport Authority Ordinance (Map of Restricted Area) Order | 73/2008
| | 2. | Securities and Futures (Contracts Limits and Reportable Positions) (Amendment) Rules 2008 | 74/2008
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Other Papers| 1. | No.85 | - | Annual Report of The Standing Committee on
Legal Education and Training for the period
from 1 September 2006 to 31 August 2007
| (to be presented by the Secretary for Justice)
| | 2. | No.86 | - | Approved Estimates of Income and Expenditure
for the financial year 2008-2009,
Securities and Futures Commission
| | (to be presented by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury)
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II. Questions for Written Replies
1. Hon Andrew CHENG to ask: (Translation)
Regarding illegal modification of vehicles (i.e. modification of vehicles rendering them not in compliance with the Road Traffic (Construction and Maintenance of Vehicles) Regulations) and illegal motor racing, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective numbers of prosecutions and convictions involving illegally-modified vehicles in each of the past three years;
| | (b) | of the respective numbers of complaints, prosecutions and convictions involving illegal motor racing in each of the past three years, and the number of traffic accidents suspected or confirmed to have been caused by illegal motor racing, as well as the resultant casualties;
| | (c) | whether it has assessed if illegal motor racing has become increasingly rampant in recent years; if the assessment result is in the affirmative, of the new measures in place to step up combating illegal motor racing; and
| | (d) | whether it will consider increasing the penalties for illegal modification of vehicles and illegal motor racing; if so, of the details?
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| Public Officer to reply | :
| Secretary for the Environment
(in the absence of Secretary for Transport and Housing) |
2. Hon Martin LEE to ask: (Translation)
Regarding emissions from franchised buses, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of buses in the fleet of each franchised bus company, broken down by the emission standards which they meet;
| | (b) | of the respective average numbers of buses, deployed daily by each franchised bus company to ply the routes passing Hennessy Road, Queensway, Des Voeux Road Central or Nathan Road, which only meet the pre-Euro and Euro I emission standards;
| | (c) | of the current number of buses which are over 17 years old in the fleet of each franchised bus company; and whether the Government has a policy for phasing out such buses as early as possible; if so, of the details of the policy; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (d) | whether it has calculated the quantities of various types of air pollutants emitted by franchised buses meeting various emission standards; if it has, of the results of the calculation; and
| | (e) | whether it has studied the feasibility of designating "low emission zones" in Hong Kong, where no pre-Euro and Euro I buses, which have higher emissions, are allowed to ply; if it has, of the outcome of the study; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment
3. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the incident of extensive power breakdown in Hong Kong on 25 February this year, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the total number of reports received by the Government on accidents caused by the power breakdown; whether the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department has received the occurrence reports on the incident submitted by the power companies; if so, of the cause(s) of the power breakdown and the improvement recommendations of the authorities;
| | (b) | whether the Government has assessed the economic losses caused by the above incident; if not, of the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | whether the Government and the power companies have received any claims for compensation or complaints from members of the public or enterprises regarding the above incident; whether currently there is legislation to help members of the public or enterprises suffering from economic losses arising from power breakdown to claim compensation from the power companies, and whether there are such terms of protection in the new Scheme of Control Agreements signed between the Government and the two power companies; if there are no such legislation or terms, of the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment
4. Hon WONG Ting-kwong to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that Hong Kong is facing the problem of ageing population and the Government will study whether or not the existing retirement age of 55 to 60 should be raised, with a view to improving the ratio of the labour force to the elderly population. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | when the above study will commence and is estimated to complete, as well as the specific contents of the study;
| | (b) | whether it will publish the outcome of the above study and conduct a public consultation exercise; if so, of the specific consultation work; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (c) | given that a number of Asian countries will raise the national retirement age from 60 to 65 or 67, whether the authorities will consider raising the retirement age in Hong Kong to 65 or above; and
| | (d) | apart from conducting a study on raising the retirement age, what other studies the authorities are currently conducting or will conduct and the proactive ways they are adopting or will adopt to resolve the problem of ageing population?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Labour and Welfare
5. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)
The Government has implemented the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme ("PEVS") since the current school year. A teacher development subsidy is embedded in each voucher for principals and teachers serving at PEVS kindergartens or kindergarten-cum-child care centres (hereafter collectively referred to as "KGs") to enhance their professional standards. However, I have learnt that the mobility of KG teachers has been on the rise recently. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number and percentage of KG teachers who left their jobs or transferred to other schools during the first half of the current school year, and whether it has assessed if the situation is serious as well as the main reasons for their departure or transfer;
| | (b) | how the figures in (a) compare to those of the last school year; and
| | (c) | among the KG teachers mentioned in (a) who had left their jobs or transferred to other schools, of the respective numbers and percentages of those who have obtained the Certificate in Early Childhood Education ("ECE") and a Bachelor in Education in ECE?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education
6. Dr Hon YEUNG Sum to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the medical services currently provided by the authorities to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ("AIDS") patients and Human Immunodeficiency Virus ("HIV") infected individuals; and
| | (b) | as I have learnt that the medication and therapies currently used by the authorities in treating AIDS are more effective than those used in the past in terms of delaying HIV infected individuals' progress to AIDS and lengthening the survival time of AIDS patients, whether it has assessed if the existing services are adequate to meet the demand at present and in the next few years; if the assessment result indicates that they are inadequate, whether it has any plan to allocate more resources to ensure that the service quality can be maintained?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
7. Dr Hon Joseph LEE Kok-long to ask: (Translation)
It has recently been reported that the Hospital Authority ("HA") used part of its funding from the Government for short-term investment, but as HA is bound by the investment guidelines which were issued by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau many years ago, it cannot invest in any non-Hong Kong dollar assets and stocks, its investment opportunities have therefore been limited, and the use of public funds has also been affected. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | which other public organizations besides HA are also bound by the investment guidelines issued by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau;
| | (b) | whether it knows, in the past three years, the means of investment of the public organizations referred to in (a) and the returns of their investments; and
| | (c) | whether the authorities will revise the above investment guidelines; if not, of the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
8. Hon CHEUNG Hok-ming to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the Closed Area Permit Office has implemented a new measure on closed area permits since 1 April this year, under which residents, visitors and persons who need to access the Closed Area because of their work are issued grey, yellow and pink permits respectively in place of the original grey permits. Some residents of the Closed Area pointed out that the new measure might split the people within the Closed Area. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the purpose and details of introducing the above new measure; and
| | (b) | whether it has thoroughly consulted the District Councils, Rural Committees and residents concerned on such measure; if it has, of the relevant details (including the duration of consultation); if not, the reasons for that?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
(in the absence of Secretary for Security) |
9. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the various admission schemes for mainland people, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | in each of the past five years, of the respective numbers of mainland people who were granted visas to work or reside in Hong Kong under the Admission of Talents Scheme, the Admission of Mainland Professionals Scheme, the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals and the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, as well as the number of overseas Chinese nationals who were employed to work in Hong Kong as professionals; of the total number of these people in the past five years and, among them, the number of those who had already left Hong Kong, broken down by age groups each covering five years;
| | (b) | of the number of dependants who came to Hong Kong with these people in the past five years; and, among these dependants, the respective numbers of those who have already left Hong Kong and those who are still staying in Hong Kong and are engaged in jobs, broken down by their education attainment and age groups (each covering five years);
| | (c) | whether it has assessed the average number of local employment opportunities created by each of these people; and
| | (d) | whether it has assessed the impact of the authorities' allowing these people to bring in their dependent children to study in Hong Kong on the opportunities for local young people to enter universities, as well as the impact of granting visas to mainland people aged under 30 to work in Hong Kong under the above schemes on the employment opportunities of local university graduates; if it has, of the details; if not, whether it will make the relevant assessment?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
(in the absence of Secretary for Security) |
10. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask: (Translation)
Although the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Bill 2006 was passed by the Legislative Council at the end of 2006 to raise the penalties for offences relating to cruelty to animals, incidents involving serious animal abuse, some of which even caused the death of the animals concerned, occurred frequently in recent months. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it will review the enforcement of the existing legislation concerned; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | whether it will review if the existing penalties concerned have adequate deterrent effects; if it will, of the details; if it will not, the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | of the statistics on the prosecutions instituted and penalties imposed under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance (Cap. 169) in the past two years (broken down according to the following tables)?
| | (i) | By prosecution results and penalties imposed
| Prosecution results | Number of cases | | 2006 | 2007 | Total | | Not convicted |
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| | Penalties imposed on the convicted persons |
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| | (i) Immediate imprisonment |
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| | (ii) Community service order |
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| | (iii) Bound-over/Conditional discharge |
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| | (iv) Fine |
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| | (v) Caution |
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| | (vi) Total |
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| | Total number of prosecutions |
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| | (ii) | By the government departments which instituted the prosecutions
| Prosecuting departments | Number of cases | | 2006 | 2007 | | Not convicted | Convicted | Total | Not convicted | Convicted | Total | | (i) Hong Kong Police Force |
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| | (ii) Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department |
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| | Total |
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| | (iii) | By the term of imprisonment imposed on the convicted persons
| Term of imprisonment imposed on the convicted persons | 2006 | 2007 | Total | | Number of cases in which the following term of imprisonment was imposed: |
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| | (i) Less than 1 month |
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| | (ii) 1 month or above |
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| | Total number of cases in which imprisonment was imposed |
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| | Average term of imprisonment imposed |
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| | (iv) | By the amount of fine imposed on the convicted persons
| Amount of fine imposed on the convicted persons | 2006 | 2007 | Total | | Number of cases in which the following amount of fine was imposed: |
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| | (i) Less than $1,000 |
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| | (ii) $1,000 to $1,999 |
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| | (iii) $2,000 to $2,999 |
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| | (iv) $3,000 to $3,999 |
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| | (v) $4,000 or above |
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| | (vi) Total |
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| | Average amount of fine imposed |
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
11. Hon Albert CHAN to ask: (Translation)
In reply to my question at the Council meeting on 29 March 2006, the Government indicated that the Civil Aviation Department had since October 1998 implemented a series of aircraft noise mitigating measures to minimize the impact of aircraft noise on the communities near the flight paths (e.g. to avoid aircraft overflying densely populated areas in the early hours, arrangements were made for flights departing Hong Kong between 11 pm and 7 am to use the southbound route via the West Lamma Channel as far as possible, while flights arriving in Hong Kong between midnight and 7 am were directed to land from the waters southwest of the airport). However, I have learnt that up till now aircraft noise during the above hours still often causes nuisance to residents of many housing estates, making it difficult for them to fall sleep. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the figures on aircraft noise levels which reached 70 to 74, 75 to 79, and up to or over 80 decibels ("dB") during the above hours, as recorded by various noise monitoring terminals last year;
| | (b) | of the types of aircraft the aircraft noise levels of which reached 80 dB or above last year and their operating airline companies; and
| | (c) | whether the existing aircraft noise mitigating measures will be enhanced to reduce the nuisance caused to residents; if so, of the details?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for the Environment
(in the absence of Secretary for Transport and Housing) |
12. Dr Hon David LI to ask:
According to statistics provided on the web site of the Immigration Department, as at 31 December 2007, a total of 1 114 Chinese nationals with permanent residence overseas had been granted formal approval under the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme ("CIES"), while 244 other such persons had been granted approval-in-principle. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the above statistics refer to the total number of approvals granted since the introduction of CIES, or to the number of approvals granted in 2007 alone; and
| | (b) | of the breakdown of the above statistics by country of permanent residence of such persons?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
(in the absence of Secretary for Security) |
13. Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the efficiency of the liver transplant team of the liver transplant centre of the Queen Mary Hospital, which was formed by teaching staff of the University of Hong Kong ("HKU") Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine and doctors of the Hospital Authority ("HA"), has dropped as a result of the resignation of some of the team's doctors due to staff disputes which had arisen earlier. There have been comments that as the team is the only liver transplant service provider in Hong Kong, the above incident will have a long-term impact on Hong Kong's liver transplant service. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the Government will urge HKU and HA to give an account of the above incident;
| | (b) | given that it has been reported that the above staff disputes involved the Head of the Department of Surgery, local and expatriate doctors, as well as faults in liver transplant surgeries, whether the Government knows how HKU ensures that doctors who are local graduates have sufficient opportunities to receive training and gain sufficient clinical experience, in order to handle the work of the liver transplant team;
| | (c) | given that the above liver transplant centre is currently the only liver transplant service provider in Hong Kong, what contingency measures will be adopted by the authorities upon disruption of the centre's normal service due to emergency, personnel or other factors to ensure that the impact of such incidents on the public will be minimized; and
| | (d) | whether the Government has formulated any long-term plan to facilitate the training of health care staff who provide liver transplant service?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
14. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)
Some members of the public have recently told me that in February this year when the Police were investigating a case relating to the circulation of nude photos of artistes on the Internet, some police officers made copies of the photos inside an artiste's portable computer, produced CD-ROMs of them and stored them in flash memory chips, and circulated such CD-ROMs and memory chips within the Police Force and among their relatives for perusal. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
| (a) | whether they are aware of the aforesaid situation; if so, how they will deal with the police officers concerned; if not, whether they will conduct an investigation into this matter;
| | (b) | how the Police take care of exhibits stored in electronic form, and whether they have assigned staff to guard these exhibits to prevent unauthorized access to them; if so, of the details;
| | (c) | of the persons who are authorized to access exhibits stored in electronic form, and whether they are required to report to their superiors that they have accessed the exhibits and record the details of such access; and
| | (d) | how the Police will prevent the leak of personal data and privacy information involved in exhibits stored in electronic form?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
(in the absence of Secretary for Security) |
15. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)
The Government has made available facilities in public streets and government properties to authorized operators for the installation of Wi-Fi antennas. However, I learnt that recently, an operator planned to install Wi-Fi equipment on lamp posts for conducting tests, but the power company concerned indicated that it could not install a separate electricity meter for the operator, and the Highways Department ("HyD") also indicated that sharing its power supply with the operator was infeasible. As a result, the operator was unable to conduct the relevant tests. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the government departments, other than HyD, which have received applications from operators for the installation of Wi-Fi equipment, and the facilities identified for installing Wi-Fi equipment in those applications;
| | (b) | whether it knows the technical problems encountered by operators in carrying out plans to install Wi-Fi equipment on various types of government properties and facilities; and
| | (c) | of the technical details of power supply problem involved in the installation of Wi-Fi equipment on lamp posts under HyD; how the Office of the Telecommunications Authority will coordinate the efforts of various parties to resolve the power supply problem for Wi-Fi equipment?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development
16. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)
Last year, the Audit Commission and the Committee on Libraries respectively put forward a number of recommendations on the services and development of public libraries. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the progress of the regular checking of inventories of library materials and the details of the work in this respect, the missing rates of library items in various libraries and the measures to reduce such rates;
| | (b) | whether it has reviewed the reference proportions of and the acquisition policy for library materials; whether it will consider enhancing the provision of library services for specific groups of persons and the elderly (e.g. providing more large print books in libraries situated in areas where more elderly people live; providing home delivery service of library materials for the elderly and persons with disabilities; providing materials in the languages of the ethnic minorities in libraries situated in areas where more such ethnic minorities live; providing more materials on vocational skills and language learning in libraries situated in areas with more low-income families, as well as extending library opening hours so as to facilitate the use of library services by the working people);
| | (c) | of the progress of the involvement of various district councils in the management of public libraries, the progress of the Community Libraries Partnership Scheme and the details of the work in this respect, and whether it will substitute public libraries with community libraries; if not, whether the government departments concerned will coordinate their efforts so as to expeditiously set up a public library in the West Kowloon New Reclamation Area (i.e. the area around Hoi Lai Estate, AquaMarine and Fu Cheong Estate);
| | (d) | whether it will consider making more use of public libraries to promote civic education by, for example, allowing non-profit-making organizations and social enterprises to rent libraries for holding promotional and sales activities in this respect; and
| | (e) | of the number of professional librarians and their percentage in the existing staff establishment of public libraries, whether it will set a target for raising the percentage to international standards and the implementation timetable in this respect?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs
17. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the problem of drug addiction and abuse of psychotropic substances among adolescents, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of cases in the past two years in which adolescents were diagnosed with serious illness or found dead as a result of being addicted to drugs or abusing psychotropic substances, with details such as the drug addiction/substance abuse history of such adolescents, and their average age, etc.;
| | (b) | how the above figures compare with those in developed countries, and whether it has assessed if the problem is serious in Hong Kong;
| | (c) | whether the Task Force on Youth Drug Abuse has examined the measures taken by developed countries to tackle the social problem of adolescents suffering from illness or losing their lives as a result of drug addiction or abuse of psychotropic substances, and whether any of those measures have been identified as suitable for implementation in Hong Kong; and
| | (d) | whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of the publicity work on the harmful effects of drug addiction and abuse of psychotropic substances undertaken in the past by the authorities concerned, and whether it will step up its efforts to put the message across to adolescents that addiction to drugs or abuse of psychotropic substances can result in serious illness?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
(in the absence of Secretary for Security) |
18. Hon WONG Ting-kwong to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that in 2005-2006, the number of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") fraud cases substantiated by the Social Welfare Department ("SWD") amounted to 764, involving an amount of over $47 million. In 2006-2007, there were 896 such cases, involving an amount of over $50 million. As at February this year, there were 960 such cases in 2007-2008, involving an amount of $45.4 million. There is an upward trend as far as the numbers of cases are concerned. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has explored the causes of the rising number of CSSA fraud cases and how the persons involved in the above cases used the CSSA payments obtained by fraud;
| | (b) | of the heaviest penalty imposed on the persons convicted of defrauding the Government of CSSA payments;
| | (c) | how the authorities handle the problem of increasing CSSA fraud cases, and whether they have explored more effective preventive measures; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (d) | given that SWD has specially appointed four former investigation officers of the Commercial Crime Bureau of the Police Force and Independent Commission Against Corruption as investigation advisers to investigate CSSA fraud cases, whether SWD has assessed the effectiveness of their work and whether they can cope with the incessantly increasing CSSA fraud cases; if such an assessment has been made, of the outcome?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Labour and Welfare
19. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)
Regarding liquefied petroleum gas ("LPG") vehicles queuing up for gas refills, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the average time currently taken by LPG taxis and LPG public light buses ("PLBs") waiting at LPG filling stations for gas refills during rush hours, and whether the figure has increased as compared to the annual average figures for 2005-2006 and 2006-2007;
| | (b) | whether it has any plan to increase the number of dedicated LPG filling stations, so as to reduce the time taken by taxis and PLBs waiting at such filling stations for gas refills; if so, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (c) | of the names of manufacturers, models and the relevant specifications (including the cylinder capacity) of LPG PLBs which have been approved by the Government for registration;
| | (d) | whether it will consider allowing the introduction of LPG PLBs with larger cylinder capacity; and
| | (e) | whether it has studied if existing PLBs can be modified to increase their cylinder capacity, and if there is a need for legislative amendments to make way for that; if it has, of the outcome of the study; if it has not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment
20. Hon CHEUNG Hok-ming to ask: (Translation)
A member of the public has relayed to me that he was prosecuted by the law enforcement department concerned for speeding while driving along Fan Kam Road in the New Territories at a speed of 60-plus kilometres per hour. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether sectional speed limits have been set for Fan Kam Road; if so, of the details and the names of other major highways for which the same limits have been set;
| | (b) | how the authorities effectively enable drivers to know the speed limits on the roads concerned in accordance with the existing arrangements for displaying speed limit signs;
| | (c) | whether it has adopted the measure to erect appropriate speed limit signs at intervals of 200 metres on the roads concerned; if it has, of the details of the measure and its implementation, and whether there are any roads on which speed limit signs have not been erected in accordance with such measure; if so, of the reasons for that; and
| | (d) | how and based on what criteria the government departments concerned enforce the law to combat speeding on roads on which speed limit signs are not erected?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for the Environment
(in the absence of Secretary for Transport and Housing)
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III. Bills
Second Reading (Debate to resume)
Appropriation Bill 2008 : The Financial Secretary
Clerk to the Legislative Council
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