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A 07/08-27
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 14 May 2008 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments | L.N. No.
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| 1. | Sewage Services (Trade Effluent Surcharge) (Amendment) Regulation 2008 | 106/2008
| | 2. | The English Schools Foundation (General) Regulation | 107/2008
| | 3. | Telecommunications (Determining Spectrum Utilization Fees by Auction) Regulation | 108/2008
| | 4. | Telecommunications (Designation of Frequency Bands subject to Payment of Spectrum Utilization Fee) (Amendment) Order 2008 | 109/2008
| | 5. | Child Abduction and Custody (Parties to Convention) (Amendment) Order 2008 | 110/2008
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Other Paper
No.94
| - | Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation
Annual Report 2007
| | (to be presented by the Financial Secretary)
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II. Questions
1. Prof Hon Patrick LAU Sau-shing to ask: (Translation)
Quite a number of professionals from the construction industry have relayed to me that the Government's existing staff appointment policy has many problems (such as applying different modes of appointment and offering different remunerations to employees undertaking comparable duties and responsibilities, and offering the starting-point salaries of the relevant ranks to newly-appointed civil servants regardless of their work experience, etc.). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the current numbers of staff of the ranks of Architect, Building Surveyor, Maintenance Surveyor, Estate Surveyor, Quantity Surveyor, Land Surveyor, Town Planner and Landscape Architect in various government departments, broken down in table form by government department, rank, post-qualification experience (i.e. three years or below, four to six years, seven to nine years and 10 years or above) and mode of appointment (i.e. being appointed on pensionable terms, contract terms, non-civil service contract terms, non-civil service temporary contract terms and indirect employment through outsourcing), as well as the amounts of pay at the minimum and maximum salary points of such ranks under different modes of appointment;
| | (b) | why the authorities, in converting some serving non-civil service staff to civil servants, ignore their current salaries and relevant work experience, and only offer them the starting-point salaries of the ranks concerned, and how the authorities resolve the above problems with the appointment policy and ensure that the departments concerned can recruit sufficient professional staff who are professionally qualified and possess the necessary work experience, so as to safeguard the quality of the future 10 major infrastructure projects and maintain staff morale; and
| | (c) | given that the Government has resumed the recruitment of civil servants, whether the authorities will reconsider converting serving non-civil service staff with the relevant experience to civil servants by "through train"; if not, what other arrangements the authorities have put in place?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Civil Service
2. Hon CHEUNG Hok-ming to ask: (Translation)
The Government has decided to reduce the coverage of the Frontier Closed Area ("FCA") substantially from about 2 800 to about 800 hectares. However, the land to be released as a result of the measure will not include the Sha Tau Kok ("STK") town because the authorities consider it necessary to maintain the FCA restrictions at the town. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it will further release land from the FCA, particularly that of the STK area; if it will not, of the reasons for that;
| | (b) | how it will revitalize the STK town, which is still within the FCA, in order to invigorate the economy of the locality; and
| | (c) | whether it has plans to promote the inclusion of STK in ecotourism routes; if it has, of the details, if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security
3. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)
The Report of the Phase Two Review of the Post Secondary Education Sector recommended that "the Government should continue to take the lead in enhancing recognition for Associate Degree ("AD") qualification". In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | among the people employed in various government departments over the past three years, of the number and percentage of those whose highest qualifications were sub-degree (including AD and Higher Diploma ("HD")) qualifications, together with a breakdown by details of their employment, including the employing departments, positions held, entry requirements, starting salaries and modes of appointment (e.g. on contract or permanent terms);
| | (b) | of the respective numbers of such employees with AD and HD qualifications; and
| | (c) | whether it has assessed why some government departments have employed fewer AD graduates; if it has, of the assessment results; if not, the reasons for that; and of the other measures to enhance recognition for AD qualification?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Civil Service
4. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)
As there have been comments that low-income families are more seriously affected by the continuously escalating inflation, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has assessed changes in the consumption pattern of poor families in the state of escalating inflation in the past 12 months;
| | (b) | given that an inflation rate as high as 5.3% was recorded for March this year, which was higher than the Government's forecast of 4.5% made at the time the current year's Budget was published, of the new measures the Government has put in place to further alleviate the pressure of inflation on poor families, and whether it will further waive public housing rents and provide more allowances and support to recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance; and
| | (c) | given that the Labour and Welfare Bureau had indicated earlier that the latest information on the poverty indicators for 2007 were expected to be available by mid-2008, of the latest progress of such work and the specific date in this year for the publication of such indicators, and whether it will reconsider re-establishing the Commission on Poverty as soon as possible, so as to study the needs of poor families in a systematic manner, as well as set targets on eradicating poverty with time limits and formulate appropriate policies to alleviate poverty?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Labour and Welfare
5. Hon Alan LEONG Kah-kit to ask: (Translation)
The Government's recent re-tender of the operating rights of four existing outlying island ferry routes has aroused grave concern among outlying island residents and the community. Quite a number of members of the public consider that there are quite a number of loopholes in the Government's planning on outlying island ferry services, resulting in the existing problems such as high fares and poor service quality, etc. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | given that there have been comments that setting the validity period for the current outlying island ferry service licences at three years has resulted in ferry service operators not willing to put in resources for long-term investments to enhance service quality, and has indirectly prompted the operators to drastically increase the fares to achieve the return set out in their contracts, whether the Government will reconsider extending the validity period of such licences; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | given that the enterprises currently holding franchises of other public transport services in Hong Kong have been granted rights and interests in respect of development of land or properties to maintain their income and stabilize the fares of the transport services concerned, whether the Government will consider adopting similar arrangements for outlying island ferry services; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | whether the Government will consider adopting the mode of operation in which services are purchased from operators of outlying island ferry services, so that outlying island ferry fares can be set at a reasonable level affordable to passengers; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing
6. Hon Jeffrey LAM Kin-fung to ask: (Translation)
Since its re-opening at the end of last year, there have been several incidents of the service of the Ngong Ping 360 cable car system being suspended. In one of the more serious incidents which occurred on the 11th of last month, 150 passengers were stranded in the cabins for nearly one and a half hours. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the reasons for the repeated incidents of service suspension after the re-opening of the cable car system, and whether mechanical wear and tear and maintenance problems were involved;
| | (b) | whether Ngong Ping 360 Limited has fully implemented the measures for improving the operational safety of the cable car system recommended by the Expert Panel in its report on the cabin dislodgement incident; if not, of the details and reasons for that; and
| | (c) | of the average daily number of passengers since the re-opening of the cable car system, and how this figure compares with that for the period between its commissioning in September 2006 and the service suspension in June last year?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development
*7. Hon LAU Chin-shek to ask: (Translation)
In its paper presented to this Council's Panel on Constitutional Affairs in March this year on the voter registration campaign for the 2008 Legislative Council ("LegCo") election, the Government stated that according to the last final register published in September last year, there were 3.3 million registered electors for geographical constituencies, representing 71% of the estimated total number of eligible electors. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective percentages of people of various age groups who have registered as the above electors as at September last year, broken down by the age groups of registered electors for LegCo constituencies posted on the Government web sites;
| | (b) | whether the authorities have assessed which age groups and social strata the more than 1 million eligible electors, who have not yet registered as at September last year, mainly belong to, as well as the characteristics of their social status; and
| | (c) | apart from the strategies and activities mentioned in the above paper, whether the authorities have concrete strategies to boost the registration rate of eligible electors significantly?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
*8. Hon Albert HO to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the default cases of the three non-means tested loan schemes applicable respectively to different types of post-secondary students, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | given that as at 31 January this year, there were 6 677 default cases of the Non-means Tested Loan Scheme applicable to students not covered by the Tertiary Student Finance Scheme - Publicly-funded Programmes and the Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students, of a breakdown of such cases by the types of the programmes (publicly-funded degree programmes, self-financing degree programmes and sub-degree programmes, etc.) the borrowers were taking when they applied for the loans, as well as the respective amounts of money in default;
| | (b) | of the number of cases in which the borrowers failed to make repayment on or before the relevant due dates after they had applied to the Student Financial Assistance Agency ("SFAA") for partial repayment of their loans in the past five years and the amount of money involved, as well as a breakdown of such figures by the loan schemes; whether SFAA classifies these cases as default cases; if not, how SFAA classifies them; and
| | (c) | of the reasons why SFAA has set the overdue interest rate for borrowers defaulting on repayments at a level higher than the prevailing interest rate under the various loan schemes (with a difference of 0.951% per annum between the two rates)?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education
*9. Dr Hon YEUNG Sum to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the Tertiary Student Finance Scheme - Publicly-funded Programmes ("TSFS"), the Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students ("FASP"), the Non-means Tested Loan Scheme applicable to full-time students eligible for TSFS, the Non-means Tested Loan Scheme applicable to full-time students eligible for FASP, and the Non-means Tested Loan Scheme applicable to students not covered by TSFS and FASP, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the respective numbers of loan accounts and repayment accounts in each scheme over the past five years, the total amount involved and the interest payment therein;
| | (b) | the procedure adopted by the Student Financial Assistance Agency ("SFAA") for vetting and approving applications for deferring repayment; and
| | (c) | the respective numbers of applications for deferring repayment received by SFAA under each scheme in the past five years on grounds of further studies, financial hardship and serious illness, as well as the respective numbers of applications approved; whether SFAA will approve applications for deferring repayment on other grounds; if so, of a breakdown, by such grounds, of the applications received and approved under each scheme in the past five years?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education
*10. Hon Martin LEE to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the Air Pollution Index and Air Quality Objectives ("AQOs"), will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | given that there are currently only 14 air quality monitoring stations in Hong Kong, whether the Environmental Protection Department will consider setting up more monitoring stations to better grasp the state of air pollution in various districts; if so, of the details; and
| | (b) | whether it has studied if the concentration of air pollutants in Hong Kong will persistently exceed the prescribed standards should the AQOs adopted in Hong Kong be raised to the relevant standards adopted by the European Union?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment
*11. Dr Hon Joseph LEE Kok-long to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the problem of departure of nurses in the Hospital Authority ("HA") in recent years, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
| (a) | the respective numbers of general nurses and psychiatric nurses in various HA's hospital clusters who departed in the past five years, and the respective numbers of newly employed nurses to fill the vacancies concerned (please provide the figures in the following table);
| Rank |
Hong Kong East Cluster |
Hong Kong West Cluster |
Kowloon Central Cluster |
Kowloon East Cluster |
Kowloon West Cluster |
New Territories East Cluster |
New Territories West Cluster | | General Manager (Nursing) |
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| | Department Operations Manager |
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| | Senior Nursing Officer |
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| | Ward Manager |
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| | Nursing Officer |
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| | Nurse Specialist |
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| | Advanced Practice Nurse |
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| | Registered Nurse |
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| | Enrolled Nurse |
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| | (b) | whether HA has filled all of the above vacancies; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | the measures to be adopted by HA in the next five years for improving the situation of departure of its nurses?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Labour and Welfare
(in the absence of Secretary for Food and Health)
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*12. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the loss of and damage to books in public libraries have become more serious in the past three years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective numbers of books purchased and loaned out by each public library in each of the past three years;
| | (b) | by using a table, of the number of books written off by each public library due to damages during the above period, and among such books, the number of new ones which had not yet been made available for public loan, and the respective amounts of public funds involved; and
| | (c) | of the number of cases in which the borrowers were fined for having lost or damaged the books of public libraries, and the respective amounts of fines involved, paid and unpaid, in each year during the above period?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs
*13. Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask: (Translation)
It has been learnt that in response to the lawsuit on overtime work filed by doctors in public hospitals, the Hospital Authority ("HA") has set up the Steering Committee on Doctor Work Hour, which has put forward a series of reform recommendations in respect of the working hours of doctors. HA will implement the recommendations in all public hospitals by phases and a number of pilot programmes have been launched in seven hospitals in four hospital clusters (namely, Kowloon West, Hong Kong East, Kowloon East and New Territories East) starting from the end of 2007. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it knows the method by which the Committee calculates that the average working hours of doctors should not exceed 65 hours per week;
| | (b) | it knows the progress in implementing the various recommendations put forward by the Committee in different hospital clusters and the difficulties encountered;
| | (c) | it has allocated additional resources to HA to implement such recommendations; and
| | (d) | it knows if HA has assessed the respective amounts of money involved each year in the event that HA has to compensate those doctors who had worked more than 65 hours or 44 hours per week in the past three years; if an assessment has been made, of the outcome?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for Labour and Welfare
(in the absence of Secretary for Food and Health)
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*14. Dr Hon David LI to ask:
It has recently been reported that no new multiple visas for entry to the Mainland will be issued until October this year, and that applicants are required to provide return travel tickets and hotel vouchers when applying for mainland visas. Some business associations and chambers of commerce in Hong Kong have voiced concern about such changes which also affect mainland visa applications processed locally. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | since the introduction of the above changes, whether the Government has taken any action to facilitate business travel to the Mainland by foreign nationals who are Hong Kong permanent residents; if so, of the nature of the action;
| | (b) | whether it has been notified of or taken any action to ascertain whether there has been any change to the policy announced in the 2001 Policy Address that foreign nationals who are Hong Kong permanent residents may be granted three-year multiple visas to the Mainland;
| | (c) | whether it has been notified of or taken any action to ascertain whether the mainland authorities concerned have suspended the processing of applications made by Hong Kong permanent residents for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Travel Cards; and
| | (d) | whether it knows if the above changes have any adverse impact on the business of local travel agents who organize short trips from Hong Kong to the Mainland; if there is such an impact, of the details of any action taken by the Government to reduce the impact?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security
*15. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)
The Government is developing a common infrastructural platform to enable bureaux and departments to upload geospatial information onto GovHK to augment online services and textual information. Moreover, the Government completed an initial study report last year to assess the potential of developing a Spatial Data Infrastructure. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | the aforesaid report has proposed the types of geospatial information that should be made available for public use; if so, of the details;
| | (b) | the report has proposed specific options for integrating various types of information; if so, of the details; if not, whether a further study will be conducted; and
| | (c) | it will consider using the relevant geospatial information and Wi-Fi hotspots provided under GovWiFi at various government properties to introduce electronic guided tour services at libraries and parks, so as to help promote the application of "object positioning technologies"; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development
*16. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)
The results of a price survey on food released for the first time by the Consumer Council ("CC") on 15 April this year have revealed that the prices of food sold at supermarket chains are generally higher than those sold at small grocery stores. CC has indicated that it plans to release information on the prices of goods sold at supermarkets and small grocery stores in certain districts on a bi-weekly basis, and extend the coverage of such surveys to include daily necessities in the future. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council whether:
| (a) | they know the types of businesses and goods to be included in CC's regular price surveys;
| | (b) | they know if CC has sufficient resources for conducting price surveys on a long-term basis; if not, whether the authorities will allocate additional resources to CC for undertaking the work in this regard; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (c) | any complaints had been received over the past three years from operators of small grocery stores alleging that they were unable to source goods at reasonable prices; if so, of the details of such complaints; and
| | (d) | provisions will be made in the fair competition law being drafted to prevent supermarket chains from further throttling the room for survival of small business operators?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development
*17. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the utilization of indoor cultural, recreational and sports facilities under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the utilization rates of different types of venues at town halls, civic centres and sports complexes in various districts in the past three years;
| | (b) | whether it has identified which districts have a shortfall in cultural, recreational and sports facilities at present, and whether the new facilities required will be provided in such districts in the next two years; if so, of the details; and
| | (c) | given the significant changes in the population structure of certain districts over the past two decades, whether it has assessed if the existing cultural, recreational and sports facilities in various districts can still meet the needs of the people of different age groups, particularly youth and the elderly?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs
*18. Hon Albert HO to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it knows, since 1 January 2007, the total number of unwed pregnant girls aged under 18 who eventually terminated their pregnancy or gave birth in hospitals, their average age and, among the babies involved, the number of those who are placed in the custody of the Social Welfare Department or social welfare organizations; and
| | (b) | of the assistance currently provided by the Government to unwed pregnant girls and unwed mothers, who are aged under 18, and whether it will provide additional resources to enhance the support and assistance to them?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Labour and Welfare
*19. Hon CHEUNG Hok-ming to ask: (Translation)
In October 2004, the former Environment, Transport and Works Bureau issued a circular requesting all bureaux and departments to maintain the indoor temperature of offices at 25.5 degree Celsius in summer months, unless there are special operational needs. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | how the figures on electricity expenditure and consumption after implementing the above measure in Government offices compare with the previous ones;
| | (b) | whether it knows which public organizations have followed the Government's practice, and how the electricity expenditure and consumption levels of these organizations after they have implemented such a measure compare with the previous levels; and
| | (c) | whether it has assessed the effectiveness of the measure in energy conservation; if it has, of the assessment results, if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment
*20. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)
At present, many old roads (e.g. those in the Mid-levels on Hong Kong Island and the rural areas in the New Territories, etc.) were built according to past design standards, and coupled with geographical constraints, the carriageways and pedestrian ways are winding and narrow, with certain road sections not even been provided with facilities such as pedestrian ways or railings separating pedestrians from carriageways. Some members of the public have pointed out that traffic accidents are prone to occur when using such roads. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it has assessed the above state in the Mid-levels on Hong Kong Island and the rural areas in the New Territories, etc.; if so, of the names of the roads in such a state and the assessment outcome, and whether it has studied the feasibility of improving and widening such roads; if such a study has been conducted, of the outcome; and if it is feasible to improve and widen such roads, whether the authorities have set a timetable for implementing the improvement works; if such a study has not been conducted, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing
*For written reply.
III. Bills
Second Reading (Debate to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading
| | Munsang College and Heep Yunn School (Change of Corporate Names and General Amendments) Bill 2008 | : | Secretary for Education
| IV. Members' Bills
Second Reading (Debate to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading
| | Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Charity Foundation Bill | : | Hon Mrs Selina CHOW |
V. Members' Motions
- Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
Hon CHAN Kam-lam to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that in relation to the -
| (a) | Trade Descriptions (Provision of Information on Natural Fei Cui) Order, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 79 of 2008;
| | (b) | Trade Descriptions (Provision of Information on Diamond) Order, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 80 of 2008;
| | (c) | Trade Descriptions (Provision of Information on Regulated Electronic Products) Order, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 81 of 2008;
| | (d) | Trade Descriptions (Marking) (Gold and Gold Alloy) (Amendment) Order 2008, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 82 of 2008;
| | (e) | Trade Descriptions (Marking) (Platinum) (Amendment) Order 2008, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 83 of 2008; and
| | (f) | Trade Descriptions (Definition of Platinum) (Amendment) Regulation 2008, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 84 of 2008,
| | and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 23 April 2008, the period for amending subsidiary legislation referred to in section 34(2) of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 1) be extended under section 34(4) of that Ordinance to the meeting of 11 June 2008.
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- Perfecting lawn facilities in parks
Hon Bernard CHAN: (Translation)
That this Council urges that the Government should, in the course of urban planning, including the development of future projects such as the West Kowloon Cultural District and the New Central Harbourfront, study the planting of more lawns in the open spaces planned to be provided, allocate more resources for the maintenance of lawns, make available individual lawns for use by the public and reduce unnecessary regulatory control, so that members of the public, especially small children, can better enjoy these public facilities.
| Amendments to motion
| | (i) | Hon WONG Kwok-hing: (Translation)
To add ", as there is a serious shortage of lawn resources for public use in Hong Kong," after "That"; to add "along the existing waterfront promenades such as the Tsing Yi and Tsuen Wan sections, and" after "the Government should,"; to delete "and" after "the West Kowloon Cultural District" and substitute with ","; to add "and the waterfront from Tsuen Wan to Tuen Mun in New Territories West" after "the New Central Harbourfront"; to delete "planned to be provided" after "in the open spaces"; to delete "individual" after "make available"; to add "which are not closed for maintenance" before "for use by the public"; and to add "greening" after "these public".
| | (ii) | Hon Audrey EU: (Translation)
To add ", in view of the aggravating heat island effect," after "That"; to add "increase greened areas on the ground," after "urban planning,"; to delete "study the planting of more lawns in the open spaces planned to be provided" after "the New Central Harbourfront," and substitute with "and provide more open spaces throughout the territory and plant more lawns in those open spaces"; and to add "while the greening ratio in urban areas can also be increased as a whole" immediately before the full stop.
| | (iii) | Hon Mrs Selina CHOW: (Translation)
To add ", with the increasing demand of the community for public open space," after "That"; to add "new towns in the New Territories," after "such as"; to add ", the Kai Tak Development" after "the West Kowloon Cultural District"; to delete "spaces" after "in the open" and substitute with "space"; to delete "and" after "by the public" and substitute with ","; and to add "and extend the relevant criteria to the existing lawns managed by the Government" after "regulatory control".
| | (iv) | Hon James TO: (Translation)
To add ", in order to effectively utilize public open spaces," after "That"; to delete "study" after "the New Central Harbourfront," and substitute with "apart from studying"; to delete ", make available individual lawns for use by the public and" after "maintenance of lawns" and substitute with "throughout the territory, consider making available an appropriate proportion of lawns in public spaces for use by the public, draw up code of practice for management and use of lawns,"; to delete "so that" after "regulatory control," and substitute with "and increase pedestrian walkways to connect lawns and related facilities in the open spaces, so as to facilitate the access of"; and to delete "can better enjoy" after "small children," and substitute with "to and their better enjoyment of".
| | (v) | Hon CHOY So-yuk: (Translation)
To add "as far as possible" after "more lawns"; to delete ", allocate more resources for the maintenance of lawns" after "to be provided" and substitute with "and on the rooftops of buildings located in the open spaces, while at the same time allocating more resources for the maintenance of lawns and improving their maintenance work, including utilzing as far as possible solar energy facilities and providing additional rainwater and grey water recycling facilities, and as far as possible using pervious materials for the land formation works of open spaces beside the lawns, etc"; and to add ", fully utilizing the function of parks to relieve people's urban stress" immediately before the full stop.
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Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Home Affairs
- Legislating to strengthen the protection for the rights and interests of property buyers
Hon Albert Jinghan CHENG: (Translation)
That, the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS) issued a Supplement to the Code of Measuring Practice (the Supplement) on 5 February this year to spell out more clearly the way of measuring the saleable area of properties and require that the saleable area and items of ancillary accommodation, such as bay window, garden, flat roof, etc, should be separately measured and stated, but some estate developers have instantly indicated that they have no intention of complying with the Supplement; in order to prevent the public from being confused by the varying definitions of saleable area and suffered losses when buying properties, this Council calls on the Government to require by way of legislation that when uncompleted and completed flats are offered for sale by developers, the saleable area specified in the sales brochures must be measured in the way prescribed in the Supplement issued by HKIS, and the saleable area so measured be used as the basis for calculating the average price per square foot of the properties, so as to protect the rights and interests of consumers.
| Amendments to motion
| | (i) | Hon LEE Wing-tat: (Translation)
To add "the Government proposed to legislate for the regulation of sales descriptions of uncompleted flats in 2000 but so far the proposal has not been implemented;" after "That,"; to add "expeditiously revise the Consent Scheme and legislate to" after "calls on the Government to"; to delete "by way of legislation" before "that when uncompleted"; and to add "and clear price lists be provided," after "the properties,".
| | (ii) | Hon CHAN Kam-lam: (Translation)
To delete "(HKIS)" after "the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors"; to delete "require" after "calls on the Government to" and substitute with "adopt appropriate measures, including considering"; to add "to require" after "by way of legislation"; to delete "measured in the way prescribed in the Supplement issued by HKIS" after "the sales brochures must be" and substitute with "calculated in a uniform way"; to delete "measured" after "the saleable area so" and substitute with "computed"; and to add "; and to strengthen publicity and education for consumers to enhance their knowledge in the calculation of property area etc" after "the properties".
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Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Transport and Housing
Clerk to the Legislative Council
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