A 07/08-29

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 21 May 2008 at 11:00 am

I. Tabling of Papers
Subsidiary Legislation / InstrumentsL.N. No.
1.International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) (Bank for International Settlements) Order116/2008
2.International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) (International Monetary Fund) Order117/2008
3.International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Finance Corporation) Order118/2008
4.Legislative Council Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule 5) Order 2008119/2008
5.Maximum Amount of Election Expenses (Legislative Council Election) Regulation120/2008
6.Securities and Futures (Levy) (Amendment) Order 2008121/2008
7.Securities and Futures (Investor Compensation - Levy) (Amendment) Rules 2008122/2008
8.Air Pollution Control (Fuel Restriction) (Amendment) Regulation 2008123/2008
9.Building (Planning) (Amendment) Regulation 2008124/2008
10.Building (Refuse Storage and Material Recovery Chambers and Refuse Chutes) (Amendment) Regulation 2008125/2008
11.Control of Chemicals (Amendment) Regulation 2008126/2008
12.Dutiable Commodities (Amendment) Regulation 2008127/2008
13.Firearms and Ammunition (Amendment) Regulation 2008128/2008
14.Firearms and Ammunition (Storage Fees) (Amendment) Order 2008129/2008
15.Pawnbrokers (Amendment) Regulation 2008130/2008
16.Massage Establishments (Amendment) Regulation 2008131/2008
17.Telecommunications (Carrier Licences) (Amendment) Regulation 2008132/2008
18.Telecommunications (Level of Spectrum Utilization Fees) (Second Generation Mobile Services) (Amendment) Regulation 2008133/2008
19.Registration of Persons (Invalidation of Identity Cards) Order 2008134/2008
20.Antiquities and Monuments (Declaration of Historical Buildings) Notice 2008135/2008
21.Noise Control (Construction Work Designated Areas) (Amendment) Notice 2008136/2008
22.Companies Ordinance (Amendment of Eighth Schedule) Order 2008137/2008
23.Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 2003 (Commencement) Notice 2008138/2008
24.Companies (Amendment) Ordinance 2004 (Commencement) Notice 2008139/2008
25.Certification for Employee Benefits (Chinese Medicine) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 2006 (Commencement) Notice 2008140/2008
26.Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance 2007 (Commencement) (No. 3) Notice 2008141/2008
27.Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance 2007 (Commencement) (No. 4) Notice 2008142/2008
28.Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) Ordinance 2008 (Commencement) Notice143/2008

Other Papers

1.No. 95-Report of changes to the approved Estimates of Expenditure approved during the fourth quarter of 2007-2008 (Public Finance Ordinance : Section 8)
(to be presented by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury)

2.No. 96-The Government Minute in response to the Report No. 49 of the Public Accounts Committee dated February 2008
(to be presented by the Chief Secretary for Administration, who will address the Council)

II. Questions

1. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)

The Government is now consulting the public again on the enactment of a competition law. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)as the public discussion document issued in November 2006 recommended that seven types of anti-competitive conduct be covered in the competition law, yet the latest consultation paper only covers four of them, leaving out "joint boycotts", "unfair or discriminatory standards" and "abuse of a dominant market position (such as predatory pricing)", of its rationale for doing so; whether it has assessed if this approach runs contrary to the consensus in the community of widely supporting a competition law in Hong Kong;

    (b)while the Government proposes that fines up to $10 million may be imposed by the Competition Commission, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development indicated some days ago that depending on different cases, the level of fines could be increased to 10% of total turnover during the period when the infringement occurred, whether it can elucidate further the meaning of "depending on different cases"; whether it has assessed if such a practice will lead to grey areas in the competition law and hence resulting in enforcement difficulties; and

    (c)as the Government has proposed that the competition law will not apply to the Government or statutory bodies, whether it has assessed if the approach which does not regulate government conduct giving rise to a monopolistic and anti-competitive situation will render utility undertakers providing water, electricity, gas and postal services as well as their activities being also excluded from the application of the competition law, and if the effectiveness of the competition law will be undermined as a result; whether it will make reference to the practice of foreign countries and study how granting such exclusion on an across-the-board basis can be avoided?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development

2. Hon Ronny TONG Ka-wah to ask: (Translation)

The Mainland and Hong Kong signed the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement ("CEPA") in 2003. Liberalization measures under CEPA I to III have come into effect respectively since 1 January of 2004, 2005 and 2006. Regarding the liberalization measures applicable to the film industry, will the Government this Council:
    (a)whether it knows the respective numbers of relevant applications in respect of the following six measures since their implementation:

    under CEPA I: Chinese language motion pictures produced in Hong Kong are allowed to be imported for distribution on the Mainland on a quota-free basis after vetting and approval; motion pictures jointly produced by Hong Kong and the Mainland are allowed to be treated as Mainland motion pictures for the purpose of distribution on the Mainland; under CEPA II: Hong Kong service suppliers are allowed to establish wholly-owned companies on the Mainland on a pilot basis; these companies are allowed to engage in the distribution of Mainland-produced motion pictures; under CEPA III: the Cantonese version of motion pictures co-produced by Hong Kong and the Mainland are allowed to be distributed and screened respectively in Guangdong Province after obtaining approval;

    (b)among the aforesaid cases, the respective numbers of approved cases with and without amendments, rejected cases and the reasons concerned, as well as those under consideration; and

    (c)of the measures the Government currently has to help film service suppliers of Hong Kong tackle various administrative barriers on the Mainland and fully make use of the advantages provided by the liberalization measures under CEPA, so as to enable more Hong Kong-invested motion pictures to be distributed and screened on the Mainland?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development

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

It has been reported that the air quality in Guangdong and Hong Kong and the roadside air quality in Hong Kong have both shown signs of deterioration. In the Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network - A Report of Monitoring Results in 2007 published last month, the Government pointed out that the average number of air pollution exceedance days recorded in Guangdong and Hong Kong last year was nearly 34% of the total number of days in the year, representing an increase of 2.19% compared with that of the year before. It has also been reported that although the Hong Kong Government had spent almost $700 million of public money in the past five years to improve roadside air quality, roadside air pollution in Hong Kong in the first quarter of this year was the worst among the records since 2000 when they were first kept, with the number of exceedance hours exceeding 10% of the total number of hours, and the number of exceedance hours in Central even reached 310, which was the worst in the past nine years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the number of complaints relating to the air quality and roadside air quality in Hong Kong received by the Government in the past three years;

    (b)besides meteorological factors, whether the Government will assess what other factors attribute to the deterioration of the air quality in Guangdong and Hong Kong and the roadside air quality in Hong Kong; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

    (c)apart from the measures mentioned in the paper provided for the meeting of this Council's Panel on Environmental Affairs on 28 January this year, what other countermeasures focusing on the above state of deterioration of the two kinds of air quality the authorities have put in place?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment

4. Hon Audrey EU to ask: (Translation)

Recently, a number of government departments, statutory bodies and business corporations have lost equipment and devices containing personal data. These incidents have been described by some media as a "privacy disaster". In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of its remedial measures, apart from issuing circulars or guidelines relating to the internal procedure on information security; whether it knows the remedial actions taken by the statutory bodies and business corporations concerned, including whether they have notified the affected members of the public; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b)of the channels through which members of the public may lodge complaints and claims when their personal data have been negligently handled by government departments, statutory bodies or business corporations; and

    (c)in view of this "privacy disaster", whether it will consider amending the law to expand the power of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, as well as enacting laws on the management of government records to specify clearly the authority of and restrictions on government departments in handling personal data, so as to strengthen the protection of the privacy of the public; if it will amend the law, of the timetable; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs

5. Hon Mrs Selina CHOW to ask: (Translation)

Since 2003, the Government has adopted new measures in respect of the tendering arrangements for petrol filling station ("PFS") sites, which include putting up existing PFS sites for tender upon the expiry of their leases instead of having the tenancy renewed automatically, and putting up PFS sites for tender in batches, as well as allowing tenderers to submit a single bid for all the sites in a tender, with a view to facilitating new market players in acquiring a commercially viable number of sites to achieve economy of scale. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)in the past three years, of the respective numbers of PFS sites which had been put up for tender in the market or resumed by the authorities for alternative planning upon the expiry of their original leases;

    (b)of the average time gap between expiry of the original lease and commencement of a new one in respect of the PFS sites put up for tender referred to in (a); and

    (c)whether the authorities have assessed the effectiveness of the above new tendering arrangements in enhancing competition in the local auto-fuel retail market?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment

6. Ir Dr Hon HO Chung-tai to ask: (Translation)

In reply to my question raised at the meeting of this Council on 23 May 2007, the former Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works indicated that under regulation 3 of the Road Traffic (Traffic Control) Regulations, the Commissioner for Transport might erect on a road traffic signs to prohibit a driver from using a vehicle audible warning device within a restricted area, and that under regulation 59, the Police might prosecute any driver who failed to comply with the traffic signs. The Secretary had also undertaken to work in collaboration with the Police to examine the possibility of enhancing the efficiency of law enforcement. Yet, the situation of noises created by drivers indiscriminately sounding horns has so far not improved and, on the contrary, has shown signs of deterioration. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the current number of districts in Hong Kong where traffic signs have been erected to prohibit drivers from sounding horns within restricted areas;

    (b)given that at the meeting of the Council's Panel on Environmental Affairs on 28 April this year, the representative of the Environmental Protection Department pointed out that all districts in Hong Kong were subject to regulation 43 of the above Regulations and, therefore, drivers must not sound horns indiscriminately or they would be prosecuted, whether the authorities will issue guidelines to police officers on duty to enhance law enforcement in all districts, including "silent zones"; and

    (c)what publicity and educational work focusing on indiscriminate sounding of horns by drivers was undertaken by the authorities last year?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing

*7. Hon TAM Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)

A number of prisoners serving long-term sentences have relayed to me that despite their determination to rehabilitate themselves, they have great difficulty in meeting the existing criteria for applying for the review of long-term sentences, making it difficult for their sentences to be remitted. Moreover, they have indicated that the rehabilitative services of the Correctional Services Department fail to effectively assist discharged prisoners in integrating into society. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the following in the past three years:

    (i)the total number of prisoners whose sentences had been reviewed by the Long-term Prison Sentences Review Board ("LPSRB");

    (ii)the number of cases in which LPSRB suggested that the indeterminate sentences be commuted to determinate ones; and

    (iii)the respective numbers of prisoners ordered by LPSRB to be released conditionally and put under supervision after release;

    (b)whether it will review the existing criteria for applying for sentence review; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

    (c)whether it will further enhance the existing rehabilitative services to assist prisoners in acquiring work skills and integrating into society; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

*8. Hon Mrs Anson CHAN to ask:

There have been comments that the recent seasonal outbreaks of influenza, enterovirus, respiratory and other infectious diseases are placing enormous pressure on the staff and other resources of subvented non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") which operate residential child care centres and children's homes. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)when the Social Welfare Department last conducted a systematic review of the adequacy of the capital and recurrent subsidies provided to the above NGOs to meet staff costs and other operating expenses; and

    (b)whether it has assessed if the staffing and operating standards for NGOs, which are currently recognized for subvention purposes, are adequate to protect the health and welfare of children under the care of such organizations; if it has, of the outcome of the assessment?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Labour and Welfare

*9. Hon Howard YOUNG to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that owing to high oil prices and keen competition in the aviation industry, a number of overseas airlines announced earlier that there were risks of ceasing business due to operating difficulties. Such airlines were allowed to continue operation under bankruptcy protection orders to minimize the impact of immediately ceasing business. However, an airline in Hong Kong recently announced its immediate winding-up and cessation of business, affecting more than 30 000 passengers, some travel agents were also affected, and hundreds of million dollars were involved. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether it will consider making reference to overseas practices and introduce bankruptcy protection to prevent the recurrence of cases in which airlines with operating difficulties wind up and cease business immediately, which will have serious impact on the passengers, travel agents, and employees concerned, as well as tarnish the reputation of Hong Kong's aviation industry; and

    (b)given that under the existing winding-up arrangements, which are applicable to airlines, passengers and travel agents, not being preferential creditors, may ultimately not be awarded any compensation if an airline is unable to pay its debts with all its assets, whether the Government has made reference to the arrangements of the Travel Industry Compensation Fund and considered setting up a fund to protect passengers and travel agents against losses due to closing down of airlines; if such consideration has been made, when the relevant plan will be implemented; if not, of the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing

*10. Hon Albert HO to ask: (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council of:
    (a)the number of children placed in foster families and the number of foster families newly registered in each of the past three years;

    (b)the number of cases in which foster families ceased to provide foster care service in the past three years, the respective numbers of such cases in which the provision of the service was ceased at the request of the families concerned and the Social Welfare Department ("SWD"), and the number of such cases involving criminal offences or requiring follow-up actions by the Police; and

    (c)the current average unit cost of the foster care service, the average amounts of allowance and incentive payment currently received monthly by foster parents, and whether SWD had adjusted the amounts of such allowance and incentive payment in the past three years; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Labour and Welfare

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

Regarding the Government's provision of recurrent subsidies to direct subsidy schools ("DSSs"), will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)as the Government determines the amount of recurrent subsidy for a DSS on the basis of the "average unit cost" of an aided school place, of the respective expenditure items of aided primary and secondary schools which have been excluded from the calculation of the average unit cost; and whether the Government has, in the calculation of the average unit cost of an aided school place, included the expenditure incurred by the Social Welfare Department for the provision of grants covering schooling expenses to students on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance; if not, of the details and reasons for that, and whether it has assessed if such a practice will make the amount of subsidy received by a DSS actually lower than that of an aided school;

    (b)whether it has assessed whether and how the implementation of the new senior secondary academic structure will affect the amount of recurrent subsidy allocated to a DSS; and

    (c)as the Education Bureau calculates the recurrent subsidies for DSSs on the basis of the average unit cost of an aided school place in the previous school year, whether the Administration is aware that the additional expenditure incurred for the preparation for the new senior secondary academic structure, such as teacher training, by aided schools will only be reflected in its grants to DSSs in the next school year; whether the Administration will consider providing the additional subsidies required for the preparation for the new senior secondary academic structure concurrently to aided schools and DSSs, so as to avoid DSSs having to face financial difficulties as a result of such additional expenditure?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education

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

Regarding the emergency ambulance service ("EAS") of the Fire Services Department ("FSD"), will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)among the ambulances deployed to provide the above service, of the respective numbers of those which were damaged, replaced or procured in the past five years, broken down by the divisions under the Ambulance Command of FSD, as well as the numbers of emergency ambulance calls received by various divisions in the same period;

    (b)of the number of cases (except special cases involving incidents in remote rural areas), in each of the past five years, in which ambulances failed to arrive at the scene of incident within 12 minutes of receiving emergency ambulance calls, the districts with relatively higher ratio of such cases and the reasons for that, and whether the situation was related to the insufficient number of ambulances;

    (c)of the number of times ambulances were deployed to provide cross-district EAS in the past five years; and

    (d)whether the authorities have, on the basis of the above figures, assessed if the existing EAS is adequate?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

*13. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)

The Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance (Cap. 572), which aims to upgrade the fire safety standards of private composite and domestic buildings built in or before 1987, has come into operation in three phases since 1 July last year, with the first phase targeting at 5 000 private composite buildings built in or before 1973. To complement the operation of the Ordinance, the Fire Services Department ("FSD") and Buildings Department ("BD") have commenced inspection of buildings and served fire safety directions in respect of fire safety measures to the owners concerned. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the number of target buildings in each District Council district, and the respective numbers of such buildings which have been inspected and need to improve their fire safety measures;

    (b)given that FSD and BD will, according to actual circumstances, permit owners to adopt alternative measures (such as installing a water tank of smaller capacity) in lieu of the fire safety measures required in the Ordinance, of the number of buildings which have so far been approved to adopt alternative measures, with the figure broken down by such measures;

    (c)as some property owners have told me that BD recently served orders on them for replacement of the main gates of their units but FSD had not contacted them on other fire safety matters, whether FSD and BD have had coordination over their inspection work so that the owners concerned can conduct the required fire safety works in one go; and

    (d)for buildings not being the target of the first phase of the Ordinance, whether BD will take the initiative to inform FSD to inspect such buildings when the former serves to the owners concerned orders for removal of unauthorized building works; if it will, of the number of such buildings which have been inspected by FSD so far?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

*14. Dr Hon David LI to ask:

For many years, Hong Kong has served as an intermediary for passengers and cargoes travelling between the Mainland and Taiwan. However, the planned "Three Direct Links" across the Taiwan Strait following the election victory of Ma Ying-jeou has raised concern that Hong Kong will see its above role diminishing in future. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether it has estimated the potential economic loss to Hong Kong once the "Three Direct Links" are established; if it has, of the outcome; and

    (b)whether it will consider implementing a policy to take advantage of the opportunities arising from the closer links across the Taiwan Strait, including but not limited to encouraging Taiwanese corporations to list on the stock exchange of Hong Kong and promoting Hong Kong as an arbitration centre?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development

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

In the press release issued on 19 February this year regarding the circulation of nude photos of artistes on the Internet, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data ("the Commissioner's Office") stated that there was a pressing need for the authorities to consider amending the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) ("the Ordinance") by making it an offence to, without the consent of a data user, intentionally obtain or disclose the personal data held or leaked by the data user or sell the personal data so obtained. In addition, in reply to a question raised by a Member of this Council on 20 February this year, the authorities advised that making non-compliance with the data protection principles an offence would have a significant impact on civil liberty as a data user would face criminal liability for an inadvertent act or omission. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
    (a)whether they know if the Commissioner's Office has conducted public consultation on the proposal to amend the Ordinance; if it has, of the outcome of the consultation; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b)whether the authorities will appoint independent persons to review the Ordinance and provide an objective analysis;

    (c)whether they have assessed if the Commissioner's Office has adequate resources and power to investigate and handle the several recent incidents in which equipment and devices containing personal data were lost; and

    (d)as the authorities have advised that even with the imposition of an express mandatory legal responsibility on data users to inform the privacy authority and the persons affected when there are problems with the security of data or leakage of the personal data held by them, it cannot prevent data leakage, of the authorities' alternative proposed measures that can prevent data leakage, and whether the authorities will consider the proposal of the Commissioner's Office to amend the Ordinance?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs

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

Regarding food safety of canned food, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the total number of complaints received in the past three years from members of the public alleging that they felt unwell following the consumption of canned food;

    (b)of the details of its work in conducting regular laboratory sample tests on canned food products sold at supermarkets and small stores, the number of canned food samples found in the past three years to have failed to meet the food safety requirements and the relevant details, as well as the follow-up actions taken, including the number of warning letters issued to the retailers concerned; and

    (c)whether it has assessed if the situation of retailers selling canned food products not imported through local dealers is common at present, and as such canned food products may not have gone through the food quality inspection procedure at their places of origin, whether a greater number of canned food samples have been collected by the authorities for testing?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health

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

As reported, an epidemic of enteroviral infections among young children has swept through a number of mainland cities in recent months, resulting in several thousand hospital admissions and dozens of deaths so far. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether it has grasped the latest information about the epidemic on the Mainland, including the types of viral strains found in such cases in various places, the transmission mode of the disease, the mutation of the virus, etc., and whether it has, based on the relevant information, assessed the risk of an outbreak of an epidemic of enteroviral infections in Hong Kong; if it has, of the results; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b)of the number of enteroviral illness cases found in Hong Kong in recent months; whether it has analyzed the transmission mode for such cases and the trend of infections, as well as compared them with the epidemic on the Mainland; if so, of the results of analysis; and

    (c)of the specific measures to prevent a local outbreak of an epidemic of enteroviral infections, for example, whether it will strengthen monitoring and raise the hygiene levels in high-risk places such as child care centres and kindergartens, and expeditiously disseminate information about the epidemic to members of the public?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health

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

The Chief Executive announced in last year's Policy Address that starting from the 2009-2010 school year, small-class teaching would be implemented by phases in Primary One of public primary schools. Subsequently, the Education Bureau ("EDB") advised the Panel on Education of this Council in February this year that they had been "reviewing the class sizes of the different categories of special schools with regard to their practical needs and will further discuss with stakeholders in the coming months". In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
    (a)the criteria adopted by EDB for reviewing the class sizes of various categories of special schools, including schools for children with visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical disability, intellectual disability, as well as schools for social development and hospital schools; a breakdown of such criteria should they vary among school categories; and

    (b)the latest progress of EDB's review on the class sizes of special schools; whether EDB has plans to announce the review results and revise the class sizes within the current school year; if it has, of the details, including the announcement date; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education

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

Regarding the recent several incidents of loss of patient information by health care workers of the Department of Health and public hospitals, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the total number of reports received since May last year by the authorities on the loss of patient information by the above health care workers, and among such cases, the number of those in which electronic devices were used for storing the information concerned, as well as the circumstances under which the health care workers involved lost such information;

    (b)of the details of the guidelines and codes drawn up by the authorities on access to patients' medical records by health care workers of various ranks (including the circumstances under which health care workers may take information of the patients concerned out of the hospitals or offices, and whether health care workers are allowed to store patient information by any means on their own initiative); and

    (c)whether the authorities will consider providing training courses on security of electronic data for health care workers, in order to enhance their awareness of security in handling patient information by means of electronic devices?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health

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

In 2003, the Government provided to this Council the criteria for appointing members of the District Councils ("DCs"), one of which being that candidates who took part and were not elected in the 2003 DC election would not be appointed as DC members. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)among the appointed DC members of the current term, of the number of those who were candidates and were not elected in the 2003 DC election, as well as their names and DCs to which they belong;

    (b)of the reasons why the Government appointed such persons as DC members of the current term; and

    (c)whether it has assessed if the appointment of such persons has contravened the above appointment criterion; if it has, of the outcome of the assessment; if the assessment outcome is in the affirmative, the remedial measures to be taken; if the assessment outcome is in the negative, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
(in the absence of Secretary for Home Affairs)

*For written reply.

III. Members' Motions

  1. Proposed resolution under the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance

    Hon James TO to move the following motion:

    RESOLVED that in relation to the Fugitive Offenders (Transnational Organized Crime) Order, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 78 of 2008 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 23 April 2008, the period for repealing an order referred to in section 3(3) of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance (Cap. 503) be extended under section 3(5) of that Ordinance to the meeting of 11 June 2008.

  2. Inclusion of general holidays as statutory holidays

    Hon LEE Cheuk-yan: (Translation)

    That this Council urges the Government to amend the Employment Ordinance to progressively include all general holidays other than Sundays as paid statutory holidays.

    Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Labour and Welfare
Clerk to the Legislative Council