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A 07/08-33
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 18 June 2008 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
Papers
| 1. | Report of the Bills Committee on Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2007
| (to be presented by Hon James TIEN, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
| | 2. | Report of the Bills Committee on Trade Descriptions (Amendment) Bill 2007
| (to be presented by Hon Fred LI, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
| | 3. | Report of the Bills Committee on Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2007
| (to be presented by Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
| | 4. | Report of the Bills Committee on Buildings (Amendment) Bill 2007
| | (to be presented by Hon KWONG Chi-kin, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
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IA. Addresses
Hon Margaret NG to address the Council on the Rules of the High Court (Amendment) Rules 2008, Rules of the District Court (Amendment) Rules 2008, High Court Fees (Amendment) Rules 2008, High Court Suitors' Funds (Amendment) Rules 2008, District Court Civil Procedure (Fees) (Amendment) Rules 2008, District Court Suitors' Funds (Amendment) Rules 2008 and Lands Tribunal (Amendment) Rules 2008, which are subsidiary legislation laid on the Table of the Council on 11 June 2008.
II. Questions
1. Hon Andrew CHENG to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that certain route groupings under concessionary bus-bus interchange ("BBI") schemes implemented by franchised bus companies have very small or even zero daily patronage. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the details of various route groupings under the current concessionary BBI schemes, broken down by franchised bus companies and the districts served by the routes concerned, including the route numbers and fares, interchange arrangements, interchange fare discounts and the average daily number of passengers receiving the concession; and whether it knows if the various franchised bus companies have plans to introduce new concessionary route groupings in the coming 12 months; if they have such plans, of the details;
| | (b) | whether the Transport Department ("TD") will assess the number of passengers who will benefit from the route groupings concerned when it examines the concessionary interchange route groupings proposed by franchised bus companies; if so, whether TD will approve those route groupings assessed to have relatively low patronage; if it will not make such an assessment, of the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | whether it had, in the past five years, assessed the effectiveness of the concessionary BBI schemes in alleviating the burden of travelling expenses on the public; if so, of the assessment outcome; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing
2. Hon Jeffrey LAM Kin-fung to ask: (Translation)
Starting from the 2004-2005 school year, new Chinese and English language teachers of primary and secondary schools must hold a Bachelor of Education degree majoring in the relevant language subject, or both a first or higher degree majoring in the relevant language subject and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education or Postgraduate Certificate in Education majoring in the same language subject. Language teachers without the above qualifications have to acquire them within three to five years of their entry into the profession. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | among the new language teachers recruited in each of the school years after the introduction of the above qualification requirements, of the respective numbers and percentages of them having such qualifications when they joined the profession, together with a breakdown by primary versus secondary schools and the language subjects they teach; of the number of new teachers who have failed to acquire the relevant qualifications within the stated period and the number of them who are thus disallowed to continue teaching the relevant subjects;
| | (b) | among the serving language teachers who joined the profession before the 2004-2005 school year, of the number and percentage of them who have not yet acquired the relevant qualifications, together with a breakdown by the types of their schools and the language subjects they teach; whether the Administration has planned to set a deadline for these teachers to acquire the relevant qualifications; if not, of the reasons for that; and
| | (c) | since the 2004-2005 school year, of the number of serving language teachers who have fulfilled the relevant qualification requirements by taking recognized courses, and the situation of their applying for grants of tuition under the Professional Development Incentive Grant Scheme for Language Teachers, set up pursuant to the proposal of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research, including the respective numbers of applications received and approved each year?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for the Civil Service
(in the absence of Secretary for Education) |
3. Hon TAM Heung-man to ask: (Translation)
The Government announced earlier a list of newly appointed Under Secretaries and Political Assistants to Directors of Bureaux, some of whom have already reported for duty. So far, there is still public opinion which criticizes the political appointment system (including recruitment, selection, remuneration and work arrangement, etc.). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the details regarding the criteria adopted by the Appointment Committee for the recruitment and selection of the above posts, and whether the Government will consider reviewing the relevant procedures and criteria to enhance transparency (including re-considering the conduct of open recruitment); if it will, of the relevant details; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (b) | as I have learnt that there are civil servants expressing dissatisfaction with the above political appointment system (including level of salaries and work arrangement, etc.), whether the Government has adopted any measures to prevent the system from affecting the morale of civil servants; if it has, of the details of such measures; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
4. Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask: (Translation)
Some doctors of the United Christian Hospital ("UCH") have relayed to me that because of insufficient resources and space, the hospital is facing various difficulties, which include the lack of rehabilitation beds, not having certain specialty services (e.g. neurosurgery and oncology) and shortage of consultation rooms in Kwun Tong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it knows if the resources allocated to UCH will be further reduced, and if the outpatient consultation rooms of UCH have to be split into two with partition screens due to shortage of consultation rooms, in order that more patients can be treated at the same time; if there is such situation, whether the authorities have assessed if measures need to be drawn up to improve the situation;
| | (b) | of the measures to enable Kwun Tong residents to receive neurosurgery, oncology and in-patient rehabilitation services within the district; and
| | (c) | whether it knows why the Hospital Authority has not expeditiously implemented the project to demolish the nursing quarters of UCH for in-situ expansion of the hospital to help ease the plight of UCH, and whether the authorities will provide assistance to facilitate the implementation of the project this year?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
5. Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | apart from the review of the income ceiling for full grant assistance under the various financial assistance schemes provided by the Government for secondary, primary and kindergarten students conducted in 2006, when the Government last conducted other reviews on such schemes; whether it has revised the schemes following the reviews; if it has, of the details of the revisions, with a breakdown by scheme;
| | (b) | of the mechanism for adjusting the amounts of assistance provided under such schemes, and how the amounts of assistance are determined; and
| | (c) | whether currently the authorities have plans to review the above financial assistance schemes again, including adjusting upwards the household income ceiling of the applicants; if they have, when they will conduct the reviews and when the relevant revisions will take effect; if not, of the reasons for that?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for the Civil Service
(in the absence of Secretary for Education)
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*6. Hon Audrey EU to ask: (Translation)
At present, trees affected by working projects are being transplanted to certain sites designated by the Government ("government receptor sites"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of its annual expenditure on tree transplantation in each of the past three financial years;
| | (b) | of the number, broken down by tree type, of trees being transplanted to the government receptor sites each year between 2005 and 2007;
| | (c) | over the past three years, whether the relevant works staff had pruned the trees being transported to government receptor sites for the purpose of complying with the vehicle volumetric loading provisions in the road traffic legislation; and
| | (d) | of the respective five-year and 10-year survival rates of trees being transplanted to the government receptor sites after their transplantation?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Development
*7. Hon WONG Kwok-hing to ask: (Translation)
In the 2008-2009 Budget, the Financial Secretary proposed to waive rates for the current financial year, subject to a ceiling of $5,000 per quarter for each rateable tenement. This measure is applicable to the properties under the Hong Kong Housing Society ("HKHS"). In this connection, will the Government provide information on HKHS' refund to tenants of its properties of the rates concerned, and list the information according to the table below?
| Name of estate | Residential tenants | Commercial tenants | Car park tenants
| | Number | Whether the rates will be refunded to them(if so, of the total amount of refund) | Number | Whether the rates will be refunded to them(if so, of the total amount of refund) | Number | Whether the rates will be refunded to them(if so, of the total amount of refund)
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing
*8. Hon LEUNG Kwok-hung to ask: (Translation)
I have received a complaint from a resident in Fung Yuen Village of Tai Po pointing out that as his home is encircled by small houses built one after another in recent years, he has to seek the consent of the owners of the nearby houses to pass through their private lots in order to go out of and back to his own home, which causes him great inconvenience. I visited the place concerned with staff of the Tai Po District Lands Office, and found that what he had complained was true. In reply to my enquiry, the Tai Po District Lands Office advised that as the above case involved private land ownership, the Office was not in a position to intervene. In addition, under the new Fire Safety Requirements implemented by the Government with effect from 1 July 2006, if less than 10 houses are located within a circle with a radius of 30 metres measured from a proposed small house site, the provision of an emergency vehicular access ("EVA") is not required, but fire safety alternatives must be implemented instead. According to the Tai Po District Lands Office, the above case belongs to such a situation. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | since the implementation of the above new Fire Safety Requirements, of the number of small houses in the New Territories which have been exempted from the provision of EVA, and whether the authorities are required to inspect the small houses where fire safety alternatives are implemented; if so, of the number of such inspections conducted so far, and whether there are cases of non-compliance with the requirements; if so, of the number of cases of non-compliance;
| | (b) | of the total number of complaints received by the New Territories district lands offices since 1 July 2006 regarding the obstruction of access to small houses; and
| | (c) | given that the provision of EVA is to ensure that in case of emergency, emergency vehicles including fire engines and ambulances have ready access to the village houses, whether the authorities will consider amending the relevant legislation to ensure the access of emergency vehicles to villages in the New Territories, so as to avoid any delay in rescue and disaster relief operations?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Development
*9. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)
The Report of the Phase Two Review of the Post Secondary Education Sector recommends "the development of more self-financing degree-awarding institutions and private universities in Hong Kong" and anticipates that "the proposal to extend the Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students to support sub-degree students articulating in self-financing degree programmes would stimulate the demand for and supply of locally-accredited degree (and top-up degree) programmes". In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it knows the details of each self-financing or top-up degree programme offered by each institution in the past three years (including the number of places, entry requirements, annual tuition fee, annual number of graduates and the name of the institution awarding the degree);
| | (b) | whether it has set admission criteria for self-financing degree programmes offered by the University Grants Committee ("UGC")-funded institutions and private operators as well as for top-up degree programmes jointly offered by these institutions or operators and non-local institutions; if it has, of such criteria; if not, how the authorities ensure that the institutions only admit students who have attained a certain academic standard and will not admit students indiscriminately;
| | (c) | whether, according to the Government's policy, the admission, teaching and learning as well as exit standards of self-financing or top-up degree programmes offered by UGC-funded institutions should be consistent with those of their publicly-funded degree programmes, i.e. attaining the prescribed academic standards and quality control; if so, of the relevant mechanism; if not, how the authorities ensure the quality of self-financing degree programmes and how the public can tell the difference between the two types of degrees awarded by the same institution;
| | (d) | given that UGC-funded institutions have self-accrediting status, and therefore sub-degree programmes offered by their community colleges or continuing education arms are not required to undergo accreditation by external mechanism, whether it knows if the institutions have exercised quality control over the programmes offered and degrees awarded by their community colleges or continuing education arms; if they have, of the relevant mechanism; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (e) | whether community colleges or continuing education arms of UGC-funded institutions are entitled to award local degrees; if so, of the reasons for that, and how the authorities ensure the quality of the degrees awarded by community colleges; if not, whether there is any difference, in terms of academic standards and recognition, between the degree obtained by taking a subvented programme offered by UGC-funded institutions and one operated by their community colleges, and how the authorities ensure that the overall standards and international rankings of UGC-funded institutions will not be adversely affected by awarding degrees to graduates of their community college programmes;
| | (f) | what conditions community colleges of UGC-funded institutions and private operators must comply before they are allowed to become private universities; and what measures the Government has in place to ensure that these institutions have equal opportunities of development; and
| | (g) | whether the institutions are allowed to redeploy resources provided by the Government for operating sub-degree programmes to develop self-financing degree programmes; if so, whether the relevant institution have to obtain prior approval and what the assessment criteria are; if approval is not required, of the reasons for that?
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| Public Officer to reply | : | Secretary for the Civil Service
(in the absence of Secretary for Education) |
*10. Hon Albert HO to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the impact of the pollutants generated by the Castle Peak Power Station ("CPPS") on the environment of the Tuen Mun district, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | how the data obtained by the relevant department by measuring the concentrations of various types of air pollutants in Tuen Mun in the past five years compare to the relevant data for other districts, and whether the Government has assessed if the current air quality in Tuen Mun is poorer than that in other districts;
| | (b) | of the situation regarding the emission of air pollutants by CPPS in the past three years, and the Government's measures to ensure the CLP Power Hong Kong Limited provides to it accurate monitoring data in respect of CPPS; and
| | (c) | whether there are measures to monitor the impact of the fuel ashes generated by CPPS on the surrounding environment; if so, of the monitoring results for the past three years; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment
*11. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
On the reduction of light pollution, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | as the Government advised in its reply to my question on 28th of last month that over the past three years, there were a total of 48 complaints about the nuisance caused by lights from government facilities other than pitches/courts managed by government departments, street lamps and car parks inside public housing estates ("PHEs"), of a breakdown of such complaints by the receiving departments, the location and type of facilities involved in each complaint, and the remedial measures taken by the Government for each complaint;
| | (b) | as the Housing Authority has drawn up guidelines to ensure that the public will not be affected by outdoor lighting facilities of PHEs, when these guidelines were promulgated; whether any PHE fails to comply with these guidelines at present; if so, whether the Government has any plan to conduct a comprehensive review on street lamps and other luminous devices in various PHEs, and to take remedial measures to reduce light pollution; whether it has inspected PHEs to ensure that the Housing Department staff comply with the guidelines for installing and using outdoor lighting facilities in PHEs; if it has, whether incidents of non-compliance with these guidelines have been detected over the past three years;
| | (c) | as the Business Facilitation Advisory Committee has proposed to open up government slopes, street lamps and flyovers/footbridges for use as advertising spaces, whether guidelines or provisions on reducing light pollution caused by advertisements (such as prohibiting the installation of flashing advertisement signboards and restricting the brightness of advertising spotlights) have been set out in the advertising contracts granted by the Government; whether the Government has monitored if advertising lightboxes at bus stops and the relevant devices installed at other advertising spaces (the usage of which must have the approval of government departments) cause light pollution; and
| | (d) | as the Environmental Protection Department ("EPD") is currently not empowered to regulate light pollution and investigate such complaints whether the Government will enhance the role of EPD in this regard, such as assigning EPD to take up the responsibility of receiving complaints on light pollution?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment
*12. Hon Albert CHAN to ask: (Translation)
Since the end of June 2003, the fixed penalty for public cleanliness offences has been raised to $1,500, and with effect from 1 January 2007, the coverage of statutory no smoking areas is expanded, and smoking offenders are liable to a maximum fine of $5,000 upon conviction. It has been learnt that, since the implementation of the relevant legislation, many members of the public who committed the above offences had been detained for not being able to pay the fines, causing tremendous disturbances to their state of mind and daily life. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | in each month since the implementation of the relevant ordinances, of the respective numbers of cases in which fixed penalty notices were issued to persons for littering and summons were issued to persons for smoking in statutory no smoking areas, together with a breakdown of illegal smoking cases by the penalty imposed;
| | (b) | among the cases referred to in (a), of the number of those in which the offenders concerned were unable to pay the fines; and
| | (c) | whether the Government will consider amending the relevant legislation to replace the above fines with community service orders, so as to avoid detention of low-income people because they are unable to pay the fines; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
*13. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask: (Translation)
Regarding postal services provided by the Hongkong Post, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | how many post offices were opened, closed and relocated respectively last year, the expected corresponding numbers for next year, and the relevant details;
| | (b) | whether it has consulted the District Councils concerned before closing and relocating the above post offices; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (c) | of the respective numbers of street posting boxes newly provided, cancelled and relocated last year; and
| | (d) | of the number of applicants who have completed the application procedure for renting private post office boxes and are currently waiting for such post office boxes, broken down by name of post office, and the current average waiting time?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development
*14. Dr Hon David LI to ask:
In reply to my question at the Council meeting of 28 May 2008, the Government advised that, of the building plans approved by the Building Authority between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2007, the sites in 125 building plans were located within zones in outline zoning plans ("OZPs") subject to a maximum building height given in metres or metres and number of storeys without reference to metres above the Hong Kong Principal Datum ("mPD"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the departmental guidelines regarding the determination of "mean site formation level", and whether these guidelines will allow the "mean site formation level" to be established in whole or in part with reference to a point or points located outside the zoned area concerned; if so, of the reasons for that;
| | (b) | among the above 125 building plans, of the number of those which have one or more accesses or egresses at a ground elevation below the "mean site formation level", and for the buildings involved in each of them, the street address, the permitted building use, the elevation above or below the "mean site formation level" for each and every ground level access to or egress from the buildings, the perpendicular distance from the ground level at the lowest access or egress point to the main roof level, as well as the permitted maximum building height prescribed in the relevant OZP; and
| | (c) | whether, in order to enhance public accountability, the Government has any plan to require the publication and retention, on a government web site, of information on the "mean site formation level" and the method of its determination for each approved building plan, in which the maximum building height is given in the relevant OZP in metres or metres and number of storeys without reference to mPD?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Development
*15. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)
Under the Legislative Council Ordinance (Cap. 542), electors for geographical constituencies are eligible to be registered as electors for functional constituencies ("FCs") only if they are members of the bodies specified in the Ordinance, including specified professional bodies or trade associations. Those specified bodies, therefore, keep a large amount of personal data (e.g. the names, residential addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names of the organizations in which they work) of the people who are eligible to be registered or have already registered as electors for the functional constituencies concerned. Such data are even more detailed than the electors' information provided to the candidates concerned by the Registration and Electoral Office. According to past records, some of the candidates of the Legislative Council ("LegCo") FC elections were also the managerial personnel or directors of those specified bodies, and because of their duties, they had the right to inspect or handle the personal data of members kept by such bodies. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has drawn up any guidelines or best practices to regulate how the above specified bodies use their members' personal data in a fair and just manner during LegCo elections, so that candidates of the various FC elections concerned are treated fairly, and thus ensure the fairness of the elections; and
| | (b) | how it ensures that FC election candidates who are the managerial personnel or directors of such specified bodies will not have, because of their duties, the right to inspect or obtain the personal data of members of such bodies, so as to prevent those candidates from gaining an unfair advantage in liaison with electors and electioneering work?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
*16. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the New Territories East Cluster ("NTEC") of the Hospital Authority ("HA") has implemented the revised "3 Checks and 5 Rights" procedures since April 2006 with a view to reducing errors in dispensing drugs. Yet, a medication incident in which health care practitioners dispensed the wrong drugs to an elderly patient for seven consecutive days still occurred in the Shatin Hospital under NTEC last month. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
| (a) | if HA has conducted a thorough investigation into the aforesaid incident; if it has, of the investigation results; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | the number of medication incidents that have occurred in the public hospitals under NTEC since the implementation of the revised "3 Checks and 5 Rights" procedures, and how the figure compares to those of the two years before implementation;
| | (c) | as the Chief Executive of NTEC said in September last year that upon the implementation of the "3 Checks and 5 Rights" procedures, there might still be loopholes in the dispensation procedures that could lead to the dispensation of wrong drugs, with the main loopholes being health care practitioners misidentifying drugs or patients, insufficient communication among staff during shift handovers and illegible handwriting on doctors' prescriptions, what measures HA has put in place to plug these loopholes;
| | (d) | as some experts have pointed out that the increasing numbers of items of check-ups and laboratory tests on patients in recent years have made it more difficult for health care practitioners to cross-check information, whether HA has assessed if there are currently enough frontline staff to perform the "3 Checks and 5 Rights" procedures; if there are enough staff, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (e) | as HA advised in September last year that it was studying the introduction of an electronic procedure for dispensing drugs in hospital wards, of the latest progress of such a plan?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
*17. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the Childhood Immunization Programme ("CIP"), will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether the study commissioned by the Department of Health ("DH") and undertaken by a university on the cost-effectiveness of incorporating pneumococcal vaccine, chickenpox vaccine, hepatitis A vaccine and Haemophilus influenza type B vaccine into CIP has been completed; if so, of the findings; if the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases under DH has made recommendation whether the aforesaid vaccines should be included in CIP; when the authorities will decide to introduce changes to CIP;
| | (b) | as it has been reported that the Government has decided to abandon its original plan to inoculate all children under 12 years of age with influenza vaccines for free, and will instead provide financial support in the form of $100 each for children aged between six months and five years to receive inoculation against influenza at private clinics, of the details of the new plan, the annual expenditure involved and the rationale for adopting the new plan, as well as how it addresses the problems of the significant differences in and insufficient transparency of the fees charged by private doctors for the inoculations; and
| | (c) | as it has been reported that the Government is considering inoculating all children under two years of age with pneumococcal vaccine for free, of the details of this plan and the annual expenditure involved; whether it has estimated the amount of annual savings, after implementing this inoculation plan, in medical expenditure for treating complications arising from pneumococcal infections?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
*18. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask: (Translation)
In reply to my question raised at the Council meeting of 23 April this year, the Government provided profit figures of the former MTR Corporation Limited ("MTRCL") and the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation ("KCRC") in respect of property developments for the period 2003-2007. The profits were generated from the property development rights granted by the Government as funding support to the former MTRCL for undertaking the Airport Railway and the Tseung Kwan O Line projects, and to the KCRC for undertaking the Tsim Sha Tsui East Extension and the Ma On Shan Line projects. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the amount of profit it estimated that the railway corporations would derive from each of the property developments when the property development rights were granted to them for the aforesaid railway projects, and whether it knows the actual amount of profit that the railway corporations have derived from each of the property developments; and
| | (b) | as the Government has stated that owing to various factors, it did not compare the actual and estimated revenues of the property developments concerned after granting the property development rights to the railway corporations, whether it has considered that in the absence of such comparisons, how it can ascertain the extent to which its original estimates of the revenues to be generated from the property developments are accurate, and that not having such comparison figures is also not conducive to making more accurate estimates when property development rights are granted to the railway corporations in the future?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing
*19. Hon LEUNG Kwok-hung to ask: (Translation)
The Bankruptcy (Amendment) Ordinance 1996 ("Amendment Ordinance"), which set up the automatic discharge system, has commenced operation since 1 April 1998. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | since the commencement of the Amendment Ordinance, whether the Official Receiver has, in any case of doubt or difficulty in enforcing the relevant legislation, applied in the first instance to the court for directions under rule 158 of the Bankruptcy Rules (Cap. 6 sub. leg. A); if so, of the details of the applications concerned (including the issues involved, application dates and court directions); if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | given that in the investigation report published in March 2002 regarding a bankrupt's complaint about the enforcement of the Amendment Ordinance's provisions on discharge from bankruptcy by the Official Receiver's Office ("ORO"), The Ombudsman pointed out that in respect of the application to the court for directions, ORO had not given sufficient consideration to the complainant's interests, and that in objecting to the complainant's application for early hearing of the appeal against the court direction, ORO had not acted reasonably; and The Ombudsman therefore recommended that ORO should consider apologizing to the complainant and the recommendation was accepted by ORO, whether ORO will apologize to the public and take responsibility for its failure to give sufficient consideration to the interests of the affected members of the public in enforcing the Amendment Ordinance; and
| | (c) | given that under the Amendment Ordinance, a first-time bankrupt can be automatically discharged from bankruptcy four years after his bankruptcy order takes effect, unless the court orders that the bankruptcy period be extended to a maximum of another four years on the application of his trustee or creditor who makes a valid objection; and the maximum length of the bankruptcy period is therefore normally eight years under the present system; and in reply to my question at the Legislative Council meeting on 2 May 2007, the authorities advised that since the Amendment Ordinance has provided a one-year transitional arrangement for those persons adjudged bankrupt before the operation of the Amendment Ordinance on 1 April 1998, for the bankrupts whose bankruptcy orders were made more than 42 months (including those made more than eight years) before 1 April 1998, they would not be automatically discharged from bankruptcy upon the commencement of the Amendment Ordinance, whether the authorities have reviewed if it is an misinterpretation of the relevant provisions of the Amendment Ordinance and the legislative intent of the Ordinance to deem the one-year transitional period as an extension of the bankruptcy period?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
*For written reply.
III. Bills
First Reading
Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) Bill 2008
Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned)
| | Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) Bill 2008 | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
| Second Reading (Debates to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading
| | 1. | Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2007 | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
| | 2. | Trade Descriptions (Amendment) Bill 2007 | : | Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development
| | 3. | Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2007 | : | Secretary for Labour and Welfare
| | 4. | Buildings (Amendment) Bill 2007 | : | Secretary for Development
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IV. Members' Motions
- Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
Hon Emily LAU to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that in relation to the Building (Planning) (Amendment) Regulation 2008, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 124 of 2008 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 21 May 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 9 July 2008.
- Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
Hon CHOY So-yuk to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that in relation to the Building (Refuse Storage and Material Recovery Chambers and Refuse Chutes) (Amendment) Regulation 2008, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 125 of 2008 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 21 May 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 9 July 2008.
- Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
Hon SIN Chung-kai to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that in relation to the -
| (a) | Telecommunications (Carrier Licences) (Amendment) Regulation 2008, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 132 of 2008; and
| | (b) | Telecommunications (Level of Spectrum Utilization Fees) (Second Generation Mobile Services) (Amendment) Regulation 2008, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 133 of 2008,
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and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 21 May 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 9 July 2008.
- Legislating to regulate debt collection practices
Hon Albert CHAN: (Translation)
That, as debt collection practices are a serious harassment to many members of the public, and some people even committed suicide out of fear, and for many years in the past, tens of thousands of cases relating to debt collection malpractices were reported every year, and the Law Reform Commission (LRC) also recommended to the Government in 2002 to make harassment of debtors a criminal offence and to set up a statutory licensing system to monitor debt collection agencies; given that many people are harassed by debt collection practices, and some even feel that their lives and safety are threatened by such practices, this Council strongly requests that the Government should adopt the LRC's recommendations and expeditiously regulate, by way of legislation, debt collection agencies and their debt collection practices, so as to protect the public against such harassment and threat in their daily life.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Security
- Reducing the duties on motor vehicle fuels
Hon LAU Kong-wah: (Translation)
That, as international oil prices have repeatedly reached record highs, this Council urges the SAR Government to reduce the duties on unleaded petrol and Euro V diesel by half, so as to relieve the pressure of inflation and persistently high oil prices on the public and the relevant industries.
Amendments to motion
| (i) | Hon WONG Kwok-hing: (Translation)
To delete "as" after "That," and substitute with "owing to the weak US dollar and rapid growth in global oil demand in recent years,"; to delete "duties" after "to reduce the" and substitute with "duty"; to delete "and Euro V diesel" after "unleaded petrol"; and to add "and completely abolish diesel duties, as well as provide subsidies on diesel prices to the more seriously affected industries" after "by half".
| | (ii) | Hon Frederick FUNG: (Translation)
To delete "as" after "That," and substitute with "given that"; to add "and will remain at a high level" after "record highs"; to delete "duties" after "to reduce the" and substitute with "duty"; to delete "and Euro V diesel" after "unleaded petrol"; and to add "and remit all diesel duties" after "by half".
| | (iii) | Hon CHAN Kam-lam: (Translation)
To delete "as" after "That," and substitute with "owing to the weak US dollar and rapid growth in global oil demand in recent years,"; to delete "duties" after "to reduce the" and substitute with "duty"; to delete "and Euro V diesel" after "unleaded petrol"; and to add "and completely abolish diesel duties" after "by half".
| | (iv) | Hon Miriam LAU: (Translation)
To delete "as" after "That," and substitute with "the Government has, since 1 December last year, lowered the concessionary duty rate for Euro V diesel to $0.56 per litre, yet"; to add "thereby substantially increasing the cost of the transportation industry and the burden on people's livelihood," after "record highs,"; to delete "duties" after "to reduce the" and substitute with "duty"; to delete "and Euro V diesel" after "unleaded petrol"; and to add "and completely remit the duty on Euro V diesel, and at the same time ensure that oil companies will fully reflect the duty concessions in the retail prices" after "by half".
| | (v) | Hon SIN Chung-kai: (Translation)
To add "inflation in Hong Kong and" after "That, as"; to delete "duties" after "to reduce the" and substitute with "duty"; to delete "and Euro V diesel" after "unleaded petrol"; and to add "and remit the duty on Euro V diesel" after "by half".
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Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
Clerk to the Legislative Council
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