A 09/10-27

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 12 May 2010 at 11:00 am

I. Tabling of Papers

Subsidiary Legislation / InstrumentsL.N. No.
1.Air Pollution Control (Motor Vehicle Fuel) (Amendment) Regulation 201050/2010
2.Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Ordinance 2010 (Commencement) Notice 2010 51/2010
3.The Ombudsman Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2009 (Commencement) Notice52/2010

Other Papers

1.No. 92-Early Retirement Ex-gratia Payment Fund for Aided Secondary School Teachers
Financial statements together with the Director of Audit's report for the year ended 31 August 2009
(to be presented by the Secretary for Education)

2.No. 93-The Government Minute in response to the Report No. 53 of the Public Accounts Committee dated February 2010
(to be presented by the Chief Secretary for Administration, who will address the Council)

3.Report No. 9/09-10 of the House Committee on Consideration of Subsidiary Legislation and Other Instruments
(to be presented by Hon Miriam LAU, Chairman of the House Committee)

II. Questions

1. Hon Paul CHAN to ask: (Translation)

From time to time in recent years, there have been reports that the governance or utilization of resources of quite a number of charitable organizations and funds which appeal to the public for donations do not have a high degree of transparency. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether it knows the number of charitable organizations and funds established in the past 10 years and in what form they were established, and how many of such charitable organizations and funds had been found to be in breach of rules as well as the rules involved and, among them, the number of those whose tax exemption status had been removed as a result, and whether the authorities had recovered from them the tax payable during the period concerned; if so, of a breakdown by year of the amount involved;

    (b)whether in the past 10 years the authorities had, after uncovering that charitable organizations and funds were in breach of rules, conducted any corresponding review and taken improvement measures; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

    (c)whether it knows if the review being undertaken by the Law Reform Commission on the law and regulatory framework relating to charitable organizations includes issues on the governance and operation of charitable organizations, and when the review outcome will be published; whether the Government will conduct any review on areas such as the guidelines on financial reporting (including financial reports and audits) and the best practices in corporate governance of charitable organizations and funds, etc.?
Public Officers to reply:Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
Secretary for Labour and Welfare

2. Hon WONG Yung-kan to ask: (Translation)

Given that a number of water sports accidents which involved casualties occurred in Hong Kong last year, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the number of water sports accidents which occurred in the waters of Hong Kong in the past three years, the causes of such accidents and the casualties involved;

    (b)what measures are in place to prevent such accidents; and

    (c)whether legislation will be enacted to require water recreation facilities (including speedboats, banana boats and jet-skis) to comply with prescribed safety standards; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs

3. Dr Hon Priscilla LEUNG to ask: (Translation)

The Urban Renewal Authority ("URA") announced in November 2008 that a "conservation-led" redevelopment approach would be adopted for the Staunton Street/Wing Lee Street project. After the film "Echoes of the Rainbow" with scenes shot at Wing Lee Street won an award in Berlinale in late February this year, quite a number of people proposed to conserve the whole Wing Lee Street, but the Chairman of URA indicated that it was not necessary to revise the redevelopment proposal. Yet, on 16 March 2010, he suddenly put forward a new proposal to revise the number of tenement buildings to be conserved from three to all 12 of such buildings, on grounds that URA had received views from quite a number of members of the public in this regard. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)given that before deciding to revise the redevelopment proposal of Wing Lee Street, URA had not convened a Board meeting to discuss the matter and had only sent letters to the directors requesting them to authorize the management to deal with the matter, whether it knows if URA had adopted this arrangement due to special circumstances and if there was any precedent, and whether URA had consulted experts in conservation and history before announcing such a decision; whether it had consulted or informed the Development Bureau ("DEVB"); if it had consulted DEVB, of DEVB's views; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b)given that the original redevelopment proposal had been proposed for more than one year since its announcement, and URA has already acquired half of the property interests on Wing Lee Street, whether it knows the reasons for URA putting forward the new proposal; during the decision-making process for the new proposal, whether URA was under any pressure from government department(s) or community organization(s); whether the winning of an international award by the film "Echoes of the Rainbow" was crucial to the decision of URA; and

    (c)given that some elderly property owners in the tenement buildings on Wing Lee Street are worried that under the new proposal, not only are they unable to sell their properties, but they also have to bear substantial costs for repair and maintenance, whether it knows if URA had considered the rights and interests of these property owners before putting forward the new proposal?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Development

4. Hon CHAN Hak-kan to ask: (Translation)

According to the information provided by the Food and Health Bureau earlier, the number of animals euthanized by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department ("AFCD") in 2007 to 2009 ranged from about 13 000 to 18 000, which on average represented 76% of the total number of animals received by the department each year. It has been reported that apart from cats and dogs, the animals kept by AFCD for other government departments were also euthanized (e.g. the nearly 100 tortoises transferred by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department from North District Park at the end of 2008 and the Water Monitors, commonly known as "golden dragon with five claws" and classified as an endangered species, which were seized by the Customs and Excise Department in March this year). Such a practice has aroused criticisms from animal lovers. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether AFCD has set a target that a certain minimum percentage of animals received each year have to be euthanized; if so, how the target was set; of the assessments made by AFCD before deciding to euthanize the animals, and whether it will seek the views of non-profit-making animal welfare organizations and other government departments; if it will, of the details; if it will not, the reasons for that; whether AFCD has set up an internal monitoring mechanism to prevent the indiscriminate killing of animals;

    (b)given that existing legislation stipulates that if the owner of a stray or abandoned animal cannot be found or ascertained within four days after the commencement of the detention of the animal, the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation may order the forfeiture of the animal and decide whether it should be retained, euthanized or otherwise disposed of, of the factors based on which such a number of days was set by the authorities; and whether they will review such an arrangement or amend the legislation; and

    (c)given that the number of animals handed over by AFCD to non-profit-making animal welfare organizations for re-homing arrangements has all along been on the low side, whether the authorities will consider expanding such collaboration programme, so as to reduce the number of animals euthanized; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health

5. Dr Hon PAN Pey-chyou to ask: (Translation)

I have recently received complaints from members of the public that some investment companies telephoned them to promote investment activities related to Loco London gold, but the companies did not provide sufficient information, including detailed explanation of the contract terms, the risks involved and the operation mode of trading, etc. Some investors who had signed the authorization lost all their capitals within a short period of time. There have been comments that such investment activities involve unscrupulous sales practices but lack regulation. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the respective numbers of fraud cases received by the Police in relation to the trading of Loco London gold, and the respective numbers of persons prosecuted in connection with such cases, in each of the past five years;

    (b)whether it knows why the Securities and Futures Commission ("SFC") does not regulate the investment activities related to Loco London gold and the professional qualifications of traders; whether SFC will regulate such investment activities and draw up relevant statutory regulations and model sales documents, as well as set up a trader licensing system and draw up a relevant code of conduct; and

    (c)whether the authorities will provide support for members of the public who were engaged in the trading of Loco London gold and suffered losses because of unscrupulous sales practices, and investigate the sales practices and procedure adopted by such investment companies; whether the Police will set up a task force to combat such unscrupulous sales practices?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury

6. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that recently a mainland businessman had announced in a high profile manner his equity acquisition in Asia Television Limited ("ATV"), claiming that he would turn ATV into Asia's CNN and launch a nation-wide putonghua channel; and that the Broadcasting Authority ("BA") had written to ATV for clarifications. It has also been reported that the Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") of ATV had indicated that the businessman had, prior to obtaining BA's approval for his equity acquisition, participated in ATV's daily operation, interfered with ATV's business, bypassed the CEO's duties and dismissed staff arbitrarily through his trusted confidant, and during the time, incidents such as ATV's equity dispute and an application being filed for its liquidation also occurred. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
    (a)it knows the latest changes in ATV's management as well as the latest operation of ATV, and whether there is any discrepancy between that situation and the aforesaid situation; whether it has reviewed if the occurrence of the aforesaid situation reflects inadequacies and limitations of the existing Broadcasting Ordinance and BA's monitoring functions, which render BA unable to simultaneously and effectively monitor changes in the shareholding structure and operation of domestic free television ("TV") programme services provided by the licensees;

    (b)it has followed up and fully investigated the aforesaid allegations made by the CEO of ATV, so as to ascertain if the person concerned has violated the Broadcasting Ordinance and interfered with editorial autonomy; if it has followed up, of the details, including whether the law has been breached and penalty is imposed as a result; if it has not followed up, the reasons for that; and

    (c)it has assessed how the aforesaid ATV's situation will affect the mid-term review of the domestic free TV programme service licences to be conducted by the authorities; whether the authorities have formulated any contingency plan to avoid members of the public being unable to continue to watch free TV programmes provided by a free TV station in the event that the TV station has seriously violated the law or goes into liquidation; if they have, of the details; if they have not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development

*7. Dr Hon Samson TAM to ask: (Translation)

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer commissioned the University of Hong Kong in 2005 to conduct a study to assess the degree of digital inclusiveness of different underprivileged groups (including persons with physical disabilities) in Hong Kong. A follow-up study was subsequently conducted in 2008, and the findings showed that there had not been much progress since 2005 in the usage of information and communications technology ("ICT") among persons with physical disabilities. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether the authorities had, in the past two years, further conducted a comprehensive study on the usage of ICT among persons with physical disabilities; if they had, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b)given that persons with physical disabilities have special needs in accessing information and using communications technology services, what policies and specific measures the authorities had put in place in the past two years to assist persons with restriction in body movement, seeing and hearing difficulties; and

    (c)given that I have learnt that the Digital Inclusion Task Force under the Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee has solicited views on the needs of three categories of persons with disabilities, namely those with restriction in body movement, seeing and hearing difficulties, of the details of the views and follow-up actions?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development

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

It has been learnt that an increasing number of private organizations run playgroups mainly for pre-school children for a fee. Quite a number of the establishments which provide these services are located in multi-storey commercial buildings, and a number of them are even located on the same floor in a building, and hence the situation of many children being present on the same floor of a building at the same time is very common. Regarding the safety of the establishments providing these playgroup services, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether it knows the total number of such establishments currently located in multi-storey commercial buildings;

    (b)whether the authorities had, in the past three years, inspected the aforesaid establishments; if so, whether they had uncovered cases of violation of the Child Care Services Ordinance (Cap. 243) or the Education Ordinance (Cap. 279), and of the follow-up measures taken by the Government; and

    (c)what measures, in particular those to safeguard the safety of children who are not accompanied by parents during such activities, are in place to enhance the safety of the aforesaid establishments?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education

*9. Ir Dr Hon Raymond HO to ask: (Translation)

I have learnt that with in-line skating becoming popular in recent years, many parents encourage their children to learn the sport, and several organizations rent hard-surface soccer pitches in various districts in Hong Kong and Kowloon during the weekends to run roller skating interest classes for school children. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
    (a)it has formulated guidelines on sports activities other than ball games held at hard-surface soccer pitches; if so, of the details; and

    (b)it has any plan to increase the number of up-to-standard roller skating rinks; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs

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

It has been reported that recently, an automatic teller machine ("ATM") of a bank was suspected to be tampered with by fraudsters, causing a total loss of some $280,000 to 10 customers. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the number of fraud reports related to ATMs received by the authorities in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by the deception method and the amount of money involved;

    (b)whether it knows the total number of ATMs which have not been installed with keypad covers at present, broken down by District Council district, and the percentage of the number in all ATMs in Hong Kong; among such ATM terminals, the respective numbers of those the ATM network services for which are provided by Electronic Teller Card and Joint Electronic Teller Services Limited; whether the authorities will request banks to have all of their ATMs installed with keypad covers or other new security devices; if they will, of the details;

    (c)whether it has assessed if the magnetic stripe technology currently adopted for ATM cards in Hong Kong is lagging behind that of other places; if the assessment outcome is in the affirmative, of the total number of years that the technology lags behind; whether the authorities will request banks to introduce chip cards which render data duplication more difficult for ATM transactions, or upgrade the technology of ATM cards; if such chip cards will not be introduced or such technology will not be upgraded, of the reasons for that; and

    (d)given that it has been reported that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has delayed the disclosure of the aforesaid incident to the public for four days, of the reasons for the delay; whether the authorities have guidelines on disclosing to members of the public ATM fraud cases, so as to alert members of the public to react immediately and safeguard their personal properties?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury

*11. Hon CHAN Kin-por to ask: (Translation)

It was reported that when the Group of Twenty ("G20"), which mainly comprises European and American countries, convened a meeting in April last year to discuss measures against tax havens, it had proposed to put Hong Kong on the list of tax havens, but as a result of China's opposition, Hong Kong was finally not put on the list; according to the consensus reached by G20, different tax jurisdictions are required to enhance their tax transparency before March this year pursuant to the requirements of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ("OECD"), and to sign avoidance of double taxation agreements with 12 jurisdictions, so as to enable exchange of taxpayers' information among jurisdictions. Yet, as Hong Kong has not yet met such requirements at present, G20 members may impose sanctions on Hong Kong, which will seriously affect Hong Kong's economic development and reputation. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether it will formulate new measures to meet the aforesaid requirements of OECD, so as to prevent Hong Kong from being put on OECD's list of tax havens; if it will, of the contents of the measures; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b)given that it was reported that Singapore, which is Hong Kong's major competitor, has signed avoidance of double taxation agreements with more than 60 countries, and has an edge over Hong Kong in international tax relations, what measures the Government will take to maintain Hong Kong's competitiveness; and

    (c)how it will assess the possibility of Hong Kong being put on the list of tax havens by OECD in the medium or long term, and of its impact on Hong Kong's economic development?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury

*12. Hon Abraham SHEK to ask: (Translation)

The Labour Department ("LD") organizes large-scale job fairs from time to time to provide employment opportunities for the public. On the other hand, some employers have relayed to me that only a small number of job seekers they recruited through these job fairs eventually reported for duty as scheduled. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the trades involved in the large-scale job fairs organized by the Government last year, and the number of job seekers who secured employment through these job fairs;

    (b)given that some employers have reflected that the turnover rate of employees recruited through such job fairs is particularly high, whether it has analyzed the reasons for it; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

    (c)whether it will consider organizing tailor-made job fairs focusing on particular trades instead of holding large-scale job fairs, or mainly focusing on enhancing the various employment programmes currently implemented by LD; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Labour and Welfare

*13. Hon Miriam LAU to ask: (Translation)

The No. 4 alarm fire in an industrial building on March 8 this year caused the death of one fireman and injuries to three firemen who had bravely fought the fire, increasing the number of firemen who died while fighting fire to four in the recent three years. Some representatives of staff associations and some firemen have criticized that the Fire Services Department ("FSD") had in fact been allocated a long time ago funds for purchasing equipment such as new breathing apparatuses and new digital radio communication system, etc., and yet the provision of such equipment to frontline staff for use was delayed by years because the procurement procedure was complicated and time consuming, and there were problems with the computer software of the equipment (e.g. 1 400 new breathing apparatuses were not officially provided to firemen for use until April 8 this year). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether it will assess if the time taken to complete the entire process, from planning and studies to official use, of procurement of fire equipment for frontline staff is too long, whether it will conduct a review in this respect and request FSD to shorten the time involved;

    (b)for how long the actual date of use of the new breathing apparatuses has been delayed as compared to the original plan, the reasons for the delay and its impact on the work of firemen, and how FSD will follow up the delay; and

    (c)whether FSD will study adopting a more flexible arrangement for the introduction of new equipment in future and accord priority to those firemen stationed in high-risk areas for receiving training and using the new equipment, instead of waiting for all staff to have been trained before using the new equipment?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

*14. Hon Andrew CHENG to ask: (Translation)

It has been recently reported that some pharmacies have substantially raised the prices of certain drugs, which has resulted in the increase in the burden of drug expenses on patients who need to take for long periods self-financed drugs prescribed by public hospitals and clinics under the Hospital Authority ("HA"), and some of the patients have been forced to reduce the frequency of taking drug, so as to relieve their burden. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
    (a)it knows the number and percentage of patients who had been prescribed self-financed drugs by public hospitals and clinics under HA last year and, among such patients:

    (i)the respective percentages of those who had been prescribed special drugs, drugs with safety net and drugs without safety net;

    (ii)the number of those who are chronically ill; and

    (iii)the number of those who purchased self-financed drugs through HA and the expenses concerned;

    (b)it knows the difference between the average price and the average cost of self-financed drugs provided by HA last year; of the profit derived by HA and how the profit was used; whether HA had increased the prices of self-financed drugs it provided last year; if so, details of the increase; if not, the reasons for that; and

    (c)the authorities had collected information to track the increases in drug prices in the private market last year; whether it knows if HA will relax the limits on income and assets for applications to the Samaritan Fund for subsidies in response to the increases in drug prices, so as to relieve the burden on patients of purchasing self-financed drugs and prevent them from falling into poverty because of illness?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health

*15. Hon CHEUNG Kwok-che to ask: (Translation)

Regarding the Comprehensive Student Guidance Service implemented by the authorities since the 2002-2003 school year, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the details of the funds allocated by the Government to the aforesaid service in each of the past three years;

    (b)of the respective numbers of social workers, Student Guidance Officers and Teachers employed by primary schools for implementing the aforesaid service in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by the name of the school; and

    (c)given that primary schools are not required, when implementing the aforesaid service, to employ social workers at present, whether the authorities have planned to implement the scheme of "one school social worker for each school" in primary schools, so as to ensure that each primary school will have a school social worker; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education

*16. Hon Paul TSE to ask: (Translation)

I have received complaints that in recent years, some unlicensed guesthouses have often sent their staff to the busy streets of urban areas to distribute promotion cards and leaflets to solicit business from travellers. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether the Government had received the aforesaid complaints in the past three years; if so, of the number of such complaints received each year, and how the Government dealt with them;

    (b)what policies and measures are in place to curb and prevent unlicensed guesthouses from soliciting business by the aforesaid way, as well as which government departments are responsible for implementing such policies and measures; and

    (c)of the respective total numbers of "snaking" operations conducted by the Home Affairs Department to investigate cases of operating unlicensed guesthouses, prosecutions which were instituted and cases in which the persons involved were convicted, in the past three years?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs

*17. Dr Hon LAM Tai-fai to ask: (Translation)

Since 2006, the Government has strengthened the role of District Councils ("DCs") in the management of district facilities and improved the support for DC members, so as to comprehensively enhance the functions of DCs. Yet, some DC members still consider the support from the Government inadequate and not comprehensive enough. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)whether the Government had, in the past three years, conducted studies in any form on how to comprehensively enhance the social status of DC members (including their recognition or image, etc.); if it had, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

    (b)what plans the Government has at present to support DC members to pursue continuing education or receive any form of training; if there is no such plan, of the reasons for that;

    (c)given that in its reply to a question raised by a Member of this Council on 5 November 2008 regarding the end-of-service gratuities and medical allowance for DC members, the authorities had advised that they would review the remuneration arrangements for DC members and seek advice from the Independent Commission on Remuneration for Members of the District Councils, whether the review has been completed; if so, of the details and the Commission's views; if not, the reasons for that;

    (d)whether the authorities had, in the past three years, conducted a comprehensive survey in relation to the average monthly workload and average daily working hours of elected DC members in undertaking the work of DCs, so as to determine whether the current level of their remuneration and allowances is reasonable (including whether their basic living expenses can be met); if they had, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

    (e)whether the authorities have planned to grant full exemption of salaries tax to elected DC members or provide retirement protection for them; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

    (f)whether it has, since 1997, compiled statistics on the total number of DC members who encountered accidents and were assaulted while discharging duties; if it had, of a breakdown by the type of accident and assault; if not, the reasons for that;

    (g)whether the authorities had, in the past three years, assessed the danger in the work of DC members; if the assessment outcome indicates that danger is involved, of the form of support to be provided for them; if the assessment outcome indicates otherwise, the reasons for that; and

    (h)given that the Government has proposed to have all the five new Functional Constituency seats in the Legislative Council and the existing DC Functional Constituency seat returned through election by elected DC members from among themselves in 2012, whether the Government has planned to immediately raise the level of remuneration and allowances for DC members after the passage of the constitutional reform proposals?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs

*18. Hon KAM Nai-wai to ask: (Translation)

The 15th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in 2009 took note of the Copenhagen Accord, which aims at limiting the increase in surface temperature of the earth to below two degrees Celsius. While many governments around the world have set reduction targets on greenhouse gas emissions, Hong Kong does not have such reduction target at present. Moreover, Hong Kong will host the C40 workshop in November this year and will on this occasion share policies for combating climate change with the representatives from many of the world's largest cities. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)of the details, progress and result of the work of the Inter-departmental Working Group on Climate Change led by the Environmental Protection Department ("EPD") last year, as well as its work plan for the coming year; whether the Working Group will participate in the preparatory work for the C40 workshop; and the latest progress of the preparatory work (e.g. invitation of guests) for the workshop;

    (b)given that EDP appointed a consultant to conduct a "Study of Climate Change in Hong Kong" in March 2008, which would last for 18 months and was originally expected to be completed at the end of 2009, and yet the Chief Executive indicated in his 2009-2010 Policy Address that the study was expected to be completed early next year (i.e. 2010), of the progress of the study so far, the reasons for the delay of its completion, the future follow-up work of the Government and whether the Government will undertake to release the findings of the study before the C40 workshop; and

    (c)given that the two power companies are actively developing projects which use renewable energy to generate electricity so as to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, whether the Government will legislate to set a cap on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants; if it will, of the work progress in this respect and the details; if it will not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment

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

The Government indicates that it has always attached great importance to the work of District Councils ("DCs"), yet, some DC members have complained that the non-attendance of public officers at DC meetings has become increasingly prevalent. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
    (a)of the respective numbers of agenda items for meetings of the 18 DCs and their committees in the past two years, as well as statistics on the attendances of the public officers concerned at the meetings for such agenda items;

    (b)of the respective post titles of Directors of Bureaux, Permanent Secretaries and officers at directorate level who had never attended any DC meeting for agenda items related to their purviews in the past two years;

    (c)of the number of agenda items of DC meetings for which no government representative concerned had attended in the past two years; and

    (d)whether they have assessed if the increasing non-attendance of public officers at DC meetings will seriously affect the implementation of district administration and communication between the Government and the people; if the assessment outcome is in the affirmative, whether they will formulate guidelines to specify that officers at various levels need to attend DC meetings as far as possible; if the assessment come is in the negative, of the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs

*20. Hon Mrs Regina IP to ask: (Translation)

It has been reported that fly-tipping of construction waste occurred on an agricultural land of over 10 000 square feet at Ho Sheung Heung in Sheung Shui, and the authorities have ordered the persons concerned to reinstate the agricultural land within two months; yet, more than six months have passed since the occurrence of the incident, and the problem remains unsolved. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
    (a)what specific measures it has to make the persons concerned to expeditiously discharge their duties to reinstate the agricultural land; and

    (b)given that the authorities plan to amend the Waste Disposal Ordinance (Cap. 354) to establish a notification mechanism whereby landowners are required to inform the relevant government departments before depositing abandoned construction and demolition materials on their land, whether the authorities have set a timetable for introducing legislative amendments, and whether they have explored other effective measures (such as raising the penalties on offenders so as to enhance the deterrent effect) to prevent similar incidents from continuing to occur?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment

* For written reply

III. Bills

First Reading

1. Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2010

2. Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2010

Second Reading (Debates to be adjourned)

1.Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2010:Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury

2.Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2010:Secretary for Transport and Housing

IV. Members' Motions
  1. Reviewing the existing policy on live poultry in Hong Kong

    Hon Vincent FANG to move the following motion: (Translation)

    That, in view of the remark made publicly by the Secretary for Food and Health that the risks of avian influenza outbreaks have been significantly reduced, coupled with the fact that there has not been a case of indigenous human avian influenza in Hong Kong since 1997 and there was no case of avian influenza outbreak in local farms and Mainland farms which supply chickens to Hong Kong in the past one and a half years; on the other hand, there is still a strong demand for live chickens among Hong Kong people and that quite a number of people express the wish to buy live chickens at affordable prices through more convenient channels, especially during major traditional Chinese festivals; in this connection, this Council urges the Government:

    (a)to review the existing policy on live poultry supply so as to reduce market intervention by administrative means and to appropriately increase the supply of live poultry according to market demand under safe and reasonable conditions, with a view to alleviating the pressure of price increases in live poultry and satisfying people's needs for live poultry as far as possible;

    (b)to faithfully implement the usual practice of the Food and Health Bureau to maintain the quantity of daily market supply of live poultry from the Mainland and local farms at similar levels;

    (c)to continuously maintain the usual practice for the live poultry trade in the past by appropriately increasing the supply of live poultry from the Mainland to Hong Kong according to market demand during major traditional Chinese festivals under safe circumstances, so as to meet people's special needs in those festivals; and

    (d)to re-assess the need to develop a live poultry slaughtering centre in Hong Kong with regard to economic benefits and risk levels.

    Amendments to the motion
    (i)Hon WONG Kwok-hing to move the following amendment: (Translation)

    To delete "in view of" after "That," and substitute with "given that Hong Kong has been effective in preventing avian influenza and"; to delete "and" after "those festivals;"; and to add "; and (e) to seriously consolidate the successful and valuable operational experience of the local live poultry trade in being able to continue to raise, distribute, retail, transport and slaughter live poultry, etc., when facing unprecedented difficulties, and on the basis of such foundation and experience, to promote the development of a new form of local live poultry trade to bring about an increase in the local supply of live poultry while creating more new opportunities for setting up businesses and employment" immediately before the full stop.

    (ii)Hon WONG Yung-kan to move the following amendment: (Translation)

    To add "in order to prevent avian influenza, the SAR Government had continuously tightened the policy on raising and selling live poultry for a period of time in the past, resulting in a substantial shrinkage in the scale of the trade and causing hardships to the trade in running businesses;" after "That,"; to add "earlier" after "the Secretary for Food and Health"; to add "and to appropriately raise the ceiling on the quantity of live poultry raised in local farms," after "reasonable conditions,"; to delete "and" after "those festivals;"; and to add "; and (e) to strengthen the monitoring of avian influenza on a farm-to-retail basis, and to allocate additional resources to improve the hygiene of wholesale markets and public markets and to expeditiously improve the ventilating systems and install additional air-conditioning facilities in public markets, etc., so as to comprehensively raise the standard of hygiene in selling live poultry, thereby enabling people to continue to consume safely live poultry" immediately before the full stop.

    (iii)Hon Fred LI to move the following amendment: (Translation)

    To add "Hong Kong has bitterly experienced outbreaks of avian influenza since the reunification, but" after "That,"; to delete "and" after "those festivals;"; and to add "; and (e) to consider, while flexibly increasing the supply of live poultry, studying the introduction of a policy of banning overnight stocking of live poultry in wholesale markets to further reduce the risks of avian influenza outbreaks" immediately before the full stop.

    Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Food and Health

  2. Protecting the safety and health of employees at work in inclement weather

    Hon LI Fung-ying to move the following motion: (Translation)

    That this Council urges the Administration to review the relevant guidelines and legislation for employees at work under very hot weather warnings, typhoon or rainstorm warnings so as to enhance the protection of employees' safety and health when working in inclement weather.

    Amendments to the motion
    (i)Hon CHAN Hak-kan to move the following amendment: (Translation)

    To add ", in view of the aggravating problems of global climate change and air pollution," after "That"; to add "and severe air pollution," after "rainstorm warnings"; and to add "or severe air pollution, especially when working outdoors" immediately before the full stop.

    (ii)Hon Audrey EU to move the following amendment: (Translation)

    To add ", as the global climate change has led to frequent occurrence of extreme climate incidents," after "That"; and to add "when air pollution reaches severe level and under" after "hot weather warnings,".

    (iii)Hon IP Wai-ming to move the following amendment: (Translation)

    To add ", in the face of the threat from global climate change, the chance of extreme weather conditions occurring in Hong Kong will increase;" after "That"; to add "and formulate" after "review"; to add "cold weather warnings, early warnings on sandstorms, when the Air Pollution Index reaches severe level, as well as under" after "hot weather warnings,"; and to add ", which include: (a) to stipulate that employees who have contracted a disease attributable to working in inclement weather may be regarded as suffering from work injury and are entitled to statutory compensation; (b) to provide employees with rest breaks or arrange for them to take turns to work when working in inclement weather, such as making arrangement for employees to take rest during periods of very hot weather, or to take turns to work in very hot and chilly workplaces, so as to shorten their period of working continuously in a very hot environment; (c) the Labour Department should step up inspections and strictly institute prosecutions against employers who have not taken appropriate preventive measures for their employees in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance or the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance; and (d) employers should take appropriate preventive measures and install suitable facilities to protect the occupational safety and health of their employees" immediately before the full stop.

    (iv)Hon LEE Cheuk-yan to move the following amendment: (Translation)

    To add "and when the Air Pollution Index reaches very high or severe level," after "rainstorm warnings".

    Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Labour and Welfare

Clerk to the Legislative Council