A 12/13-19
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 6 February 2013 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
| 1. | No. 68 | - | Report of the Public Accounts Committee on the Reports of the Director of Audit on the Accounts of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the year ended 31 March 2012 and the Results of Value for Money Audits (Report No. 59) (February 2013 - P.A.C. Report No. 59) | |
| (to be presented by Hon Abraham SHEK, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, who will address the Council)
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| 2. | Report No. 10/12-13 of the House Committee on Consideration of Subsidiary Legislation and Other Instruments | |||
| (to be presented by Hon Andrew LEUNG, Chairman of the House Committee)
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II. Questions
1. Dr Hon LAM Tai-fai to ask: (Translation)
The Hong Kong Baptist University ("HKBU") has all along been seeking the Government's grant of the entire site of the former campus of the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Lee Wai Lee) at Renfrew Road in Kowloon Tong for the construction of student hostels and a Chinese medicine teaching hospital. However, on a radio programme on the 17th of last month, the Chief Executive ("CE") indicated that the Government and HKBU had reached an agreement that half of the site would be used for constructing student hostels and the other half would be retained by the Government for residential development. Yet, HKBU had subsequently issued a statement pointing out that it had not reached the aforesaid agreement with the Government, and emphasizing that since 2005, it had all along been applying to the Government for the grant of the entire site. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the details of the agreement mentioned by CE; (b) whether it supports the construction of a Chinese medicine teaching hospital by HKBU; if it does, whether it will allocate land to HKBU for this purpose; if not, of the reasons for that; and (c) as the Government indicated on the 8th of last month that, after assessment, it considered that the southern portion of the aforesaid site was no longer required to be retained for other "Government, Institution or Community" uses, and it was suitable for rezoning to residential use, and the Planning Department has therefore submitted a proposal to the Town Planning Board to rezone such portion of the site for residential use, of the justifications for arriving at such assessment outcome by the Government?
| Public Officers to reply | : | Secretary for Development
Secretary for Education |
2. Hon CHAN Yuen-han to ask: (Translation)
At the meeting of this Council on the 9th of last month, the Secretary for Development ("SDEV") advised that as the unemployment rate and underemployment rate in the construction industry were 4.4% and 7% respectively, the Government had no plan to propose importing foreign labour. However, the Chief Executive ("CE") told this Council on the 17th of last month that "[w]hen the local labour force is insufficient to support our development needs, we have to consider importing construction workers from outside Hong Kong." Moreover, the 2013 Policy Address has proposed abolishing the collection of the Employees Retraining Levy ("the levy") from employers of foreign domestic helpers. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the reasons for the discrepancy between the remarks made by CE and SDEV on whether it is necessary to import foreign labour for the construction industry; (b) whether the authorities have, before proposing the initiative to abolish the levy, considered its impact on the employment of local workers, and whether they have planned to inject funds into the Employees Retraining Board ("ERB"); if they have such plans, of the timeframe and amount of such injection; and (c) of the respective numbers of trainees who had and those who had not succeeded in securing employment after taking the courses of ERB and the Construction Industry Training Authority in the past three years; whether the authorities have examined why some trainees were unable to secure employment; regarding the problem of manpower mismatch, whether the authorities will enhance the training efforts and resource input so as to secure a sufficient supply of local labour to undertake work in different trades, and study introducing improvement to the employment terms and working environment of construction site workers in order to attract more people to join the industry; whether the authorities will review the existing policy to eradicate the importation of cheap foreign labour by employers under the disguise of the "General Employment Policy" and apprentice training, etc.; whether they will consider charging fees from such employers and stepping up monitoring in this regard?
| Public Officers to reply | : | Secretary for Labour and Welfare
Secretary for Development |
3. Hon Christopher CHUNG to ask: (Translation)
In June 2012, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority ("WKCDA") received from a Swiss collector a donation of 1 463 pieces of Chinese contemporary artworks, with a total value assessed to be as high as $1.3 billion. The donation will become a permanent collection of M+ (i.e. Museum Plus) in the West Kowloon Cultural District, and will be displayed in dedicated galleries of M+. Besides, WKCDA has indicated that "part gift/part purchase" has become an increasingly common model for museums to obtain collections in the international arena, and M+ would acquire 47 pieces of artworks from the said collector for a sum of $177 million. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has assessed if the "donation first/purchase afterwards" arrangement between WKCDA and the aforesaid collector is merely a marketing ploy; if it has, of the assessment outcome; whether it knows if WKCDA has signed with that collector an agreement stipulating that M+ must purchase the said 47 pieces of artworks in order to receive the donation of 1 463 pieces of artworks, whether it has so far made public a full list of those 1 510 pieces of artworks and their photos, and whether it has consulted the relevant professionals, art groups or scholars in Hong Kong to ascertain that the collection of artworks is really worth its cost; (b) given that the Interim Acquisition Committee under the Museum Committee may review and approve a single acquisition valued below $5 million, and make recommendations to the Museum Committee and the WKCDA Board first should a single acquisition value above $5 million, whether it knows how WKCDA determined such vetting-and-approval limit; given that M+ would acquire 47 pieces of artworks from the same collector for a sum of $177 million and the Interim Acquisition Committee may make the acquisition decision all by itself as the average value of each piece of artwork is below $5 million, whether the Government has assessed if there is any loophole in the acquisition mechanism concerned; and (c) as it has been reported that some local artists disapprove of M+'s spending over $100 million to acquire a large number of works from the collection of an overseas collector and setting up of dedicated galleries for displaying the artworks on a long-term basis, and opine that M+ attaches no importance to local artistic creation, whether the Government knows the criteria for setting up dedicated galleries in M+; whether the Government will require WKCDA to adopt measures in future to enhance the transparency of its artwork acquisition arrangements, and to make M+ more reflective of the unique characteristics of local artistic creation?
4. Dr Hon LAU Wong-fat to ask: (Translation)
Making acquaintances on the Internet has become increasingly common. It has been reported that there is an increasing number of lawbreakers who made female acquaintances (with quite a number of them being underage girls) through social networking web sites, then swindled and threatened them, and even sexually assaulted them. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of reports received by the Police on the aforesaid categories of crimes in the past five years, as well as the number of female victims in such crimes and their age distribution; (b) of the respective numbers of people who were arrested, prosecuted and convicted for such crimes as well as the penalties imposed on those convicted in the past five years; and (c) whether the authorities will launch publicity of a larger scale to remind females to guard against various traps when making acquaintances on the Internet; if they will not, of the reasons for that?
5. Hon Mrs Regina IP to ask: (Translation)
As at 30 June last year, various policy bureaux and departments of the Government employed a total of 14 535 full-time non-civil service contract ("NCSC") staff to meet operational needs or cope with time-limited or seasonal demand for services and, among them, 4 741 had been employed for five years or more. At a public hearing conducted by a panel of this Council held on the 21st of last month , a number of NCSC staff deputations pointed out that some NCSC staff had been employed for more than a decade or even over two decades, and NCSC staff were also facing a number of problems, including being paid differently while doing the same work as civil servants', some NCSC postmen being required to travel to and from the airport to work but not given any travel allowances or overtime compensations, and some NCSC staff of the Department of Health being assigned to carry out frontline quarantine work without being given uniforms, etc. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the current number of NCSC staff, broken down by duration of employment (i.e. five to seven years, over seven years to 10 years, over 10 to 15 years, and over 15 years) and the policy bureau or department employing the NCSC staff; of the current number of NCSC staff, broken down by cumulative duration of employment last year (i.e. three months or less, over three months to six months, over six months to 11 months, and over 11 months) and the policy bureau or department employing the NCSC staff; (b) whether the authorities will expeditiously review and examine afresh the issue of re-appointing those NCSC staff who have relatively long service years and whose service is needed on a long-term basis as civil servants; if they will not, of the reasons for that; whether the authorities will consider introducing a mechanism for NCSC staff's salary increments based on years of service, in order to boost their morale and retain talents; if not, of the reasons for that; and (c) of the authorities' specific solutions to the various problems relayed by NCSC staff deputations; whether the authorities will accede to the demands of the deputations by according priority to employing NCSC staff of the relevant positions as civil servants when implementing plans to convert such NCSC positions to civil servant posts, as well as allowing those NCSC staff who have not been offered the civil servant posts to be transferred to other NCSC positions; if they will not, of the reasons for that?
6. Hon Frankie YICK to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the Secretary for Education ("SED") has indicated that the proportion of students who were born in Hong Kong and do not have mainland household registration but whose parents are non-permanent residents of Hong Kong, commonly known as "doubly non-permanent resident students"("DNR students"), coming to Hong Kong for primary education in the near future is expected to increase substantially from between 40% and 50%, as originally estimated, to 65%, reaching 130 000 persons. The increase in the aforesaid figure is mainly attributed to the recent cessation of admission of such students, who do not have mainland household registration, by the public schools on the Mainland. The pressure of DNR students on the demand for local school places has been increasing, and the school nets in the North District are the first to bear the brunt, with a shortage of about 800 to 1 000 school places in the Sheung Shui school net this year. Therefore, local students residing in that district may need to travel long distance to attend schools in other districts, and DNR students may also be allocated to schools in various districts. SED has also indicated that as the allocation process has already commenced, it is difficult to implement in the North District the policy of according priority to local students in the allocation of school places, and that the issue of fairness has to be taken into consideration. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) given that some principals of the schools in the North District had earlier said that while the Education Bureau had undertaken that priority would be accorded to students residing within the school nets in the North District in the allocation of Primary One places, SED later made different remarks on this issue, whether the Government has currently put in place a policy which stipulates that students residing within a particular school net will be accorded priority in the allocation of Primary One places in the same school net; if it has, of the relevant data concerning the implementation of such policy in various school nets in the past three years, and the reasons why it is difficult to implement such policy in the North District at present; if it has not, the reasons for that; (b) as it has been reported that the authorities will introduce five measures to ameliorate the problem of shortage of Primary One school places in the North District, of the details of the various measures and the expected results, including whether these measures can ensure sufficient Primary One places in the North District this year; if they cannot, of the measures in place to support the students who have not been allocated school places within the districts of their residence and their families; and (c) whether the authorities have now obtained information on the demand of DNR students for school places at various grades, and on the time that they intend to come to Hong Kong for education; if they have, of the details; if they have not, when such information will become available; whether the authorities have assessed the short, medium and long term demand of DNR students for school places, as well as whether the places in various school nets in the corresponding periods are sufficient to meet the demand of DNR students and to ensure that all local students are not required to attend schools in other districts?
*7. Dr Hon Helena WONG to ask: (Translation)
Representatives from animal rights concern groups have relayed to me that it was only after their reminder did the staff of the Animal Management Centres of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department ("AFCD") attach expiry date labels on rabies vaccines. However, when the concern groups examined such labels later on, they found that the vaccines had expired for 10 months. As such, they suspect that some dogs have been inoculated with expired vaccines by AFCD. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the quantity of rabies vaccines purchased and the number of dogs inoculated by AFCD, as well as how AFCD disposed of the expired vaccines and the quantity of such vaccines in each of the past five years; (b) whether AFCD had received in each of the past five years reported cases of dogs being inoculated with expired rabies vaccines; if it had, of the details (including the number of cases as well as the place, date and time of inoculation, etc.); whether it had investigated if human negligence or errors had been involved in each case; if the investigation results were in the affirmative, of the punishment imposed on the staff concerned; whether AFCD had re-inoculated the dogs which had been inoculated with expired vaccines; (c) whether it has assessed the impact of dogs being inoculated with expired rabies vaccines on their behaviour and health, as well as the threat to human safety posed by dogs not immunized; whether it knows the number of dogs in each of the past five years which suffered behavioural and health problems caused by their having been inoculated with expired vaccines; (d) whether a mechanism is in place at present to monitor and control the procedures of inoculation for dogs against rabies and the quality of the vaccines; (e) of the respective numbers of complaints and enquires received in each of the past five years relating to AFCD's inoculation for dogs against rabies, with a breakdown by the subject of the complaints; and (f) whether a mechanism is in place at present to announce incidents relating to AFCD's inoculation of dogs with expired vaccines, with a view to enhancing public awareness?
*8. Hon KWOK Wai-keung to ask: (Translation)
The Labour Department ("LD") launched the two-year Pilot Employment Navigator Programme ("Pilot ENP") in December 2010 to replace the Job Matching Programme ("JMP") which had been implemented since 1995. The Pilot ENP, which aimed at enhancing employment assistance to job seekers, ended in mid-December 2012. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of participants in the Pilot ENP in the past two years; among them, the number and percentage of participants who had successfully secured employment, broken down by their gender, age and educational attainment; the respective numbers of participants so far who had stayed in employment for a continuous period of less than three months, three to less than six months, six months to one year and more than one year; whether the relevant employment figures met the original targets set by the authorities; (b) given that participants who had completed any one of the specified periods of employment (i.e. the first day, the first month and the first three months) in the same employment might apply for the cash incentive for the stage concerned, of the number of those who had applied for cash incentive; among them, the respective numbers of participants whose applications had been approved and rejected; the number of participants who had been granted the corresponding cash incentive and the total amount involved for each stage, as well as the reasons for some participants not being granted cash incentive even though they had completed the specified periods of employment; (c) of the total amount of administrative costs incurred in implementing the Pilot ENP in the past two years, together with a breakdown of such costs; (d) of the trades formerly engaged by the participants in each of the past two years; among them, the respective numbers of those who had been unemployed for less than three months, three to six months and more than six months when they registered in the Pilot ENP; (e) regarding the participants who had successfully secured employment under the Pilot ENP in each of the past two years, of the occupations engaged by them, and the details of their terms of employment, remuneration and number of working hours, etc.; (f) whether it has conducted a comprehensive review on the Pilot ENP; if it has, of the scope of the review, the criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the Pilot ENP and the assessment outcome; if not, the reasons for that; (g) whether it will consider assigning some long-established or suitably experienced non-profit-making organizations or publicly-funded institutions to relaunch ENP as a regular programme; and (h) with the cessation of both JMP and the Pilot ENP, how the authorities follow up the employment situation of participants, and the job changing arrangements for the staff, of the Pilot ENP; whether LD, apart from providing regular employment assistance services, has any alternative plans currently in place; if it has, of the details; if not, whether the authorities will consider relaunching these two programmes; if they will, of the details?
*9. Hon James TIEN to ask: (Translation)
The Government sought funding from the Finance Committee of this Council in 2008 for the expansion of Tseung Kwan O Hospital ("TKOH"), and planned to provide obstetric services in TKOH in 2013-2014. However, the Hospital Authority ("HA") has recently decided not to provide obstetric services in that hospital on the basis that the birth projection for Sai Kung District ("SKD") in the coming few years will be lower than the planning reference set by HA's Expert Committee on Obstetric and Gynaecology Services years ago for the provision of such services in a public hospital (which is 3 000 delivery per annum), making it necessary for the pregnant women in the district to continue to obtain delivery services from the United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) given that HA has projected that the number of births in public hospitals in SKD for the coming few years is only 2 300 to 2 500 per annum, whether it knows the formula based on which the projection was calculated; (b) whether it knows how the Expert Committee on Obstetric and Gynaecology Services formulated the aforesaid planning reference; (c) given that the 2011 Population Census published by the Census and Statistics Department revealed that women in the age group of 25 to 44, who have a higher fertility rate, constitute around 35% of the women population in SKD, whether the Government has taken this factor into consideration in assessing the demand for obstetric services of SKD residents; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (d) whether it has assessed the healthcare manpower needed for the provision of obstetric services in TKOH as originally planned; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (e) whether it has assessed the impact of the pregnant women in SKD having to obtain delivery services from other districts on the demand for and quality of obstetric services of hospitals in these districts, as well as the impact on the safety of such pregnant women; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (f) of the maximum capacity and utilization of obstetric services of public hospitals in the past five years (set out the annual figures by each public hospital providing obstetric services); and (g) given that the authorities indicated in the paper submitted to the Panel on Health Services of this Council last month that HA would constantly review the timeline for the provision of delivery services and services of the neonatal intensive care units in TKOH, of the details of the latest timeline?
*10. Hon Charles Peter MOK to ask: (Translation)
According to the Transparency Report published biannually by Google, an Internet search-engine service provider, the Government had made 192 requests to the company for disclosure of its users' information in the first half of 2012, but about two-thirds of such requests were not acceded to by the company. The Report has also pointed out that the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department ("C&ED") had requested the company to remove from YouTube, its subsidiary video web site, 370 videos which were suspected of infringing copyright. However, as the information provided by C&ED was incomplete, the request was not acceded to by the company. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the names of the government departments which had made requests to Google for disclosure of its users' information in the past three years, and the types of requests and the number for each type, the reasons for making such requests, whether the requests were made under court orders, the details of the users' information requested for disclosure, whether the requests were acceded to and the reasons given by Google for not acceding to the requests, in the past three years (set out in the table below); Government department Type of requests and number of requests for each type Reason for making the request Whether the request was made under a court order Details of users' information requested for disclosure Whether the request was acceded to by Google Reason given by Google for not acceding to the request
(if applicable)
Yes/No
Yes/No (b) whether it had made similar requests to other Internet service providers ("ISPs") in the past three years; if it had, of the names of the ISPs concerned and whether they were local or non-local companies, and the same types of information in (a) above (set out in the table below); ISP Government department Type of requests and number of requests for each type Reason for making the request Whether the request was made under a court order Details of users' information requested for disclosure Whether the request was acceded to by ISP
Reason given by ISP for not acceding to the request
(if applicable)Local/ Non-local
Yes/No
Yes/No (c) of the number of requests made in the past three years by the authorities to various types of ISPs/Internet platforms/web sites for removal of their users' information; the names of the ISPs/Internet platforms/web sites concerned, the names of the government departments which had made such requests, and the types of users' information requested by various departments for removal and the number for each type, the reasons for making such requests, whether the requests were made under court orders, the details of the users' information requested for removal, whether the requests were acceded to by the companies concerned and the reasons given by the companies for not acceding to the requests (set out in the table below); ISP/ Internet platform/ web site Government department Type of information requested for removal and number for each type Reason for making the request Whether the request was made under a court order Details of users' information requested for removal Whether the request was acceded to by the company concerned Reason given by the company concerned for not acceding to the request
(if applicable)
Yes/No
Yes/No (d) whether the authorities have reviewed the reasons why all the videos which C&ED requested YouTube to remove were not removed; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (e) whether the authorities have put in place a central mechanism or procedure to coordinate or regulate the requests made by various government departments and law enforcement agencies to various types of ISPs/Internet platforms/web sites for disclosure or removal of their users' information; if they have, of the details; if not, whether they will put in place such standardized central mechanism or procedure, and require all departments to follow?
*11. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)
At present, the target beneficiaries of the Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project ("NSCCP") and the After School Care Programme ("ASCP") under the Social Welfare Department ("SWD") are infants under the age of six and children aged between six and 12 respectively. Some concern groups for child care services have pointed out to me that the existing numbers of places for various child care services are insufficient. Also, the operating hours of ASCP generally do not cover weekends, school holidays and general holidays, and thus cannot cater for the needs of grass-roots double-income parents who still need to work during such periods. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
(a) of the criteria based on which the authorities have determined the numbers of places for various child care services; whether they will consider increasing the numbers of places for such services; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (b) of a breakdown by District Council district of the respective numbers of subsidized places for NSCCP and ASCP, children receiving such services and applications on the waiting lists, as well as the respective utilization rates for such services at present; (c) of a breakdown of the budget items of SWD's $36.3 million approved provision for NSCCP in 2012-2013 and the actual expenditure of such items so far; (d) of the respective numbers of accidents causing injuries to home-based child carers and children since NSCCP was launched in 2008; of the types of insurance policies taken out by the authorities for various service operators as well as the protection offered to the carers and the children; whether the authorities have provided the service operators with guidelines on how to react when accidents occur and follow up; (e) whether the authorities have conducted any review of NSCCP since it was extended to all the 18 Districts across the territory in October 2011; if they have, whether they will publish the full contents and outcome of the review; if not, whether they will conduct such a review expeditiously; and (f) whether the authorities will adjust the operating hours of ASCP so as to better cater for the needs of double-income parents with children aged between six and 12 (particularly parents from grass-roots families)?
*12. Dr Hon CHIANG Lai-wan to ask: (Translation)
I have received from time to time complaints from members of the public that various government departments and utility undertakings are often found to be carrying out road excavation works repeatedly on the same road sections, and these members of the public are of the view that such works not only pose hazards to the safety of pedestrians and motorists, but also affect the business of the shop operators in the vicinity. Under the Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 28), the Highways Department ("HyD") is the authority for regulating road excavation works through the issue of excavation permits ("EPs"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of applications for road excavation works received by the authorities in the past three years, with a breakdown by (i) whether the works concerned were proposed by government departments or utility undertakings, and (ii) the District Council districts where the relevant works were carried out; and among them, the number of cases in which the works could not be completed within the validity periods of the EPs; and the average annual total number of days on which road excavation works were carried out in Hong Kong in the past three years; (b) whether it will consider amending the Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance to expressly provide that HyD shall be responsible for coordinating or centrally organizing the schedule for carrying out excavation works on the same road sections; if it will not, of the reasons for that; and (c) whether it will consider introducing new measures (e.g. charging a fee for carrying out road excavation works) to encourage government departments and utility undertakings to cooperate in coordinating the arrangements for carrying out road excavation works, thereby minimizing the occasions of excavation works being carried out repeatedly within a short period of time on the same road sections, as well as carrying out the works in an environment-friendly and expeditious manner with the least disturbance caused to members of the public; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
*13. Dr Hon Kenneth CHAN to ask: (Translation)
The Chief Executive has announced in the 2013 Policy Address that the Education Bureau is setting up a designated committee to examine the feasibility of implementing free kindergarten education. Regarding the statistics on all existing kindergartens in Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of kindergarten places and students, with a breakdown by District Council ("DC") district; (b) of the number of kindergarten teachers, with a breakdown by their academic qualification (Bachelor's degree, Diploma or Certificate in Early Childhood Education); (c) of the number of kindergartens in each DC district, with breakdowns by whether (i) they are half-day or whole-day ones, (ii) they are private or non-profit-making, (iii) the school premises of which were owned by their sponsoring organizations or rented properties, (iv) they are occupying school premises owned by the Government, non-governmental organizations or private owners, and (v) the principals of which are reaching the retiring age within three years; (d) of the respective average amounts of school fees and miscellaneous fees charged, and the respective average school fee subsidies received under the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme, by private and non-profit-making kindergartens last year; (e) whether it knows the average amount of monthly rental expenses incurred by the kindergartens the school premises of which are rented properties as well as the average lease period for the rented properties; and (f) whether it will publish the detailed information of each kindergarten on the government web site (including the name and address of the kindergarten as well as the relevant information for (a) to (e) above)?
*14. Dr Hon Elizabeth QUAT to ask: (Translation)
In recent years, the Government has been actively attracting investors to set up data centres in Hong Kong. A consultancy study commissioned by the Government pointed out that the demand for data centre space in Hong Kong, measured in terms of Raised Floor Space ("RFS"), would grow at a compound annual rate of 9.8% from 2009 to 2015. However, some environmentalists have pointed out that the huge electricity consumption by information and communications technology facilities and data centres has an impact on the environment. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the current number, total area and total RFS of the data centres in Hong Kong, as well as the respective rates of increase of these figures in 2012; (b) of the total number of data centres set up in Hong Kong as a result of the facilitation efforts made by the Data Centre Facilitation Unit since its establishment in July 2011; of the respective areas, locations and completion dates/expected completion dates of such data centres, as well as the respective companies to which they belong; (c) whether it has compiled statistics on the annual total electricity consumption of the data centres in Hong Kong; if it has, of the outcome; (d) given that the average power usage effectiveness ("PUE") value of data centres around the world is currently about 1.8 and that of some new data centres can even be as low as 1.1, whether the Government has compiled statistics on the PUE of the data centres in Hong Kong; if it has, of the outcome; (e) whether it has assessed the impact of the development of data centres on future electricity demands, as well as the impact on tariffs brought about by the investments on power supply facilities made to meet such demands; (f) given that the Singaporean Government launched the Green Data Centre certification in 2012 and is offering tax concessions ranging from 30% to 50% for investments in energy-saving equipment for data centres, whether the Government has any plan to formulate, by making reference to such a practice and collaborating with the trade, a set of "Green Data Centre Standards" for the data centres in Hong Kong, and provide financial incentives to encourage data centres to save energy and implement environmental protection measures; and (g) of the following information relating to the data centres owned by the Government: (i) current number; (ii) total area and total RFS; (iii) total power consumption in 2012; (iv) average PUE; whether the Government has any plan to set PUE targets for its data centres; (v) the percentage of data centres implementing the green data centre practices promulgated by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer in early 2012, as well as the effectiveness of such practices since their implementation; and (vi) given that the Government has raised the room temperature of its data centres from 22°C to 23°C, and according to the recommendations of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the standard room temperature of a data centre is 18°C to 27°C and the acceptable temperature can be as high as 32°C, whether the Government will consider gradually raising the room temperature of the data centres to 25°C or 26°C by improving the air distribution in data centres, so as to enhance the PUE of the data centres?
*15. Hon Claudia MO to ask: (Translation)
Part of the 4th floor podium of Metro Harbour View, a private housing estate in Tai Kok Tsui, shall be designated under a land lease condition as a public open space ("POS"), which is required to be made available for public use. In the past five years, the owners' incorporation ("OC") of the housing estate has been striving for turning the POS into a private open space. The former Secretary for Development ("SDEV") stated openly that the case "warranted exceptional consideration", and considered the OC's request for waiving the aforesaid land lease condition ("waiver request") justified because the OC had real difficulties in managing the POS and handling the security issues, and there was sufficient POS in the vicinity of that housing estate for use by residents in the district. Yet, the granting of the waiver by the authorities is subject to the support of the Yau Tsim Mong District Council, Yau Tsim Mong West ("YTMW") Area Committee and Town Planning Board. However, the request put forward by the OC for turning the POS into a private open space by way of a waiver has failed to secure the support of the YTMW Area Committee. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has taken any action so far to follow up the waiver request, which the former SDEV considered justified; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (b) whether it has actively communicated with the YTMW Area Committee to explain clearly to its members the special circumstances of this case and to indicate the Government's stance of supporting the wavier request; if it has; of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
*16. Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask: (Translation)
The World Health Organization has pointed out that breastfeeding ensures that infants will be provided with the nutrients they need for healthy growth, and recommended mothers to breastfeed exclusively up to six months of age of infants, with continued breastfeeding up to two years of age or beyond. In addition, the Department of Health, the Hospital Authority and the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative Hong Kong Association ("BFHIHKA") under the United Nations Children's Fund released the results of the annual survey of BFHIHKA on 28 July 2012, indicating that the breastfeeding rate of infants born in Hong Kong before they are discharged from hospitals has been rising since 1992, reaching 83.3% in 2011. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has compiled statistics on the breastfeeding rates of infants in the first six months, one year and two years after discharge from hospitals; if it has, of the details; if not, whether the Government will compile statistics; if it will, of the specific timetable; (b) whether it knows the respective numbers of venues with breastfeeding rooms ("BF rooms") and baby-sitting rooms ("BS rooms") for public use in Government office buildings, recreational and sports facilities under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, public transport interchanges, public markets under the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, MTR stations and shopping centres in Hong Kong, and their percentages in the total number of the venues concerned (set out in the table below), from 2008 to the first half of 2012; whether the Government has any specific plan to encourage shopping centres to provide BF rooms and BS rooms; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; Year Government office buildings Recreational and sports facilities Public transport interchanges Public markets MTR stations Shopping centres BF
roomsBS
roomsBF
roomsBS
roomsBF
roomsBS
roomsBF
roomsBS
roomsBF
roomsBS
roomsBF
roomsBS
roomsFirst half of 2012
Number
Percentage
2011
Number
Percentage
2010
Number
Percentage
2009
Number
Percentage
2008
Number
Percentage
(c) whether it has any specific measure to encourage employers to provide BF rooms and BS rooms in the workplace, and provide breast pumping and breastfeeding time to employees; if it has, of the details; if not, whether it has plans to put in place such measures; (d) whether it will plan to carry out publicity and public education through the mass media, so as to promote breastfeeding; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (e) whether it has promoted breastfeeding to the public through different channels; if it has, of the details, and the amount of publicity expenditures in the past five years (set out in the table below)? Year Various publicity channels Television announcements in the public interest Radio announcements Bus stops MTR stations Public medical facilities Community talks Number of times broadcast Number of times broadcast Number of days of display Number of days of display Number of days of display Number of talks organized First half of 2012
Number of times broadcast/ days of display/ talks organized
Total expenditure
2011
Number of times broadcast/ days of display/ talks organized
Total expenditure
2010
Number of times broadcast/ days of display/ talks organized
Total expenditure
2009
Number of times broadcast/ days of display/ talks organized
Total expenditure
2008
Number of times broadcast/ days of display/ talks organized
Total expenditure
*17. Hon Ronny TONG to ask: (Translation)
When elucidating the 2013 Policy Address, the Chief Executive ("CE") has stated that housing and land supply is the "top priority" work of the Government, but the Policy Address has made no mention of conducting a review of the "small house concessionary rights" and the use of land zoned for "Village Type Development" (which is mainly reserved for building New Territories small houses) with a view to releasing more land for residential development. Earlier, the Development Bureau has revealed that, of the unleased and unallocated government land, 932 hectares have been zoned for "Village Type Development", and only 391.5 hectares for "Commercial" or "Commercial/Residential" uses. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) why CE has made no mention of conducting a review of the small house concessionary rights and the use of land zoned for Village Type Development in his Policy Address; (b) of the definition of Village Type Development, the criteria based on which the Government has zoned 932 hectares of land for Village Type Development, and whether reserving land for indigenous villagers to build small houses is one of such planning criteria; if so, of the reasons for that; (c) whether it has made projection on the current number of indigenous villagers eligible for applying for building small houses; if so, of the methods and criteria adopted for making such projection and the findings; if not, the reasons for that; of the number of applications for building small houses received in each of the past 10 years and, among them, the number of applications made by indigenous villagers who have emigrated overseas and the land areas involved; (d) whether it has made projection on the number of applications for building small houses in the coming 10 years and the land areas involved, as well as the number of applications to be made by indigenous villagers who have emigrated overseas; if so, of the methods and criteria adopted for such projection and the findings; if not, the reasons for that; (e) whether it has compiled statistics on the number of indigenous villagers not residing or born in Hong Kong who had applied for building small houses in the past 10 years; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; whether it has examined narrowing down the definition of those indigenous villagers who are eligible for applying for building small houses (e.g. limiting the eligibility to only those indigenous villagers who have right of abode in Hong Kong, were born in Hong Kong or were born before a certain date); if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (f) whether the authorities have studied and assessed the implications of indigenous villagers being entitled to the small house concessionary rights on the land supply and development of Hong Kong; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; whether the Government has drawn up any plan and timetable to review the Small House Policy; if it has, of the details and how it will conduct the review; if not, the reasons for that; whether the Government has any intention of revoking the small house concessionary rights of indigenous villagers; if it does not, of the reasons for that; and (g) of the number of applications for altering the planned uses of "Agricultural land" or "Green Belt" for building small houses in each of the past 10 years, the number of such applications approved, and the land areas involved; whether the Government had initiated the alteration of planning uses of any land to Village Type Development in the past 10 years; if it had, of the number of such alterations, the land areas involved and the number of small houses that could be built on the sites concerned?
*18. Hon Abraham SHEK to ask:
According to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2011, Hong Kong had an overall ranking of 12 among 139 countries and places in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index in 2011, which is two places behind Singapore. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) given that Hong Kong ranked 112th in the area of "presence of major car rental companies", whether the Government has assessed the current demand of tourists for car rental services and the expected demand upon the completion of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge; if it has not, of the reasons for that; if it has, the details of the assessment outcome, and if the assessment outcome shows an unmet demand for car rental services now or in future, whether the Government will consider introducing measures to boost the supply of such services; if it will not, of the reasons for that; (b) given that Hong Kong ranked 43rd in the area of "ticket taxes and airport charges", whether the Government has assessed the correlation between the current level of the airport fees (e.g. landing fee, terminal building charge, parking fee and boarding bridge charge) charged by the Hong Kong International Airport ("HKIA") and HKIA's competitiveness among the major airports in Asia; if it has, of the details of the assessment outcome; if not, the reasons for that; whether the Government has considered lowering the airport passenger departure tax to attract more tourists to Hong Kong; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (c) given that Hong Kong ranked 27th in the area of "education and training", whether the Government has assessed if the training and related training institutions provided for tourism industry practitioners are adequate at present; if it has not, of the reasons for that; if it has, the details of the assessment outcome, and if the assessment outcome is in the negative, whether the Government is taking or will take measures to address the inadequacy; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
*19. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the current number of Patient Relations Officers in each public hospital who are responsible for handling complaints lodged by patients or their families; (b) the number of complaints from patients or their families received by each public hospital in the past five years, with a breakdown by nature of the complaints (e.g. medical blunders and attitude of healthcare personnel); (c) given that the Performance Targets of the Hospital Authority ("HA") specify that hospitals should respond to complaints made by patients or their families within six weeks (within three months for complex cases), the number of complaints handled by each public hospital in the past five years in which such target was not met; (d) among the complaints handled by each public hospital in the past five years, the number of cases that were found to be substantiated and on which follow-up actions were required; among them, the respective numbers of cases in which the healthcare personnel concerned were punished and the forms of punishment (set out in table form); (e) given that HA's two-tier system in handling complaints provides that a complainant may appeal against the relevant hospital's decision on his/her complaint to HA's Public Complaints Committee ("PCC"), the number of appeals received by PCC in the past five years; among them, the number of cases which had been found to be substantiated and on which follow-up actions were required; (f) among the complaints mentioned in (b), the number of cases involving medical blunders and for which mediation was conducted; among them, the number of cases in which HA made compensations to the patients concerned or their families, and the amount of public funds involved; (g) the way in which HA publicizes the appeal mechanism mentioned in (e) at present; (h) how HA handles cases in which the patients or their families are dissatisfied with PCC's decisions on their appeals; and (i) given that the statistics on the complaints made by patients or their families are available in the annual reports of PCC and the Patient Relations Office of the HA Head Office, but the reports have not been uploaded onto HA's web site and members of the public can have access to such reports only when they attend HA Board meetings as observers, whether HA has assessed if such an arrangement goes against its Code of Conduct which specifies that HA shall adopt an open attitude; if the assessment outcome is in the affirmative, the reasons for adopting such an arrangement?
*20. Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG to ask: (Translation)
According to the estimates released by the Government at the end of 2011, agricultural land accounted for about 6.1% of the total land area in Hong Kong, i.e. about 6 700 hectares, among which 3 292 hectares of land in the New Territories were covered by statutory plans and zoned for "agricultural" use (representing approximately 10.5% of the total land area in the New Territories covered by statutory plans). The current agricultural policy is to "follow the general policy framework of free market. Except where social considerations are overriding, the allocation of resources in the economy is left to market forces with minimal government intervention". In recent years, as many pieces of agricultural land in the New Territories have been left derelict after acquisition by property developers, some agricultural land has become container yards or vehicle parks, or has been turned into other land uses, and coupled with the Government's plan to develop Northeast and North New Territories, the area of agricultural land for farming has been dwindling and the agriculture industry is shrinking continuously. The market share of locally produced vegetables has dropped from 30% in the 1990s to 2.3% in 2011. The relevant authorities on the Mainland, on the contrary, promulgated vegetable supply assurance measures in 2010, and requested large cities to set a minimum area of agricultural land designated for vegetable production so as to enhance self-sufficiency. Furthermore, Taiwan has adopted "a healthy, efficient and sustainable development" as an objective of its agricultural policy and has formulated corresponding measures to help the agricultural sector. Some members of the agriculture industry have pointed out that, due to repeated problems with food products from the Mainland in recent years, quite a number of Hong Kong people practise organic farming and purchase organic agricultural produce, and such people also have confidence in and a demand for local agricultural produce. In addition, developing the agriculture industry can also enhance diversity of local industries, create employment opportunities, maintain ecological balance and facilitate the development of biological diversity. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether the authorities will review the existing principle of free market playing a leading role and formulate afresh a "healthy and sustainable" agricultural policy; (b) as some farmers have pointed out that the agricultural land in the New Territories has continuously been acquired and hoarded by property developers, resulting in idling of and reduction in agricultural land, whether the authorities have given up development of the agriculture industry; (c) given that quite a number of cities and countries have set targets on the market shares of local agricultural produce (e.g. in the case of Shanghai, the minimum assured supply of locally produced vegetables will be 30% in 2020), whether the authorities have formulated such a target; if they have not, of the reasons for that; (d) of the respective areas of agricultural land used for producing vegetables, flowers, miscellaneous crops and fruits, and the respective market shares of the such agricultural produce produced each year between 1997-1998 and 2011-2012 (set out in the tables below); Year Total area of agricultural land Area for producing the following agricultural produce Vegetables Flowers Miscellaneous crops Fruits
Year Market share of locally produced agricultural produce Vegetables Flowers Miscellaneous crops Fruits
(e) of the respective numbers of applications for rezoning agricultural land received and approved by the Town Planning Board (set out in the table below), the total area involved and the total amount of additional land premium involved in approved cases each year between 1997-1998 and 2011-2012; and Year Number of applications received Number of approved cases broken down by new land use Village Type Development Residential site Commercial site Industrial site Green belt Government, Institution or Community site Comprehensive Development Area Total
(f) of the respective number of farms in Hong Kong and the number of people working in such farms each year between 1997-1998 and 2011-2012 (set out in the table below)? Year Number of farms Number of organic farms Number of owner-farmers Number of employees
* For written reply
III. Bill
| First Reading
Pesticides (Amendment) Bill 2013 | ||
| Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned)
| ||
| Pesticides (Amendment) Bill 2013 | : | Secretary for Food and Health
|