A 17/18-29
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 9 May 2018 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
Other Papers
| 1. | No. 104 | - | Qualifications Framework Fund Financial statements and Report of the Director of Audit for the year ended 31 August 2017 |
| (to be presented by Secretary for Education)
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| 2. | No. 105 | - | Research Endowment Fund Financial statements and Report of the Director of Audit for the year ended 31 August 2017 |
| (to be presented by Secretary for Education)
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| 3. | No. 106 | - | Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation Annual Report 2017 |
| (to be presented by Financial Secretary)
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| 4. | Report No. 12/17-18 of the House Committee on Consideration of Subsidiary Legislation and Other Instruments | ||
| (to be presented by Hon Starry LEE, Chairman of the House Committee) | |||
II. Questions for Written Replies
1. Hon Gary FAN to ask: (Translation)
A feature article published by the Census and Statistics Department in January this year pointed out that the number of divorces in Hong Kong had increased continuously in recent years, with the number of divorce decrees granted by the Court in 2016 standing at 17 196, which nearly tripled that in 1991. Meanwhile, the media have reported on numerous occasions that some cross-boundary bogus marriage syndicates provide one-stop services. Apart from arranging bogus marriages for their clients to facilitate their application for Permits for Proceeding to Hong Kong and Macao (commonly known as "One-way Permits" ("OWPs")), such syndicates can also take care of the divorce procedure on behalf of their clients after they come to settle in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of cases in each of the past three years in which people who had come to Hong Kong for settlement on OWPs for two years or below, three to four years and five to six years, or their spouses, applied for divorce in Hong Kong; (2) whether the Immigration Department ("ImmD") has taken the initiative to investigate the divorce cases mentioned in (1), so as to ascertain whether the people concerned have committed the crime of bogus marriage; if ImmD has, of the number of cases investigated, as well as the respective numbers of persons prosecuted and convicted for bogus marriage; and (3) whether ImmD has plans to discuss with the mainland authorities if the Department may play a more active role in the process of vetting and approval of OWPs, such as working with the mainland authorities to draw up more stringent vetting and approval procedure in order to identify cases of bogus marriage; whether, in the long term, the Government will reconsider discussing with the mainland authorities ImmD taking over the responsibility of the vetting and approval of OWPs?
2. Hon Jeremy TAM to ask: (Translation)
Section 16 of the Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123) provides that if plans of building works submitted to the Building Authority ("BA") (i.e. the Director of Buildings) are not endorsed with or accompanied by a certificate from the Director of Fire Services ("DFS") certifying that (i) no fire service installation or equipment is necessary in connection with the building that will result from the carrying out of the building works shown on the plans or (ii) in the opinion of DFS, the fire service installations and equipment shown on the plans have met the minimum requirements, BA may refuse to give his approval of the plans. It has been reported that the Hong Kong Council of Social Service ("HKCSS") is planning to build three modular housing blocks of three storeys each at 202-220 Nam Cheong Street, Sham Shui Po for temporary residential purpose ("HKCSS modular housing"). Regarding the issues relating to the issuance by DFS of the aforesaid certificate for the building works of modular housing/container housing and the vetting and approval by BA of plans submitted in respect of such kind of works, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) (i) of the criteria adopted by DFS for determining whether the aforesaid certificate should be issued for the building works of HKCSS modular housing, and (ii) whether DFS has issued the certificate; (2) of the criteria adopted by BA for determining whether approval should be given to the plans submitted in respect of the building works of HKCSS modular housing; the number of times for which BA has so far received the relevant plans submitted by HKCSS, and on each occasion, (i) the date of receipt of such plans and (ii) the amount of fees charged; whether BA has approved the relevant plans; if so, of the approval date; (3) of the details of the applications for constructing temporary modular housing/container housing received by BA and DFS in the past five years, including (i) the dates of application, (ii) the locations of the modular housing/container housing concerned, (iii) the amounts of fees payable by the applicants, (iv) the number of revisions made to the plans and (v) the outcome of vetting and approval (set out in a table); (vi) the number of applications received and (vii) the number of applications approved by BA and DFS in each of the past five years, as well as (viii) the amount of fees charged, (ix) the amount of processing time and (x) the number of revisions made to the plans, per application on average; and (4) regarding each of the cases in which the plans submitted in the past five years to BA for approval which were subsequently rejected, of the proposed location(s) of the modular housing/container housing concerned and the justifications of BA for not granting approval?
3. Hon CHAN Hak-kan to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that incidents of people illegally dumping construction waste in public places or rural areas have happened from time to time in recent years. The Audit Commission and the Office of The Ombudsman released reports in 2016 and 2018 respectively, criticizing that the law enforcement agencies had been ineffective in combating such acts. On the other hand, as there have been few reclamation works carried out in Hong Kong in recent years, the quantity of construction and demolition materials used for reclamation and site formation works has declined, resulting in an excess supply of public fill over the demand and the saturation of the existing four public fill reception facilities and two fill banks. As such, the Government can only deliver the surplus public fill to places outside Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of (i) proactive inspections conducted to combat acts of illegal dumping of construction waste, (ii) relevant complaints received, and (iii) prosecutions instituted against the persons concerned, by the Environmental Protection Department and the Planning Department in each of the past five years; the new measures to be taken by these two departments in the coming five years to further combat such kind of illegal acts; (2) of the quantity of public fill generated in Hong Kong, and the respective (i) quantities of public fill received, (ii) total amounts of fees collected, and (iii) operational expenses incurred, by the four public fill reception facilities and the two fill banks in each of the past five years; (3) of (i) the quantity and percentage of the surplus public fill exported (with a breakdown by export destination), and (ii) the quantity and percentage of the surplus public fill discarded at the landfills, by the Government in each of the past five years; (4) as I have learnt that the demand of the Mainland construction industry for fill materials has gradually decreased in recent years, of the Government's measures to cope with the situation where the Mainland stops receiving fill materials from Hong Kong; and (5) of the respective current percentages of locally recovered glass materials that have been reused or used as fill materials (i) in Hong Kong and (ii) after exportation; given that there is currently an excess supply of fill materials, whether it has plans to take measures to raise the percentage of glass materials to be recovered for reuse?
4. Hon Holden CHOW to ask: (Translation)
Every summer, many people flock to the waters of Hong Kong to engage in a variety of water sports activities, including riding on a banana boat towed by a speed-boat and jet skiing. It is learnt that accidents involving such recreational activities which resulted in deaths and injuries have occurred from time to time. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of water sports accidents involving banana boats and jet-skis recorded by the authorities in the past five years; (2) whether the existing legislation governing vessels regulates jet-skis and non-mechanized vessels such as banana boats; if so, of the details, including the specific requirements under the various provisions and whether such facilities are required to be registered or licensed; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (3) whether the relevant government departments have conducted inspections regularly on the safety of banana boats and jet-skis; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
5. Hon Jimmy NG to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the number of working poor with post-secondary education or above ("high academic qualifications") increased from 18 400 in 2012 to 28 300 in 2016, of which the number of university degree holders increased by 83% from 9 300 to 17 000. There are comments that while education has all along been regarded as a major impetus for upward mobility, the above figures manifest a worrying situation that even high academic qualifications cannot help one get out of poverty. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has studied the causes for the rise in recent years in the number of working poor with high academic qualifications; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (2) whether it has estimated how the number of working poor with high academic qualifications by the end of 2022 as well as their age and gender profiles compare with the current relevant figures; (3) as there are views that the increase in the poor population with high academic qualifications is mainly attributable to (i) the increasing industrialization of education, (ii) the mismatch between the supply of talents from the education system and the manpower demand in the labour market, and (iii) the narrow industry structure in Hong Kong, whether the authorities have studied the specific impact of these three factors on the poor population with high academic qualifications; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (4) given that some research results have found that the median starting salary of university graduates dropped from $16,371 per month in 1995 to $13,916 per month in 2015, coupled with the fact that the local Composite Consumer Price Index rose by 37% from 73.3 (with October 2014 to September 2015 as the base period) to 100.6 during the same period, reflecting that the income levels of university graduates had deteriorated during the period, whether the authorities will introduce more measures appropriate for alleviating and preventing poverty among the working poor who are university graduates; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
6. Hon Paul TSE to ask: (Translation)
The results of a study have shown that the disposable plastic food containers used by quite a number of fast food chains would have an overall migration exceeding the limit resulting in food contamination when they were used to hold food with temperatures of over 100 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, the results of a sampling test on local wild flathead grey mullets have shown that 60% of the samples contained plastic fragments, the constituents of which are commonly used in the making of disposable plastic tableware. Some green groups have pointed out that the persistent organic pollutants ("POPs") adhered to microplastics can cause cancer after entering the human body via the food chain. In addition, the governments of France and Taiwan have decided to ban the use of disposable plastic tableware in 2020 and 2030 respectively. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has studied and assessed, among the new confirmed cases of cancers in the past three years, the percentages of those which were related to POPs; (2) whether it has investigated (i) restaurants' use of disposable plastic food containers which have an overall migration exceeding the limit when coming into contact with high temperatures, and (ii) restaurants' massive use of disposable plastic food containers; (3) whether it formulated policies and measures in the past three years to encourage school lunch box suppliers as well as operators of restaurant chains and canteens in government office buildings to give greater consideration from the perspectives of reducing microplastics entering the food chain, protecting the environment and safeguarding public health, and switch to the use of reusable food containers or plastic-free disposable food containers; (4) whether it formulated policies and measures in the past three years to (i) change the restaurants' undesirable practice of massively using disposable plastic food containers, and (ii) develop among members of the public a habit from childhood to bring their own tableware and avoid using disposable plastic food containers; and (5) in view of the results of a study by an American university which showed that more than 90% of the samples of bottled water contained microplastic particles which can cause cancer, whether the Government will (i) step up its efforts to persuade members of the public to purchase less bottled water and to switch to bringing their own water bottles and using the drinking fountains provided in public places instead, and (ii) install in places with high pedestrian flow higher-grade drinking fountains (such as those adopting medical-grade and reverse osmosis filtration technologies) so as to provide members of the public with drinking water that meets high water quality standards?
7. Hon Vincent CHENG to ask: (Translation)
As incidents in which young people committed suicide in an attempt to dodge the huge debts built up by gambling have been heard from time to time in recent years, some concern groups have all along been requesting, over the years, the Government to raise the legal gambling age from 18 to 21. On the other hand, the Government established the Ping Wo Fund ("the Fund") in 2003 to sponsor preventive and remedial measures for gambling-related problems. To enhance the promotion of anti-gambling messages among young people and in the community, the Fund introduced the Ping Wo Fund Sponsorship Scheme and the Ping Wo Fund School Project Grants ("the two sponsorship schemes") to sponsor non-governmental organizations and schools respectively for organizing anti-gambling publicity and education activities. In connection with curbing the prevalence of youth gambling, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows, in each of the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 financial years, (i) the betting turnover received by the Hong Kong Jockey Club ("HKJC") in respect of each type of betting activities and the respective percentage of each of such betting turnover in the total betting turnover (set out in a table), and among such betting turnover, (ii) the year-on-year growth rate of football betting turnover and the percentage of football bets which were placed online; (2) whether it knows, in each of the past five years, the number and percentage of HKJC betting account holders who were aged below 21; whether the authorities will examine afresh the proposal to raise the legal gambling age to 21; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) given that HKJC has in recent years upgraded its mobile betting services (such as placing bets via mobile applications) and introduced different betting types, whether the authorities will study if such practices have resulted in the prevalence of youth gambling; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (4) whether the authorities have assessed the effectiveness of the Fund; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; given the upcoming World Cup which is a widely attention-grabbing sports event among young people, whether the authorities have conducted targeted public education and publicity work to curb the prevalence of youth gambling; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (5) of the respective numbers of applications received and approved, and the total amounts of grants allocated, by the two sponsorship schemes in each of the past five years (set out in a table); (6) whether it knows the numbers of requests for assistance received by the gambling counselling hotlines operated by various community organizations, and the attendances of the services provided by the four counselling and treatment centres financed by the Fund, in each of the past five years (set out in a table); and (7) of the respective numbers of persons prosecuted and convicted for participating in illegal football betting activities in each of the past five years, and the total betting turnover involved; whether the authorities have reviewed the effectiveness of the related law enforcement operations; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
8. Hon CHU Hoi-dick to ask: (Translation)
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority ("the HZMB Authority"), jointly established by the governments of Hong Kong, the Guangdong Province and Macao, is responsible for the construction and operation of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge ("HZMB"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that the information provided by the HZMB Authority, as quoted by the Transport and Housing Bureau, indicates that since the commencement of the part in Mainland waters of the construction works of the HZMB Main Bridge project, a total of nine fatal industrial accidents resulting in nine deaths in total have happened so far, whether the Government knows the following details of each of such accidents (set out in a table): (i) the date and time of the accident, (ii) the location of the accident, (iii) the name and post title of the deceased, (iv) the gender and age of the deceased, (v) the sequence of events leading to the accident, (vi) the progress and outcome of the investigation into the cause of the accident, and (vii) the amount of the employee's compensation and the disbursement progress; (2) whether it knows the number of serious work injury accidents since the commencement of the part in Mainland waters of the construction works of the HZMB Main Bridge project, and the resultant number of injuries, as well as the details of each of such accidents; and (3) given that the Zhuhai Housing, Urban-Rural Planning and Development Bureau indicated in a gazette issued in October 2016 that an accident of collapse of structure and drowning of workers had happened in the HZMB Zhuhai boundary crossing facilities ("BCF") project in August of the same year causing one death, whether the Government knows (i) if this deceased person was not counted towards the nine deaths mentioned in (1), and (ii) the respective numbers of industrial accidents as well as the resultant deaths and serious work injuries since the commencement of the construction works of the HZMB Zhuhai BCF and Macao BCF projects, and the details of each of such accidents?
9. Hon WONG Ting-kwong to ask: (Translation)
The Secretary for Innovation and Technology has said that the development and retention of technology talents is one of the key foci in the Policy Address published in October last year, and the Government will introduce measures to attract talents from top universities and research institutions overseas to come to Hong Kong for career development. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) regarding the various admission schemes for non-local talents, of the respective numbers of applications received and, among such applications, the respective numbers of those made by technology talents and the respective numbers and percentages of their applications approved, in each of the past 10 years; the current number of technology talents who were admitted to Hong Kong and have now acquired the Hong Kong permanent resident status, and whether it knows, among these talents, the number of those who are currently living in Hong Kong for most of their time and still engaging in technological research; (2) whether it has assessed the number of technology talents needed by Hong Kong in each of the coming five years; if so, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that and whether it will conduct such an assessment expeditiously; and (3) of the latest position of the implementation of the various measures for attracting technology talents to Hong Kong (including the Technology Talent Scheme and the pilot fast-track admission scheme for technology talents); whether the Steering Committee on Innovation and Technology will further review the existing policies relating to the admission of technology talents, and formulate targeted policies to facilitate this type of talents to come to Hong Kong for career development, with a view to further attracting technology talents to Hong Kong gearing to the needs arising from innovation and technology development in the territory; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
10. Hon CHAN Han-pan to ask: (Translation)
The Immigration Department ("ImmD") will launch at the end of this year a territory-wide identity card ("ID card") replacement exercise for Hong Kong residents, which will involve an estimated number of 8.8 million ID cards. ImmD will adopt a number of facilitation measures to enhance public convenience, including the arrangement for its staff to visit residential care homes to provide on-site ID card replacement service directly for elderly persons and persons with disabilities. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that section 25(e) of the Registration of Persons Regulations (Cap. 177 sub. leg. A) provides that the aged, the blind or the infirm may apply for a Certificate of Exemption ("the Certificate") with the Commissioner of Registration (i.e. the Director of Immigration) either on their own or through their representatives for the purpose of seeking exemption from applying for the issue or renewal of ID cards, of the criteria for vetting and approval of the applications for the Certificates; if it has looked into whether those persons who did not apply for replacement of their ID cards during the last replacement exercise but hold the Certificates have experienced inconvenience in their daily lives; if they have, of the details; and (2) as some New Territories residents have indicated that some remote districts, such as the rural areas and the outlying islands, have a large number of residents and inconvenient external transport, whether the Government will consider deploying staff to provide on-site ID card replacement service for the elderly persons, persons with impaired mobility and other residents in the aforesaid districts, as well as setting up ID card replacement centres or installing self-service registration and ID card collection machines in such districts?
11. Hon SHIU Ka-fai to ask: (Translation)
Earlier on, the Government allocated funds to commission the Consumer Council to conduct a study on the introduction of a statutory cooling-off period. In this connection, the Consumer Council submitted to the Government last month A Report to Advocate Mandatory Cooling-Off Period in Hong Kong ("the Report"), recommending the introduction of a mandatory cooling-off period targeting certain industries (including the beauty industry) and specific transaction modes. The Government has indicated that it plans to submit the relevant proposed legislative framework to this Council within this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the Government and the Consumer Council have assessed the impacts of the introduction of a mandatory cooling-off regime on the business environment; if so, of the outcome; if not, why the Consumer Council has made the relevant recommendation on enacting legislation; (2) as the Consumer Council has indicated that it has examined the legislation on mandatory cooling-off periods in various jurisdictions, if the Government knows whether there are jurisdictions which have introduced a mandatory cooling-off regime for the beauty industry; if there are, of such jurisdictions and the relevant details; if there are not, whether the Consumer Council has enquired with various jurisdictions and studied carefully the reasons for various jurisdictions not having put in place the relevant regime; (3) whether it knows if the Consumer Council has studied which jurisdictions in which a voluntary cooling-off regime for certain industries have now been put in place; if the Consumer Council has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (4) as the Report has pointed out that sales practices which seriously damage the rights and interests of consumers have emerged from time to time in individual industries, whether it knows if the Consumer Council can provide details and objective evidence to support such a remark; if no such details and objective evidence are available, why the Consumer Council has made such a remark in the Report; (5) whether the Government and the Consumer Council have assessed the prevalence of using distance contracts as a transaction mode in economic activities and the impacts of introducing a mandatory cooling-off regime on such activities, e.g. a distributor not being able to return the products returned by consumers to the general agent and hence suffering a loss; if they have not assessed, why the Consumer Council has made the relevant regulatory proposal; (6) as the Report has pointed out that various types of unfair trade practices have emerged in the beauty industry in recent years, whether it knows if the Consumer Council can provide objective evidence to support such a remark; how the data on the adoption of unfair trade practices by operators in the beauty industry compare with the relevant data in other industries; (7) among the complaints in relation to the beauty industry received by the Consumer Council from 2013 to 2017 as set out in the Report, of the number of those which have been found substantiated; (8) whether it has assessed if the complaint figure, based on which the Consumer Council made the remark that operators in the beauty industry had adopted various types of unfair trade practices, covers complaints which have not yet been substantiated; if the figure does, whether the Government has assessed if such an approach is prudent, objective and fair; (9) among the various types of complaints received by the Consumer Council in each of the past three years, of the number of those which have been found substantiated and the amounts of money involved (set out the breakdown by type in a table); (10) whether it knows the justifications for the Consumer Council coming to the view that the duration of the cooling-off period should not be less than seven days; (11) whether it knows the justifications for the Consumer Council recommending that the time limit for traders to make a refund should not be more than 14 days; (12) as the Consumer Council has recommended that if the consumer has requested for using the services concerned during the cooling-off period, the trader can deduct from the refund the value of the service used and the amount shall be calculated pro rata to the total consideration stipulated in the contract, whether the Government knows the Consumer Council's justifications for recommending that the mandatory cooling-off regime be applicable to cases in which the consumer has started using the service concerned; whether, before making this recommendation, the Consumer Council has considered (i) the fact that the trader's cost of providing a single unit of goods or service to the customer is usually higher than that of providing a batch of such goods or service, making it very likely for the trader to eventually bear the relevant differences in the cost, and (ii) if this recommendation will induce many people to exploit the loophole to enjoy part of the services at a lower average price through the purchase of packages; (13) whether it knows if the Consumer Council has considered whether the mandatory cooling-off regime should apply to cases involving existing customers; if the Consumer Council has and the outcome is in the affirmative, of the justifications; if the consideration outcome is in the negative, why the Consumer Council has not recommended in the Report the granting of exemptions to such cases; (14) as the Consumer Council has recommended that if the consumer has paid by credit card, the trader is to be allowed to deduct, when making a refund, an administrative fee of not more than 3% of the credit card transaction value, whether the Government knows if the proposed administrative fee level is sufficient to offset the related expenses that the trader has incurred (e.g. the costs arising from advance payment for the refund and waiting for refund by the card-issuing bank) and the various handling fees and transaction fees that the bank charges the trader for the refund; if it may not be sufficient to offset such expenses, why the Consumer Council has made this recommendation; (15) whether it knows if the Consumer Council has discussed its recommendations with the banking industry to understand the corresponding business strategies which card-issuing banks will adopt; if the Consumer Council has discussed, of the response of card-issuing banks; if not, how the Consumer Council ascertains the feasibility of its recommendations; (16) whether it knows if the Consumer Council has considered the following scenarios: card-issuing banks may increase the refund handling fees or other transaction fees for customers' purchase-by-instalment transactions, impose an additional requirement for using cash or assets as collateral for security, or even delay paying traders the relevant monies for as long as half a year because they have to set aside funds for making refunds, and such practices will increase the operating costs of traders or even render it impossible for them to operate, resulting in closure of their businesses; (17) whether it knows the justifications for the Consumer Council to recommend that the consumer may request a refund without giving any reasons, and whether it has considered if this recommendation may lead to abuses or even be exploited as a strategy to undermine competitors in the business arena, which may eventually throw the market into chaos; and (18) as the Consumer Council has recommended that a mandatory cooling-off period be imposed on contracts for beauty services with a duration of not less than six months, whether the Government knows the justifications for the Consumer Council setting six months as the minimum duration of such contracts; whether it will consider bringing this minimum duration on par with the recommended minimum duration for timeshare contracts, i.e. imposing a cooling-off period only on contracts for beauty services with a duration of more than one year?
12. Hon YIU Si-wing to ask: (Translation)
Recently, some members of the public have found that some picnickers collected, during their visit to a beach in a country park, a large number of marine organisms dwelling on the beach such as sea urchins, clams and sea cucumbers. These members of the public consider that the incident reflects a lack of awareness among some people about protecting the natural ecology, and the authorities should therefore step up efforts in educating the public and regulating such activities. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the existing legislation that prohibits the acts of unauthorized hunting/collection of wild animals and marine organisms in country parks and marine parks; the respective numbers of persons prosecuted and convicted in the past three years for contravening such laws as well as the details of such cases; (2) whether the authorities carried out promotional and educational work in the past three years to instil the concept of protecting the natural ecology in members of the public and tourists; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (3) of the plans, on the premise that visits by picnickers will not be hindered, to step up the protection of the natural ecology?
13. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
Quite a number of members of the public have complained to me recently that although they turned up at the specialist outpatient clinics ("SOPCs") under the Hospital Authority ("HA") at the appointment time for follow-up consultations, they still needed to wait for three to four hours before they received doctors' diagnoses and treatment. There was a case in which a hemiplegic patient, when attending a follow-up consultation, waited for three hours and was driven to tears by pangs of waist and back pain while waiting. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(1) in respect of each SOPC under HA, (i) the current average appointment quota per consultation room per hour, and (ii) the current average time lapse from a patient's appointment time for a follow-up consultation to the patient's receiving diagnosis and treatment (set out in a table); (2) the criteria adopted by HA for setting the hourly quotas for follow-up consultations at various SOPCs; (3) whether HA has reviewed the reasons why patients attending follow-up consultations by appointment need to wait for as long as several hours before they receive diagnoses and treatment; if so, the reasons and whether such reasons include (i) manpower shortage of specialist doctors, (ii) an overestimation of doctors' efficiency in performing consultations, and (iii) appointment quotas having been set excessively high; (4) whether HA has put in place measures to address the problem of excessively long waiting time for patients attending follow-up consultations; if HA has, the details; if not, the reasons for that; (5) whether HA will consider introducing a technology system whereby short messages are issued to patients who are to attend follow-up consultations to inform them in advance of a more exact time range on that day within which they can receive diagnoses and treatment, so as to shorten patients' waiting time at the clinics; and (6) as some members of the public have pointed out that they were arranged to take blood tests on the day of the follow-up consultation, but due to the time needed for preparing the blood test reports, they had to wait for as long as four hours before they received diagnoses and treatment, the current average time lapse from a healthcare worker's taking blood sample from a SOPC patient to the completion of the blood test report by the laboratory, and set out the time needed for completing each step?
14. Hon CHAN Kin-por to ask: (Translation)
At present, Mandatory Provident Fund ("MPF") scheme members may opt to withdraw their MPF accrued benefits ("benefits") in their MPF accounts by instalments or in a lump sum upon their retirement or early retirement. Among those MPF scheme members who withdrew their benefits in 2016 and 2017 on grounds of retirement or early retirement, a vast majority (99%) opted to withdraw their benefits in a lump sum (192 874 cases involving a total sum of $15,884 million), and only 1% opted to withdraw their benefits by instalments (2 169 cases involving a total sum of $285 million). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows, among the MPF scheme members who reached the age of 65 in each of the past two years, the number and percentage of those who have not withdrawn any benefits so far; (2) whether it knows, among the MPF scheme members who withdrew their benefits in a lump sum in the past three years, the number of those whose benefits received were less than the sum of the contributions made over the years by themselves and their employers; and (3) given that upon retirement at the age of 65, MPF scheme members generally still have years of post-retirement living, whether the Government will consider introducing measures to encourage soon-to-retire people to retain in their MPF accounts a portion of benefits which is not needed for immediate purpose, so that the retained portion of benefits can grow in value through investment, with a view to providing more ample funds to meet their needs in twilight years, thereby achieving the original purpose of establishing MPF System?
15. Dr Hon CHIANG Lai-wan to ask: (Translation)
According to the latest projected figures of the Education Bureau, the population of school-aged Primary One ("P1") students will decline by 10 000 from 65 700 in the 2018-2019 school year to 55 700 in the 2020-2021 school year. Some members of the education sector are worried that primary schools may by then face another exercise of "reduction of classes and closure of schools", which will affect the teaching posts of more than 800 primary school teachers on contract terms. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it will, in the light of the actual situation in each district, allow individual schools to exercise a certain degree of flexibility regarding the minimum student intake for allocation of classes, and encourage the injection of diversity into the modes of school operation; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (2) whether it will make the best use of the situation by implementing small class teaching across the board in primary schools during the decline in the population of school-aged P1 students with a view to enhancing teaching quality; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (3) whether it will provide the affected teachers with professional training in relation to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics ("STEAM") education and integrated education, so as to assist them in mastering the necessary skills to dovetail with the education manpower demand in future; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
16. Hon IP Kin-yuen to ask: (Translation)
In this year's Budget, the Financial Secretary proposed that the Government pay the examination fees for candidates sitting for the 2019 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination ("HKDSE"). That measure applies to candidates who are enrolled in the 2018-2019 school year in registered schools approved for participation in the 2019 HKDSE and apply to sit for the 2019 HKDSE through their schools. On the other hand, it has been reported that some Mainland students have applied for admission and have been admitted to the eight universities funded by the University Grants Committee ("UGC") ("funded universities") through the Joint University Programmes Admissions System ("JUPAS") by means of taking HKDSE in Hong Kong. Separately, under the prevailing policies, funded universities may admit non-local students to UGC-funded programmes only by way of over-enrolment of up to 20% of the total approved student number. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether registered schools approved for participation in the 2019 HKDSE include tutorial schools registered in Hong Kong; if so, whether non-local students taking the HKDSE programmes offered by such tutorial schools are eligible to sit for the 2019 HKDSE for free; (2) of the number and percentage of non-local students among HKDSE candidates in each of the past five years, and the average number of subjects the examination on which that such non-local students applied to sit (with a breakdown by the place of origin of such students); (3) whether, under the prevailing policies, non-local students may apply for admission to funded universities through JUPAS on the basis of their HKDSE results; if so, whether the authorities know the number of non-local students who applied for admission to funded universities by such means and were admitted in each of the past five years (with a breakdown by the place of origin of such students and the name of the funded universities); (4) whether it knows if the funded universities concerned have used the subsidized places available for local students to admit the non-local students mentioned in (3); if such universities have, whether they have correspondingly increased the number of places for application for admission by local students; if not, how UGC ensures that the admission opportunities for local students will not be reduced as a result; and (5) as some parents have relayed to me that although funded universities may admit non-local students only by way of over-enrolment of up to 20% of the total approved student number, those students will still compete with local students for the limited places of the same programme, resulting in a lower chance for local students to be admitted to certain popular programmes, whether the authorities know if the various funded universities have at present set a ceiling on the percentage of non-local students in the total student number to be admitted to various programmes; whether the authorities will review the relevant arrangements with UGC?
17. Hon CHAN Chun-ying to ask: (Translation)
The Chief Executive stated in the Policy Address delivered in October last year that the Government would take the lead in the issuance of a green bond in the 2018-2019 financial year and would continue to encourage public sector bodies to issue green bonds in Hong Kong, and promote local entities' establishment of green bond certification schemes that meet with international standards. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it will promote the inclusion of the green bonds issued in Hong Kong in the scope of eligible securities for the southbound trading of the mutual bond market access between Hong Kong and the Mainland (commonly known as "Bond Connect") which will be implemented in future, so as to increase the number of potential investors of such bonds; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (2) given that the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency started to provide third-party conformity assessments for green finance issuers early this year, whether it knows (i) the number of certificates issued so far, and (ii) the anticipated number of applications for certificates the vetting of which will be completed this year, by the Agency; and (3) whether it has considered following the practice of other bond markets and preparing actively for the launch of a green bond index; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
III. Government Bills
| First Reading and Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned)
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| Human Organ Transplant (Amendment) Bill 2018 | : | Secretary for Food and Health
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| Consideration by Committee of the Whole Council and Third Reading
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| Appropriation Bill 2018 | : | Financial Secretary
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Amendments to Heads of Estimates in committee of the whole Council on the Appropriation Bill 2018
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| (Debate and voting arrangements for Appropriation Bill 2018 in committee of the whole Council (issued on 30 April 2018 under LC Paper No. CB(3) 559/17-18(01)) (same as the Appendix to the Script of Council meeting of 2 May 2018))
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| Other attending Public Officers (committee of the whole Council) | : | Chief Secretary for Administration
Secretary for Justice Secretary for the Environment Secretary for Innovation and Technology Secretary for Home Affairs Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Secretary for Labour and Welfare Secretary for the Civil Service Secretary for Security Secretary for Transport and Housing Secretary for Food and Health Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Secretary for Development Secretary for Education Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Under Secretary for the Environment Under Secretary for Security Under Secretary for Development Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology Under Secretary for Education Under Secretary for Labour and Welfare Under Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Under Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Under Secretary for Food and Health Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Under Secretary for Home Affairs Under Secretary for Transport and Housing | ||||||||
IV. Member's Motion on Subsidiary Legislation and Other Instruments
Motion under Rule 49E(2) of the Rules of Procedure
Hon Starry LEE to move the following motion:
That this Council takes note of Report No. 12/17-18 of the House Committee laid on the Table of the Council on 9 May 2018 in relation to the subsidiary legislation and instrument(s) as listed below:
| Item Number | Title of Subsidiary Legislation or Instrument
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| (1) | Rating (Exemption) Order 2018 (L.N. 37/2018).
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V. Member's Bill
Second Reading (Debate to resume), Consideration by Committee of the Whole Council and Third Reading
| Sailors Home and Missions to Seamen Incorporation (Amendment) Bill 2018 | : | Hon Frankie YICK
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VI. Members' Motions
| 1. | Motion under Rule 49B(1A) of the Rules of Procedure
Resumption of the debate on the motion in Appendix 4 moved by Hon Paul TSE at the Council meeting of 14 December 2016. | ||||
| (The motion was issued on 7 December 2016 and 30 April 2018
under LC Paper Nos. CB(3) 209/16-17 and CB(3) 544/17-18 respectively) (The Report of the Investigation Committee established under Rule 49B(2A) of the Rules of Procedure in respect of the motion to censure Dr Hon CHENG Chung-tai was tabled in the Council on 11 April 2018) | |||||
| 2. | Report of the Joint Subcommittee on Long-term Care Policy
Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG to move the following motion: (Translation) That this Council notes the Report of the Joint Subcommittee on Long-term Care Policy. | ||||
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| 3. | Not forgetting the 4 June incident
Hon Tanya CHAN to move the following motion: (Translation) That this Council urges that: the 4 June incident be not forgotten and the 1989 pro-democracy movement be vindicated. | ||||
| 4. | Motion for the adjournment of the Council under Rule 16(4) of the Rules of Procedure
Hon CHAN Hak-kan to move the following motion: (Translation) That this Council do now adjourn for the purpose of debating the following issue: the impact on the interests of Hong Kong and the country arising from the remarks made by Mr Benny TAI Yiu-ting, one of the initiators of the 'Occupy Central' movement, at a forum held in Taiwan in March 2018 that Hong Kong could consider becoming an independent state. | ||||
| Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
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