A 18/19-21
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 27 February 2019 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
Other Papers
| 1. | No. 74 | - | Education Scholarships Fund
Trustee's Report on the Administration of the Fund and Financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2018 (including Report of the Director of Audit) |
| (to be presented by Secretary for Education) | |||
| 2. | No. 75 | - | Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority
Report on Activities September 2017 - August 2018 and Financial statements for the year ended 31 August 2018 (including Independent auditor's report) |
| (to be presented by Secretary for Education) | |||
| 3. | No. 76 | - | Estimates
for the year ending 31 March 2020 Volume I - General Revenue Account (not including the Consolidated Summary of Estimates, the General Revenue Account - Summary and the Revenue Analysis by Head) Volume II - Fund Accounts |
| (to be presented by Financial Secretary)
| |||
| 4. | Report No. 12/18-19 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 Wilson OR to ask: (Translation)
In August 2012, the Government introduced the Universal Accessibility Programme ("the Programme") to retrofit barrier-free access facilities to public walkways, and expanded its scope in 2016. In October last year, the Government announced that it would commence a feasibility study in the first half of this year on proposals to retrofit lifts to the remaining some 120 walkways under the Programme. On retrofitting barrier-free access facilities to walkways, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the (i) names, (ii) (anticipated) works commencement dates, (iii) anticipated works completion dates and (iv) anticipated commissioning dates, of those projects under the Programme at present which are underway or have yet to commence works; (2) of the (i) implementation timetable and (ii) latest progress of the aforesaid feasibility study; (3) whether the Government invoked the Lands Resumption Ordinance (Cap. 124) in the past decade to resume private lands for carrying out lift retrofitting projects not under the Programme; if so, of the details; and (4) given that the Government has all along been refusing to include in the Programme those walkways which are within the areas of the Tenants Purchase Scheme estates and private housing estates on grounds that such walkways are privately owned, whether the Government will consider bearing the costs of retrofitting barrier-free access facilities to such walkways; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
2. Hon Dennis KWOK to ask: (Translation)
The Chief Executive has made separate regulations under section 3 of the United Nations Sanctions Ordinance (Cap. 537) to implement the respective sanctions decided by the Security Council of the United Nations against (i) Democratic People's Republic of Korea (i.e. North Korea), (ii) Iran and (iii) Yemen. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the respective numbers and details of the law enforcement actions taken in each of the past five years by the law enforcement agencies under those regulations, and the respective numbers of prosecutions and convictions arising from such actions?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development
3. Hon Mrs Regina IP to ask: (Translation)
Under the arrangements of the New Senior Secondary academic structure, apart from the four compulsory core subjects, schools may decide on their own to offer a certain number of elective subjects (with the average number of last school year being 11) out of 20 subjects which are Key Learning Area elective subjects, Applied Learning courses and six other language courses, and their students may choose to take two to three subjects among the subjects offered. It is learnt that in respect of some elective subjects (e.g. Combined Science, Integrated Science as well as Design and Applied Technology), the numbers of students taking and the numbers of schools offering such subjects have been persistently on the low side in recent years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has assessed if there are faults in the curriculum designs of those subjects with persistently low student enrolments; if it has assessed and the outcome is in the affirmative, whether the Government will conduct a comprehensive review of the curriculum designs of such subjects; if it has not assessed, of the reasons for that; and (2) whether it will consider consolidating those elective subjects which are offered by a small number of schools and have a low student enrolment, so that the schools concerned may concentrate their teaching resources on other elective subjects; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
4. Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG to ask: (Translation)
In recent years, incidents of sudden deaths of employees suspected to be caused by overexertion at work (commonly known as "deaths from overexertion") have been heard from time to time, arousing public concern about overexertion at work. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of cases, as recorded by the Labour Department ("LD") in each year since 2013, in which employees suddenly died not as a result of an accident arising out of and in the course of the employment, together with a breakdown by the gender of the deceased, the age group to which the deceased belonged, the industry and job type in which the deceased was engaged before death, as well as the cause of death of the deceased (e.g. brain disease and heart disease); (2) whether it knows which 10 industries had the highest median weekly working hours in each year since 2013, as well as the relevant distributions of working hours; (3) given that LD has commissioned the Occupational Safety and Health Council to conduct a study on cases of employees' sudden deaths at work, of the progress of the study; and (4) whether it will draw up a legal definition for "death from overexertion" and stipulate death from overexertion as one of the incidents in respect of which employers must pay compensation in accordance with the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282)?
5. Hon MA Fung-kwok to ask: (Translation)
Several months ago, the Legislative Council Secretariat conducted, at my request, a study on the visa requirements for overseas individuals' entry into eight selected places for participating in local cultural, arts and sports ("CAS") activities. The study report points out that all of the selected places allow the entry of overseas individuals for participating in CAS activities by using visitor visas, and the maximum permitted length of stay is three months. The study report points out, however, that currently, the Hong Kong Government has not adopted any flexible and fast-track visa policy for overseas individuals to come to Hong Kong for participating in CAS activities. Besides, the Government has not issued any specific guidelines on the circumstances under which such people may enter Hong Kong by using visitor visas and the other circumstances under which they are required to apply for employment visas, which have more demanding requirements than visitor visas, for entry into Hong Kong. It is learnt that at present, non-local people mainly apply for employment visas under the General Employment Policy ("GEP") or the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals ("ASMTP") for coming to Hong Kong to participate in CAS activities. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of non-local people who were granted permission in the past three years to come to Hong Kong to take up employment relating to (a) arts/culture and (b) recreation and sports under GEP and ASMTP, with a breakdown by employment period (i.e. (i) less than one month, (ii) one to three months and (iii) more than three months) in a table of the same format as the table below;
Table 1: General Employment Policy
Nature of employment (a) (b) Employment period (i) (ii) (iii) Overall (i) (ii) (iii) Overall 2016 2017 2018 (2) of the average time taken by the Immigration Department ("ImmD") to process the applications mentioned in (1); the measures put in place by ImmD to expedite the vetting and approval procedure; (3) of the measures currently put in place by ImmD to facilitate non-local people's visa applications for coming to Hong Kong to participate in CAS activities; whether it will, by making reference to the practices adopted by other places, issue electronic visas in place of paper visas, so as to facilitate visa application by such people; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (4) whether it has examined the contents of the aforesaid study report and, in the light of the practices adopted by other places, considered relaxing the entry requirements for non-local people coming to Hong Kong for participating in CAS activities, such as granting them, subject to their meeting specified conditions, visa-free access or entry permission under visitor visas, so as to obviate the need for them to apply for employment visas; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
6. Hon HO Kai-ming to ask: (Translation)
Quite a number of residents in public rental housing estates ("estates") have relayed to me that in recent years, fresh water supply to the estates in which they reside was suspended on many occasions due to bursts of communal water mains, causing inconvenience to their daily lives. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of incidents of suspension of fresh water supply in each of the past five years that were caused by (i) bursts and (ii) leakages of communal water mains in the estates, and set out the duration of each incident by name of estate; (2) given that aged water mains are more susceptible to bursts and leakages, whether the authorities will expeditiously and comprehensively replace the communal water mains in those estates aged 30 years or above, so as to minimize the occurrence of such incidents; (3) whether master meters have been installed in all estates at present; if not, whether it has plans to install master meters in all estates to facilitate monitoring water losses in the communal water mains in the estates; if so, of the details and timetable; and (4) whether the Water Supplies Department and the Housing Department have put in place a coordination mechanism to monitor the conditions of communal water mains in the estates and carry out timely repair and maintenance?
7. Hon Jeremy TAM to ask: (Translation)
The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited ("KMB") has installed electronic data recording devices (commonly known as "black boxes") on all its buses to monitor the performance of bus captains. Upon detecting instances of speeding, etc., the black boxes issue real-time alerts to the bus captains concerned and automatically generate exception reports for KMB to take follow-up actions. However, a staff union for bus captains has recently pointed out that as the black boxes are erroneous in measuring vehicle speed and their positioning function is inaccurate, the black boxes have often incorrectly identified buses not exceeding the speed limits as speeding, and therefore have mistakenly issued speeding alerts and recorded instances of speeding. The staff union has claimed that there were over 1 000 cases in the past six months of bus captains being wrongly issued warning letters about speeding. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows (i) the number of bus speeding cases recorded by the black boxes of KMB's bus fleet and (ii) the number of warning letters about speeding issued by KMB to its bus captains, in each of the past three years; (2) whether it knows when KMB began to use black boxes to monitor bus speed across the board; whether the number of bus speeding cases known to KMB after using the black boxes has increased significantly when compared with the situation before then; (3) whether it knows the name of the supplier for the black boxes currently used by KMB; the number of suppliers in the market which supply similar devices; (4) whether the Transport Department ("TD") received any reports or complaints last year about errors of black boxes in measuring the vehicular speeds and positions; if so, whether TD conducted any investigation; (i) if investigations were conducted and the outcome was that the reports or complaints were substantiated, whether TD has requested KMB to review the bus speeding cases stated in the exception reports generated by the black boxes in the past and revoke the punitive actions taken against the bus captains concerned; whether TD has requested KMB to work out the solutions to the aforesaid problems of the black boxes with the supplier or change the black box supplier; and (ii) if investigations were conducted and the outcome was that the reports or complaints were unsubstantiated, whether TD has requested KMB to adopt measures to reduce bus speeding instances (including retrofitting speed limiting retarders on all buses), adopt a scientific approach to identify road sections prone to speeding and regularly publish statistics on bus speeding; and (5) whether it knows if errors have been found in the black boxes of the bus fleets of other franchised bus companies in measuring the vehicular speeds and positions?
8. Hon CHEUNG Kwok-kwan to ask: (Translation)
It was pointed out in Report No. 71 of the Director of Audit published in October last year that in the 2016-2017 school year and on class-level basis, among the primary and secondary schools, only 24% and 8% respectively of them used e-textbooks, and 65% and 66% respectively of them used e learning resources. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has formulated specific strategies and long-term goals for promoting the wider use of e-textbooks and e-learning resources by schools; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (2) given that as at April last year, the number of e-textbooks (49 sets) available on the recommended textbook lists of the Education Bureau ("EDB") was far lower than that of printed textbooks (479 sets), whether the Government will consider launching a new round of the e Textbook Market Development Scheme or taking other measures to promote the development and use of e-textbooks; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) whether it has studied if the use of e-learning resources by students has resulted in any improvement in their academic achievements and in their interest and confidence in learning, as well as how this affects the students' health; if it has studied, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that; and (4) whether officials of EDB conducted any overseas visit in the past five years to learn from the experience of other places in using information technology to enhance teaching and learning; if so, of the countries/regions visited and the experience gained; if not, the reasons for that?
9. Hon LUK Chung-hung to ask: (Translation)
Given that the eligible age for elderly Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") has been raised, since the 1st of this month, from 60 to 65, able-bodied persons aged between 60 and 64 may no longer apply for elderly CSSA and they may only apply for CSSA for the unemployed ("CSSA-U"). On the other hand, CSSA-U recipients are required to participate in the Support for Self-reliance ("SFS") Scheme, in the hope that they can move towards paid employment and self-reliance as early as possible. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of (i) the number of participants in the SFS Scheme, (ii) the employment rate of the participants and (iii) the percentage of participants who left the CSSA net, in each of the past five years, with a breakdown by the age group (i.e. aged 15 to 25, 26 to 35, 36 to 45, 46 to 55, 56 to 59) to which the participants belonged; (2) whether it knows, in respect of those persons who successfully secured employment and left the CSSA net as mentioned in (1), (i) the types of the industries which they joined, and (ii) the distribution of their average number of working hours per month and average monthly wage in the past five years; if no such information has been kept, how the Social Welfare Department ("SWD") evaluates and follows up the employment situation of the participants, and whether it will compile the relevant statistics in future; (3) of the targeted measures, taken by SWD under the SFS Scheme since the 1st of this month, to assist CSSA-U recipients aged between 60 and 64 in finding jobs, and whether prior consultation with various stakeholders has been conducted on such measures; whether it has increased the estimates of expenditure and manpower for the SFS Scheme to cope with the additional workload generated by the increase in the number of participants; (4) whether the Labour Department has compiled statistics on the current number of job vacancies in the labour market that are open for application by persons aged between 60 and 64; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (5) of the new measures (e.g. provision of financial incentives) taken to encourage employers to hire persons aged between 60 and 64, and whether it will enhance the protection of the labour rights and interests of such persons; and (6) whether it will consider expeditiously enacting legislation against age discrimination in the employment field, so as to ensure that the relatively older persons are given fair treatment and protected from exploitation?
10. Hon SHIU Ka-chun to ask: (Translation)
The Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance (Cap. 572) ("the Ordinance"), which came into operation on 1 July 2007, requires that the fire safety measures of composite and domestic buildings which were constructed, or with their plans of the building works first submitted for approval, on or before 1 March 1987, be enhanced to a level that meets the current fire safety standards. The Fire Services Department and the Buildings Department will, after inspecting the buildings, issue Fire Safety Directions ("Directions") to owners or occupiers to specify the required fire safety improvement works. However, some owners of buildings aged above 50 years and built without lifts in Yau Tsim Mong District have relayed to me that they have encountered quite a number of difficulties in complying with the Directions, including the inability of owners who are retirees to pay the huge costs of works and the absence of owners' corporations ("OCs") to coordinate the relevant works. On assisting owners of such old buildings in carrying out fire safety improvement works, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of old buildings which currently do not meet the fire safety requirements and the categories to which they belong (i.e. composite or domestic buildings) and, among them, (i) the percentage of those with OCs established and (ii) the number of those located in Yau Tsim Mong District; (2) of the number of old buildings whose owners have been issued the Directions by the authorities since the Ordinance came into operation, with a breakdown by the required fire safety improvement works; (3) of the respective current numbers of old buildings, with a breakdown by the category to which they belong, for which the required fire safety improvement works (i) are being carried out and (ii) have been completed; and (4) as some owners refuse to share the costs of works and some old buildings do not have an OC to coordinate the relevant works, of the authorities' new measures to assist the owners concerned in complying with the Directions?
11. Hon WU Chi-wai to ask: (Translation)
In May last year, the Finance Committee ("FC") of this Council approved a funding of more than $530 million for the establishment of the next generation government cloud infrastructure ("cloud facilities") and a big data analytics platform to support agile delivery of e-Government services. The Government anticipates that those systems will be commissioned in the third quarter of 2020 and they can bring about a one-off cost avoidance of about $570 million for the Government over the next six financial years. However, when the Government recently put forward proposals of other projects on information technology ("IT") systems (e.g. a centralized electronic platform for the administration of Mandatory Provident Fund registered schemes), it did not mention how it would make use of the cloud facilities to achieve greater cost-effectiveness. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the latest progress (including whether there are changes in the projected (i) commissioning dates and (ii) cost-effectiveness) of the establishment of the two aforesaid systems; (2) of the number of proposed projects on IT systems, since May last year, in respect of which the Government has submitted discussion papers and/or funding proposals to the panel(s) and FC of this Council, as well as the following details of each of such projects: (i) the name of the project, (ii) the policy bureau/government department ("B/D") responsible, (iii) the estimated non-recurrent expenditure, (iv) the (projected) date for awarding the service contract for system development, (v) the (projected) commissioning date for the system, (vi) whether the system will make use of the cloud facilities, and (vii) the panel(s) concerned (set out in a table); (3) whether the tender documents for the projects in (2) have contained/will contain provisions (i) specifying that the proposed IT system must make use of the cloud facilities, and (ii) encouraging the successful bidder to make use of the cloud facilities in developing the proposed IT system; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (4) regarding the estimations of the non-recurrent expenditure and the financial benefits for the projects (2) submitted by the Government to this Council, of the respective numbers of those projects for which (i) the bases of such estimations included the making use of the cloud facilities, and (ii) quantitative assessments on the cost implications for using the cloud facilities were provided; (5) whether the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer ("OGCIO") has been involved in the preparatory work and tender exercises for the projects in (2); if so, of the details of OGCIO's involvement in each of such projects (including whether it has conducted any technical and cost assessments on making use of the cloud facilities in the projects concerned), and whether OGCIO has advised the B/Ds concerned to provide, when drawing up the relevant tender conditions, incentives for encouraging the successful bidders to make use of the cloud facilities in developing the proposed IT systems; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (6) whether the Government has put in place policies and guidelines to encourage various B/Ds and public bodies to make use of the cloud facilities in future; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (7) of the estimated number of funding proposals for projects on IT systems to be submitted by the Government to this Council's FC in the coming year and, among such projects, the number of those which will make use of the cloud facilities, and set out by project name the details, such as the B/D responsible?
12. Hon Charles Peter MOK to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the requests made by the Government to information and communication technology ("ICT") companies for disclosure and removal of information, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the following details of the requests for information disclosure made by the Government respectively in the first and the second halves of 2018 to ICT companies (set out the information in a table, broken down by government department): (i) total number of ICT companies involved, (ii) names and types of ICT companies involved (e.g. Internet service providers, device producers, social media and search engines), (iii) total number of requests made, (iv) total number of user accounts involved, (v) types of information requested for disclosure (e.g. user names, Internet Protocol addresses and contact methods) and the respective numbers of the requests concerned, (vi) nature of information requested for disclosure (i.e. metadata and/or content of communication) and the respective numbers of the requests concerned, (vii) reasons for making the requests concerned (e.g. investigation of cases, law enforcement and other reasons) and the respective numbers of the requests concerned, (viii) number of requests made under court orders, (ix) number of requests acceded to, and (x) reasons why some requests were not acceded to (e.g. the request not made under a court order, failure to provide appropriate legal documents, insufficient justifications, not in compliance with the policies of the ICT companies, and other reasons) and the respective numbers of the requests concerned; if such information cannot be provided, of the reasons for that; (2) of the following details of the requests for information removal made by the Government respectively in the first and the second halves of 2018 to ICT companies (set out the information in a table, broken down by government department): (i) total number of ICT companies involved, (ii) names and types of ICT companies involved, (iii) total number of requests made, (iv) volume of information requested for removal, (v) types of information involved (e.g. videos, text, images) and the respective numbers of the requests concerned, (vi) nature of information involved (e.g. indecent content, illegal advertisements, copyright infringement and false information) and the respective numbers of the requests concerned, (vii) reasons for making the requests concerned (e.g. for investigation of complaints, law enforcement and other reasons), (viii) number of requests made under a court order, (ix) number of requests acceded to, and (x) reasons why some requests were not acceded to and the respective numbers of the requests concerned; if such information cannot be provided, of the reasons for that; (3) given that information technology is advancing and changing rapidly and the methods adopted by law enforcement agencies for collecting evidence have changed, whether it has plans to review and amend the relevant laws such as the Interception of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance (Cap. 589), to ensure that Hong Kong people continue to fully enjoy the rights to freedom of speech, privacy of communication, etc., as safeguarded under Articles 27 to 30 of the Basic Law; (4) given that quite a number of advanced countries/regions have enacted laws (e.g. the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 of the United Kingdom, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 of Australia and the Communication Security and Surveillance Act of Taiwan) to regulate the access to residents' electronic communication records and personal data by law enforcement agencies, and those countries/regions also require law enforcement agencies to proactively make public, on a regular basis, statistics and reports on access to such information, so as to ensure that there is a certain degree of transparency in law enforcement actions, whereas Cap. 589 of Hong Kong regulates only matters such as "postal interception" and "telecommunications interception" and does not regulate the interception of communication records and personal data stored in media such as web servers, whether the Government has plans to amend its internal guidelines and codes of practice, to regulate the making of requests by various law enforcement agencies concerning information disclosure and removal (including the aspect of enhancing transparency); if not, of the reasons for that; and (5) whether the authorities will proactively and regularly make public, in machine readable format, the statistics and reports on requests for information disclosure and requests for information removal made to ICT companies, so as to enhance the transparency of law enforcement actions; if not, of the reasons for that?
13. Hon Tony TSE to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that between the 21st and 24th of last month, there were five successive incidents of windows falling from residential buildings or hotels, causing the death of a pedestrian. On the other hand, the Buildings Department ("BD") has, since June 2012, implemented the Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme ("MWIS"), under which 5 800 private buildings aged 10 years or above ("target buildings") are selected each year for mandatory window inspection. Upon receipt of MWIS notices issued by BD, owners of target buildings are required to appoint a qualified person to (i) carry out the prescribed inspection of all windows of the buildings, and (ii) supervise the prescribed repair works found necessary after inspection (if any), within a specified timeframe. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of reports received by the authorities since the implementation of MWIS on incidents of windows falling from private buildings aged 10 years or above, and the respective numbers of persons who were injured and died as a result of those incidents; (2) of the current number of licensed hotels in Hong Kong and, among them, the number of those which fall within the scope of MWIS; (3) since the implementation of MWIS, (i) of the number of MWIS notices issued by BD; the number of buildings involved in those MWIS notices, with a breakdown by type of buildings (i.e. residential building, commercial building, hotel, industrial building and others), (ii) the number of non-compliant MWIS notices upon expiry of the timeframe specified and the longest overdue period, and (iii) whether prosecutions have been instituted against those owners who did not comply with MWIS notices; if not, of the reasons for that; (4) whether the authorities reviewed, in the past two years, the implementation of MWIS, including its effectiveness, the adequacy of law enforcement manpower, if the number of buildings to be inspected and the number of target buildings each year can be increased, and the improvements that can be made; if not, of the reasons for that; and (5) of the qualifications required of a qualified person under MWIS, and whether such qualifications include the professional knowledge on (i) inspecting the various types of windows to see if they are safe and (ii) how the various types of windows can be repaired to render them safe; whether the authorities reviewed and raised those qualification requirements in the past two years; if not, of the reasons for that?
14. Hon Paul TSE to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that recently, quite a number of members of the public were dissatisfied with the Government's implementation of policies. For instances, the raising of the eligible age for elderly Comprehensive Social Security Assistance to 65 has caused a great furore; the arrangements for giving out up to $4,000 under the Caring and Sharing Scheme have caused nuisance to the public and are time-consuming; the toll adjustment proposal for the rationalization of traffic distribution among the three road harbour crossings has been temporarily withdrawn as the proposal was ill-considered; and healthcare personnel have staged demonstrations to protest against the Government's failure to squarely address the long-standing overload situation and manpower shortage of the public healthcare system. On the other hand, as revealed by the findings of a global survey, Hong Kong was ranked the seventh among the top 10 unhappiest places in the world. The findings of another survey revealed that only 50% of Hong Kong people claimed that they were leading a happy life; most respondents were dissatisfied with the Government's implementation of policies; and the satisfaction level of members of the public with the public healthcare services dropped to a record low in three years. The findings of these two surveys reflect the ineffectiveness of the Government's implementation of policies and its failure to enable members of the public to lead a happy life. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the Government has put in place a mechanism for gauging, before the introduction of any policy, the public's overall reaction to and acceptance of the policy concerned; (2) whether it has assessed if the fact that quite a number of government policies have recently been criticized for causing nuisance to the public as well as being divorced from reality and ill-considered has aggravated the public's sense of alienation from and dissatisfaction with the Government; and (3) given that the Government of Bhutan, which was once ranked the world's happiest country, has formulated a Gross National Happiness Index, set up a relevant commission and required that before any bill is submitted to the Cabinet, consideration must be given to whether the bill can boost the Index, whether the Government will consider, by drawing reference from this practice, formulating a gross happiness index for Hong Kong residents that comprises elements such as building a just society, promoting economic development, enhancing cultural conservation and environmental protection, and fostering good governance, as well as giving, when formulating policies in the future, consideration to the impacts of such policies on this index?
15. Hon Andrew WAN to ask: (Translation)
Some residents from Yuen Long, Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun have relayed to me that with the successive intake of residents by newly completed public and private housing estates in those districts in recent years, the shortage of facilities, such as social welfare and healthcare facilities, in such districts has become more acute. Moreover, in recent years, there has been an upsurge in the number of inbound Mainland visitors going to those districts for shopping, thereby aggravating the problem of insufficient retail facilities in such districts. Regarding the planning for the facilities in various districts, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that the current ratios of public general outpatient clinics to population of Yuen Long and Tuen Mun are lower than that proposed in the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines ("HKPSG") (i.e. the provision of one general clinic for every 100 000 persons), whether the Government will provide, apart from the community health centre proposed to be built at Tuen Mun Area 29 West, new public general outpatient clinics in those two districts in the coming three years; if so, of the details; (2) given that as at 31 December 2017, the general beds to population ratios for the New Territories West Cluster (which covers the public hospitals in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long) and the Kowloon West Cluster (which covers the public hospitals in Tsuen Wan) were 2.3 beds and 2.5 beds/1 000 persons respectively, which were lower than the overall ratio for the Hospital Authority ("HA") (i.e. 3.0 beds/1000 persons), whether the Government knows if HA has plans in the coming three years to increase the numbers of general beds in those two clusters and to allocate the additional resources required; if HA does, of the details; (3) since it is provided in HKPSG that there should be one District Elderly Community Centre ("DECC") in each new development area with a population of around 170 000 or above, and the Government indicated in July last year that "...[w]here appropriate, there should be one Neighbourhood Elderly Centre in each new and redeveloped public rental housing estate and one in private housing areas with a population of 15 000 to 20 000 in new residential areas", whether the Government will, in the coming three years, provide Neighbourhood Elderly Centres or DECCs in Yuen Long, Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun respectively; and (4) whether the Government will, in response to the growing number of inbound Mainland visitors, review afresh the estimated demand and planning approach for the retail facilities in the relevant districts?
16. Dr Hon CHIANG Lai-wan to ask: (Translation)
Recently, some Social Security Officers ("SSOs") employed by the Social Welfare Department ("SWD") have relayed to me that as the Government has implemented in recent years quite a number of new policies and measures relating to the social security programmes (such as introducing the Old Age Living Allowance ("OALA") and the Higher OALA, raising the eligible age for elderly Comprehensive Social Security Assistance and providing one-off extra allowances to recipients of social security payments), which is coupled with a continuous rise in the number of elderly persons due to increasing average life expectancy, the workload of SSOs has become increasingly heavy. However, the Government has not increased the establishment of the SSO grade accordingly, resulting in a tremendous increase in their work pressure. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of SSO II and SSO I currently employed by SWD; (2) of the respective average numbers of Social Security Assistants supervised by each of the officers at the two ranks mentioned in (1)("supervision ratios") (i) in each of the past 10 years and (ii) at present; whether there are currently guidelines specifying the supervision ratios; (3) whether there are currently guidelines specifying the specific methods for calculating the manpower requirements for the various ranks in the SSO grade; and (4) whether it has assessed the adequacy of current manpower at the various ranks in the SSO grade; if so, of the outcome, and whether it will increase the manpower?
17. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
Currently, the Government collaborates with the Hospital Authority in implementing the Integrated Discharge Support Programme for Elderly Patients ("IDSP") to provide a range of support services for high-risk elderly persons who are newly discharged from public hospitals, with an aim to reduce the rate of their unplanned readmission to hospital. In addition, the Community Care Fund ("CCF") rolled out in February 2018 the Pilot Scheme on Support for Elderly Persons Discharged from Public Hospitals after Treatment ("the Pilot Scheme"). The Pilot Scheme, which will last for three years, targets at people aged 60 or above who are newly discharged from public hospitals and have been assessed by medical staff to be in need of transitional care services and support but are not covered by IDSP. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the following information on IDSP: (i) a list of the non-governmental organizations operating the Home Support Teams ("HSTs"), (ii) the number of HSTs, (iii) the contents of the support services, (iv) a list of the public hospitals and specialty departments participating in IDSP, and (v) in each of the past five years, the number of participants, total expenditure, as well as the number of users, expenditure and unit cost of each support service; (2) of the method for calculating the rate of unplanned readmission of elderly persons to hospital, as well as the effectiveness of IDSP in reducing such rate in the past five years; (3) of the following information on the Pilot Scheme since its launch: (a) the number of participants, together with a breakdown by the co payment category to which they belonged, (b) the contents and number of users of each service, (c) a list of the public hospitals and specialty departments participating in the Scheme, and (d) the number of participants who have left the Scheme, with a breakdown by the following reasons for leaving (set out in a table): (i) no suitable service providers/service packages, (ii) expiry of the service period, (iii) to be/having been admitted to/receiving subsidized community care services or subsidized/private residential care services, (iv) deceased, (v) having carers, such as family members or domestic helpers, and (vi) other reasons (such as hospitalization, out of town, etc.); (4) how the Government caters for the need for support of persons with disabilities ("PWDs") living in the community upon their discharge from hospitals; whether it will regard PWDs as the service targets of IDSP and the Pilot Scheme; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (5) given that those participants of the Pilot Scheme who are still in need of care and support after the six-month service period may only apply for Integrated Home Care Services or Enhanced Home and Community Care Services, but the waiting time for these two care services is rather long at present, whether the authorities have put in place any mechanism to ensure that there will not be a gap in services; if so, of the details; if not, whether they will put in place such a mechanism; (6) given that a funding of about $226 million has been provided by CCF for the implementation of the Pilot Scheme, of (i) the total expenditure incurred so far, together with a breakdown by expenditure item, (ii) the current number of service places provided, and (iii) the current unit cost of service; and (7) given that the Social Welfare Department will commission a consultant to evaluate the effectiveness of the Pilot Scheme, of the number, names and background information of the members of the consultant team commissioned as well as the estimated expenditure on the consultant fees?
18. Hon Jimmy NG to ask: (Translation)
Some operators of small and medium enterprises ("SMEs") have relayed that the high rents and prices of shops and offices have exerted tremendous pressure of operating expenses on them, and dampened foreign investors' desire to set up regional headquarters and offices in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows, in respect of Grade A and Grade B private offices in the four districts of (a) Central, (b) Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, (c) Tsim Sha Tsui and (d) Hong Kong East, their respective (i) vacancy rates, (ii) per-square-foot median monthly rents, and (iii) average per-square-foot prices, in each month from January 2014 to January this year; (2) whether it has examined the impacts of the supply of private offices of various grades on the levels of their prices and rents in the past decade; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) of the projected supply and demand situations of various grades of private offices in the coming decade; (4) of the projected commercial space to be provided in the third Core Business District on the proposed artificial islands to be formed by reclamation in the Central Waters, with a breakdown by the uses thereof; and (5) of the specific strategies put in place by the Government to increase the supply of commercial space, so as to mitigate the forces that drive up the rents and prices of shops and offices, thereby alleviating the pressure of operating expenses faced by SMEs and attracting more foreign investors to set up regional headquarters and offices in Hong Kong; the relevant work plans and timetable?
19. Hon CHAN Hak-kan to ask: (Translation)
According to the 2016 Hong Kong Air Pollutant Emission Inventory Report published by the Environmental Protection Department, among the emission sources of the various types of pollutants, navigation emitted the largest quantities of pollutants in terms of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, respirable suspended particulates and fine suspended particulates, etc. Regarding the reduction of air pollutants emitted by navigation, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the emissions of various types of air pollutants in each of the past two years, with a breakdown by emission source; (2) of the respective (i) numbers, (ii) average ages and (iii) types of the marine propulsion systems of the vessels of various licensed ferry operators in each of the past three years; (3) of the respective (i) numbers, (ii) average ages and (iii) types of marine propulsion systems of the vessels of various government departments in each of the past three years; (4) as the Air Pollution Control (Fuel for Vessels) Regulation (Cap. 311AB) provides that from 1 January this year, all vessels (except for vessels of specified types) are required to use low sulphur marine fuel within Hong Kong waters, whether it has assessed the effect of the implementation of such a requirement on improving the air quality in Hong Kong; (5) given that the Government has injected $300 million to set up the Pilot Green Transport Fund ("the Fund") to subsidize the testing of green innovative technologies applicable to the public transport sector and goods vehicles, of the number of cases in which the Fund provided subsidies in the past three years for innovative technologies used by ferries and the amounts involved, as well as the respective percentages of such figures in the relevant totals; (6) as some members of the transport trade have relayed that the parts and components of water transport carriers are generally more expensive than those of road transport carriers, whether the Government will raise the Fund's subsidy caps for the innovative technologies used by ferries; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (7) given that the Government has implemented a subsidy programme in recent years to assist the transport trade in phasing out pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles, whether the Government has any plan to introduce a similar programme in respect of navigation to phase out vessels with high pollutant emissions; if so, of the details and timetable; if not, whether it will introduce the relevant measures; (8) given that the retirement age for franchised buses is 18 years, whether the Government will stipulate a retirement age for licensed ferries; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (9) whether it will take the proportion of green vessels in the total number of vessels of a ferry operator as one of the considerations when vetting and approving applications for service licence for ferry routes; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (10) as some licensed ferry operators have indicated that the existing power supply facilities at piers fail to meet their needs on switching to the use of electric ferries, whether the Government will consider providing subsidies for operators to upgrade such facilities; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
20. Dr Hon Elizabeth QUAT to ask: (Translation)
Road transport is a major emission source of air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide, and exhaust emissions from fuel-engined vehicles are the major source of roadside air pollutants. It is learnt that promoting the popularization of electric vehicles ("EVs") is conducive to improving air quality, and slowing down global warming by reducing carbon emissions. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it will consider afresh increasing the concessions on the first registration tax for electric private cars and hybrid electric vehicles; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (2) whether site searches were conducted last year for providing new public charging facilities for EVs; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) whether it took the initiative, in the past five years, to contact the property management companies and owners' corporations of private buildings for gaining an understanding of their concerns regarding the installation of charging facilities for EVs in their buildings; if so, of the details (including the number of meetings concerned); if not, the reasons for that; (4) whether it will consider providing one-off subsidies for retrofitting charging facilities for EVs in existing private car parks; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (5) whether it will consider installing public charging facilities for EVs in locations such as on-street parking spaces, petrol filling stations as well as idle spaces underneath flyovers and idle sites in industrial areas; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (6) whether it will consider setting up an inter-departmental working group to provide central coordination for the installation of charging facilities for EVs; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (7) whether it will unify the charging standards for all EVs in Hong Kong; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (8) whether it will raise the subsidy caps for local research and development ("R&D") projects concerning electric commercial vehicles ("e-CVs") under the Pilot Green Transport Fund ("PGTF"), and provide additional subsidies for successful R&D projects; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (9) whether the current review of PGTF covers the following areas: (i) shortening the testing time required for subsidized EV technologies, (ii) shortening the time needed for vetting and approving applications, (iii) expanding the funding scope to include commercial private cars, (iv) relaxing the eligibility criteria for applicants so that new operators who have been carrying out business in the relevant transport service for less than one year may apply for the subsidies under PGTF, and (v) assisting the trade in obtaining passenger service licences needed for electric tourist coaches under trial; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (10) whether it has put in place new measures to step up the training for personnel who are tasked with testing, repairing and maintenance of EVs; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (11) whether it will introduce legislation to prohibit non-EVs from occupying parking spaces installed with public charging facilities for EVs; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (12) as the Government plans to set up a smart system for the Government's public EV charging network, the features of which include providing instant electronic information such as the utilization status of the charging facilities, of the timetable for developing this system and whether the features of the system will include making reservations for using charging facilities; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (13) whether it will relax the current restrictions on gross weight applicable to e-CVs to facilitate the trade to introduce EVs that best suit the uses; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (14) of the latest progress of the Government's work on promoting the recycling of waste EV batteries; and (15) whether it has put in place new measures to support the transport trade in making a large-scale switch to e-CVs; if so, of the details, if not, the reasons for that?
21. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
Mind sports, such as bridge, go, chess, draughts, Chinese chess and "Scrabble" (an English words creating game), refer to sports in which the contests between participants are mainly on intellectual ability. In recent years, mind sports have been in the ascendant around the world and some of those sports have been included as medal sports in the Asian Games. It is reported that Hong Kong players have attained great achievements in mind sports competitions in recent years. For instance, a Hong Kong player was crowned as the Blitz game World Champion at the World Amateur Chess Championship 2017; two Hong Kong players were among the world's top 10 finishers in the World Youth Championship of Scrabble last year, one of whom was even awarded the third place in the Under 16 Group. Regarding the promotion of mind sports, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that more and more young people have participated in various kinds of mind sports in recent years, and some of them who participated in international mind sports competitions on a self-financing basis achieved good results, whether the Government will: (a) promote the popularization of mind sports in primary and secondary schools, so as to boost students' intellectual ability and logical thinking, (b) provide free of charge (i) training venues and (ii) venues for holding territory-wide and international competitions, and (c) by making reference to the way it supports the Hong Kong Inter-City Bridge Championships which is held annually, offer subsidies to (i) organizers of international mind sports competitions in Hong Kong and (ii) local players participating in such competitions; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (2) whether it has studied if the act of awarding cash awards or prizes to winners of international mind sports competitions held in Hong Kong is in breach of the law; if it has studied and the outcome is in the affirmative, of the details, and whether it will amend the legislation to relieve the criminal liabilities of such an act?
22. Hon Kenneth LEUNG to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership ("CPTPP") collectively signed by 11 countries formally took effect in December last year, marking the birth of a new economic circle accounting for 13% of the global gross domestic product and having a population of over 500 million as well as the world's third largest free trade area. On the other hand, Article 151 of the Basic Law provides that "[t]he Hong Kong Special Administrative Region may on its own, using the name ʻHong Kong, China', maintain and develop relations and conclude and implement agreements with foreign states and regions and relevant international organizations in the appropriate fields, including the economic, trade, financial and monetary, shipping, communications, tourism, cultural and sports fields". Regarding Hong Kong's participation in the affairs of international organizations, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the decision-making mechanism concerning Hong Kong's participation in the affairs of international organizations and entering into agreements on regional cooperation, and whether the Government will discuss the relevant issues with the Central People's Government or its departments concerned; if so, of the details; (2) whether it has conducted studies on Hong Kong's accession to CPTPP; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (3) as it has been reported that quite a number of countries around the Pacific Rim are going through the procedures for accession to CPTPP, whether it has assessed, under the circumstances that Hong Kong has yet to accede to CPTPP, the impact of those countries' accession to CPTPP on Hong Kong's economic and trade competiveness in the coming three years; if so, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that?
III. Government Bill
First Reading and Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned)
Appropriation Bill 2019 : Financial Secretary
Clerk to the Legislative Council