5 items of subsidiary legislation/instruments and 4 other papers to be laid on the Table of the Council set out in Appendix 1

Members to ask 22 questions (6 for oral replies and 16 for written replies)

Contents of 22 questions, Members to ask such questions and public officers to reply set out in Appendix 2

(Standing over from the meeting of 10 July 2019)

(Debate and voting arrangements set out in LC Paper Nos. CB(3) 760/18-19 and CB(3) 55/19-20 issued on 27 June and 21 October 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 10 July 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 20 November 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 20 November 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 23 October 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 30 October 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 6 November 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 20 November 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 12 June 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 10 July 2019)

(Debate and voting arrangements set out in LC Paper No. CB(3) 771/18-19 issued on 27 June 2019)

(Items 11 to 13 standing over from the meeting of 23 October 2019)

(Item 14 standing over from the meeting of 13 November 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 3 July 2019)

(Debate and voting arrangements set out in LC Paper No. CB(3) 723/18-19 issued on 19 June 2019)

(Items 17 to 23 standing over from the meeting of 23 October 2019)

(Item 24 standing over from the meeting of 30 October 2019)

(Item 25 standing over from the meeting of 13 November 2019)

(Item 26 standing over from the meeting of 27 November 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 12 June 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 12 June 2019)

Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG to ask:

It has been reported that during the Police's operations to disperse demonstrators since June this year, there have been a number of cases in which persons in elderly and rehabilitation service units felt unwell due to inhalation of tear gas, including the following two cases: on 5 August, at least 13 rounds of tear gas were fired into the precincts of Caritas Jockey Club Tsuen Wan Social Service Building, which housed a care and attention home for the elderly and a day care centre for the elderly; and on 28 October, tear gas billowed into a hostel for severely mentally handicapped persons and a long stay care home located in the vicinity of the Police's Tai Hing Operational Base. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Ir Dr Hon LO Wai-kwok to ask:

The Chief Executive ("CE") pointed out in last year's Policy Address that a task force under the Transport and Housing Bureau would actively render assistance to, and facilitate the implementation of, the various short-term community initiatives to increase the supply of transitional housing. The Government would also allow, under the relaunched measures to revitalize industrial buildings, wholesale conversion of industrial buildings into transitional housing. Moreover, CE has indicated in this year's Policy Address that in order not to lengthen the waiting time for families applying for public rental housing ("PRH"), redeveloping aged PRH estates will not be considered for the time being. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Dr Hon CHIANG Lai-wan to ask:

It is learnt that manpower shortage of doctors in public hospitals has caused delay in the treatment of quite a number of patients. For instance, the longest waiting time for new case booking at the specialist outpatient clinics under the Hospital Authority ("HA") is as long as three years and ten months. Regarding the manpower of doctors, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Martin LIAO to ask:

The number of cases of organ donation recorded in Hong Kong for the first half of this year was on the low side and it has been reported that the number of transplants performed this year so far has plunged when compared with that of the same period of last year. Such situation has aroused concerns. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon WONG Kwok-kin to ask:

Regarding the use of elderly health care vouchers ("HCVs") on the Mainland by the elderly of Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Claudia MO to ask:

Hong Kong's ranking in the World Press Freedom Index has dropped from the 48th in 2009 to the 73rd this year, reflecting that the degree of press freedom in Hong Kong has declined significantly. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Charles Peter MOK to ask:

It has been reported that on 8 August this year, a Hong Kong resident then employed by the British Consulate General in Hong Kong took a business trip to the Mainland. In the evening on that day, he boarded a Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link ("XRL") train in Shenzhen to return to Hong Kong. However, upon arrival at the Mainland Port Area of the XRL West Kowloon Station, he was taken back to a police station in the Luohu District of Shenzhen on the Mainland by Mainland law enforcement officers. He was released after 15 days of administrative detention. He alleged that during his detention, he was subjected to inhuman treatment (including coercive interrogation, sleep deprivation, blindfolding and hooding, hours of continuous torture and assault, as well as forced unlocking of his mobile phone and social media account), resulting in a violation of his basic human rights. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask:

For those elderly persons who have been confirmed after assessment to have the needs for long term care services, their applications may be put on a Central Waiting List for Subsidized Long Term Care Services ("CWL") to wait for provision of subsidized long term care services, i.e. residential care services ("RCS") or community care services ("CCS"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Dr Hon Priscilla LEUNG to ask:

Since the eruption of the movement of opposition to the proposed legislative amendments ("the movement") in June this year, there have been persons, one after another, being charged with various offences. It has been reported that some persons, claiming to be "a group of prosecutors" within the Department of Justice ("DoJ"), issued an anonymous open letter on 31 July this year using DoJ's letterhead, criticizing the ways in which senior personnel of DoJ dealt with the cases involving large-scale public events. Besides, in a case mentioned at the Eastern Magistrates' Courts on 4 November this year, as the name of one of the five defendants stated in DoJ's consent to prosecution was wrong and discrepancies were found between the Chinese and English versions of an offence, all of the five defendants had the charges against them withdrawn by the prosecution and were released at the Court. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon WONG Ting-kwong to ask:

At present, there is no official organization in Hong Kong responsible for issuing press cards. According to the constitution of the Hong Kong Journalists Association ("HKJA"), its membership is classified into six categories, among which only full members may be issued with press cards. It has been reported that during a number of public meetings and processions held since June this year, some demonstrators at the scene disguised themselves as journalists by wearing self-made press cards in order to conceal their identity. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHAN Hak-kan to ask:

For several consecutive days of last month, the train services of various railway lines (especially the East Rail Line) were reduced or even suspended due to vandalization of facilities and blockage of trunk roads such as the Tolo Highway. As a result, the external transport for residents in the New Territories (especially those living in Tai Po and North District) almost came to a halt, thus seriously affecting their work and daily lives. There are comments that such a situation has revealed the vulnerability of Hong Kong's transport network. Besides, some members of the public have relayed that as roads and railway stations have been frequently closed in haste due to demonstrations and they have difficulty in getting to know the latest traffic news and arrangements, they have experienced great inconvenience in travelling. In respect of improving Hong Kong's transport infrastructure, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHEUNG Kwok-kwan to ask:

Recently, a wave of demonstrations and violence has swept through a number of universities in Hong Kong, with the more serious cases being that the campuses of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University were once occupied by rioters for several days, and turned into arsenals and battlefields. It is learnt that owing to worries about personal safety, quite a number of university students from the Mainland have been evacuated from the campuses with the assistance of the universities concerned and the Police and have returned to the Mainland. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon SHIU Ka-fai to ask:

Early this year, the Government launched a three-month public consultation exercise on a proposal for a statutory cooling-off period for consumer contracts, including those relating to beauty services. As revealed by the findings of a questionnaire survey released in May this year, nearly half of the beauty companies intended to close their business once the statutory cooling-off period is implemented. Notwithstanding that many industries have languished due to the movement of opposition to the proposed legislative amendments which erupted in June this year, the Government plans to introduce into this Council a bill to put in place a statutory cooling-off period for beauty services consumer contracts, with a view to passing it in the current legislative session. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHAN Chun-ying to ask:

In the Policy Address delivered on 16 October this year, the Chief Executive indicated that in order to assist first-time home buyers, the Government would immediately raise the caps on the value of the properties under the Mortgage Insurance Programme of the HKMC Insurance Limited. The maximum value of properties, eligible for insurance coverage for mortgage loans with 90% loan-to-value ("LTV") ratio borrowed by first-time home buyers, was raised from $4 million to $8 million, and the maximum value of properties, eligible for insurance coverage for mortgage loans with 80% LTV ratio, was raised from $6 million to $10 million. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Elizabeth QUAT to ask:

Regarding the administration of justice in respect of cases relating to the disturbances arising from the opposition to the proposed legislative amendments, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Kenneth LEUNG to ask:

It is learnt that an acute shortage of charging facilities for electric vehicles ("EVs") has caused quite a number of people to give up the idea of purchasing EVs. Regarding charging facilities for EVs, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Paul TSE to ask:

The Chief Executive has indicated in this year's Policy Address that, in order to assist first-time home buyers, the Government would immediately raise the caps on the value of the properties under the Mortgage Insurance Programme of the HKMC Insurance Limited. The maximum value of properties, eligible for insurance coverage for mortgage loans with 90% loan-to-value ratio borrowed by first-time home buyers, was raised from $4 million to $8 million. On the other hand, it is learnt that a professional investor, who is also a member of a committee under the Securities and Futures Commission ("SFC"), has called for the abolition of the MPF system given his projection that one-third of the returns from the Mandatory Provident Fund ("MPF") accounts of members of the public will go into the pockets of fund managers. On assisting first-time home buyers, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon WU Chi-wai to ask:

The Government has repeatedly stated that given the short duration of combustion of tear gas rounds, cyanide produced during combustion will be in a very small quantity and will quickly disperse in the air, and that no literature on dioxin poisoning cases caused by the use of tear gas has been found. However, some members of the public are still concerned about the adverse health impacts of tear gas. Several secondary schools in the vicinity of the locations where a massive quantity of tear gas rounds had been fired suspended classes earlier and hired experts to carry out thorough checking and cleaning at the campus. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Prof Hon Joseph LEE to ask:

Regarding the persons arrested during the public events held between 9 June and 30 November this year, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Tony TSE to ask:

On the 6th of last month, the Central Government announced, after a meeting of the Leading Group for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, 16 policy measures benefiting members of the public and facilitating the development of Hong Kong's professional sectors in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. These include Measure 1: further extending the scope of mutual recognition of qualifications for construction professionals, and Measure 2: expanding the scope of application of the liberalization policy for the construction professionals from Hong Kong and Macao to practise on the Mainland. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Dennis KWOK to ask:

It has been reported that on the 16th of last month, some members of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison ("Hong Kong Garrison") who stationed in the Kowloon Tong barracks walked out of the barracks to Renfrew Road in Kowloon Tong to clear the road barricades there. On the other hand, Article 14 of the Basic Law stipulates that: "[t]he Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be responsible for the maintenance of public order in the Region. Military forces stationed by the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for defence shall not interfere in the local affairs of the Region. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region may, when necessary, ask the Central People's Government for assistance from the garrison in the maintenance of public order and in disaster relief". In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether the said operation of the members of the Hong Kong Garrison was conducted in response to a request for assistance made by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("HKSAR") to the Central People's Government under the aforesaid article; if so, of the justifications for the HKSAR Government to make such a request; if not, whether the HKSAR Government: (i) knows the Mainland department(s) and/or official(s) on whose instruction the operation was conducted, and the justifications for issuing the instruction, and (ii) has assessed if the operation has breached the aforesaid article; if it has assessed and the outcome is in the affirmative, of the follow-up actions; if the assessment outcome is in the negative, the justifications for that?

Hon Holden CHOW to ask:

In the demonstrations since June this year which were triggered by the disturbances arising from the opposition to the proposed legislative amendments, the demonstrators' violent acts have been escalating continuously, turning from, at the initial stage, storming the Legislative Council Complex and government buildings, blocking roads, hurling bricks and paralyzing the airport's operation, to assaulting police officers, hurling a large quantity of petrol bombs and committing arson, vandalizing MTR stations and shops, "settling privately" (the code words for making vigilante attacks) those persons with different political views, etc. Quite a number of police officers were injured while on duty, and several thousands of demonstrators were arrested. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: