Revised version

OP 95/96-15(1) (Issued at 11.00 a.m. on 22.1.96)

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
ORDER PAPER

Wednesday, 24 January 1996 at 2.30 p.m.

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I. PAPERS

Subsidiary Legislation

• Sessional Paper 1995/96
II. QUESTIONS
III. MOTIONS

1. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE
2. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE
3. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE
4. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE
5. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE
6. CORONERS ORDINANCE

IV. MEMBER'S MOTIONS

1. VISA-FREE ENTRY TO UK
2. FREEZING OF GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC UTILITY CORPORATIONS’ FEES AND CHARGES, AND PUBLIC HOUSING RENTALS

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I. PAPERS

Sessional Paper 1995/96

The Secretary for Education and Manpower to present:

No. 53 - The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Annual Report 1994-95 with Financial Report 1994-95

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II. QUESTIONS

1. Mr. SIN Chung-kai to ask : (Translation)

On 17 December last year, the Police used portable video cameras to videotape a rally on the pavement opposite the Xinhua News Agency in Wan Chai. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the following:

1. why it was necessary for the Police to videotape the rally and take close-up shots of individual participants, despite the fact that no violation of the law had occurred;
2. how the Police will handle the video tapes concerning the rally, and whether such tapes will be destroyed; and
3. whether there is any code of practice in the Police setting out how to videotape the faces of individual participants in a rally and the circumstances under which such videotaping should be done?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

2. Mr. NGAN Kam-chuen to ask : (Translation)

At present, applicants for credit cards and/or personal loans from banks furnish information on their referees without the need to seek the latter's consent. When an applicant becomes insolvent and has disappeared, the financial institution concerned will make enquires or even seek to recover the debt from the referee, thus causing nuisance to the referee. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

1. whether it knows of the number of such cases in the past three years; and
2. whether consideration has been given to requiring financial institutions such as banks and finance companies to stipulate that applicants must submit their referees' written consent before their applications can be processed; if not, why not?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services

3. Mr. Fred LI to ask : (Translation)

It has been reported that three Hong Kong tourists were killed and nine others injured in the white water rafting tragedy which occurred on New Year's Day in Bali, Indonesia. It has also been revealed that one of the travel agents who organised the tour had not taken out travel insurance policy for the members on the package tour, thus raising public concern over travel agents' liability for compensation. As the existing legislation does not require travel agents to take out travel insurance policies for members on their package tours, will the Government inform this Council:

1. which party should be held responsible if there is inadequate compensation cover against injury and death of tour members in the event of accidents occurring during the tour period;
2. of the number of registered travel agents in the territory at present; of these, how many have taken out travel insurance for members on their package tours, and what is the proportion of these agents to the total number of registered travel agents;
3. what is the Government's stance as to whether travel agents should be required to take out travel insurance for members on their package tours; and
4. whether the Government will, in the long run, consider introducing legislation requiring all travel agents to take out travel insurance for members on their package tours; if not, why not?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Trade and Industry

4. Mr. CHEUNG Hon-chung to ask : (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

1. of the proportion of street crimes committed by illegal immigrants to the total number of street crimes;
2. what measures have been put in place by the Government to prevent illegal immigrants committing crimes in the territory?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

5. Mr. CHOY Kan-pui to ask : (Translation)

The Housing Authority has been implementing a phased privatisation scheme on the management of car parks in its housing estates. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

1. of the savings in expenditure arising from the implementation of the scheme, as well as a comparison of the actual savings with the estimated savings, in each of the past three years; and
2. whether there is an increase in the number of crimes involving vehicles in privately-managed car parks in the housing estates in the past three years; if so, what are the reasons, which districts have the higher number of crimes reported and what are the major types of crimes committed?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Housing

6. Mr. Howard YOUNG to ask :

Will the Government inform this Council whether it will review the existing arrangement for the collection of the air departure tax and the method of sale of air departure tax coupons at Kai Tak Airport in order to achieve a more efficient way of collecting the tax, such as introducing the use of vending machines for the sale of air departure tax coupons at the airport?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Treasury

* 7. Mr. MOK Ying-fan to ask : (Translation)

Recently, some paper-packed drinks have been found to have been contaminated with bacteria, and this has aroused doubts about the effectiveness of the monitoring of food hygiene by the Department of Health, and the efficiency as well as the adequacy of staff resources of the department. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

1. of the number of Health Inspectors in the Department who are assigned to carry out inspections of packed food products and drinks on the market;
2. of the number of Health Inspectors in the Department who can be deployed on an urgent basis in the event of an emergency;
3. whether the Department has any contingency measures on how to cope with emergencies similar to the incident mentioned above; if so, whether such contingency measures include arrangements for immediate press release and deployment of staff;
4. whether the Department has put in place a set of rules stipulating that actions should be taken and relevant information be disseminated to the public in the event of the number of complaints on contaminated food products and drinks received reaching a certain level; and
5. whether the Department has any regular inspection system for conducting sample checks and laboratory tests on various types of food products and drinks available on the market?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health and Welfare

* 8. Mr. Paul CHENG to ask :

According to figures published in the Hong Kong Sports Development Board (SDB)'s 1994/1995 Annual Report, staff and administrative costs account for about 60 per cent of the SDB's total expenditure, leaving about 40 per cent being spent on activities relating directly to the promotion and development of sports in the territory. In this connection, will the Government provide this Council with the following information:

1. the proportion, in terms of the number and cost, of the coaching staff to the overall staff establishment in SDB;
2. a detailed breakdown of the costs, functions, and areas of responsibilities for coaches at the various levels within the SDB, the National Sports Associations and the Hong Kong Sports Institute;
3. a breakdown by number and cost of the non-coaching staff of the SDB;
4. the number of staff on expatriate terms and the cost of employing these expatriates relative to the total staff costs; and
5. the justification for having expatriate staff involved primarily in administrative, managerial, and fund-raising functions?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Recreation and Culture

* 9. Mr. LAU Wong-fat to ask : (Translation)

At present, the Government issues demand notes to the public for the payment of rates, salaries tax, etc. However, in recent years no demand notes have been issued by the Lands Department to owners in respect of the Crown rent payable. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council of the following:

1. why different procedures and criteria are adopted in the collection of revenue;
2. whether, given the existing policy under which the Government has the right to resume the land if the respective Crown rent is not duly paid by its owner, the Government agrees that the existing arrangement of the Government resuming the land on account of non-payment of Crown rent without issuing demand notes to the owners concerned is in contravention of the principle of equity; and
3. in regard to a case in which an owner who made enquiries about payment of Crown rent matters was asked to pay an "enquiry fee" afterwards, what are the reasons for levying such a charge without giving any prior notice of the charge?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands

*10. Mr. TSANG Kin-shing to ask : (Translation)

With regard to the recent agreement reached between the Government and the labour sector on the issue of importation of labour, will the Government inform this Council:

1. why the Government has held negotiations on the Supplementary Labour Scheme with representatives of the labour sector only without including the political parties within this Council;
2. whether there is any trade-off in the negotiation process; what is the rationale for setting 2,000 imported workers as the trigger point for review and not some other figure; and whether this arrangement is contrary to the policy of fixing the ceiling at 5,000 imported workers mentioned in the Governor's Policy Address;
3. what are the reasons for not establishing any mechanism for reviewing the ceiling of foreign workers imported for airport-related projects; and
4. how the Government has sought the public's views during the negotiation period and whether the Government has taken such views into consideration?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower

*11. Mr. IP Kwok-him to ask : (Translation)

In regard to the slope stability works at Kwun Lung Lau, will the Government inform this Council whether:

1. it is aware of the progress of the works; and whether the Hong Kong Housing Society has encountered any difficulties in the supervision of the works; if so, what the difficulties are; and
2. whether the Hong Kong Housing Society has adopted the hand-dug caisson method in carrying out the works; if so, whether the Government will consider requiring the Hong Kong Housing Society to adopt an alternative method in view of the inherent danger in using the hand-dug caisson method?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands

*12. Mr. Eric LI to ask : (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

1. whether it has reviewed the practical effectiveness of the current Announcement of Public Interest (API) publicising the anti-drug abuse message among teenagers; if so, what the results are; if not, when such a review will be conducted; and
2. what is the normal period for airing an API publicising the anti-drug abuse message among teenagers before it is replaced, and what are the criteria adopted by the Government for changing its content?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

*13 Mr. Albert CHAN to ask :

Will the Government inform this Council of:

1. the Government's policy on land grants made to foreign governments, including the Chinese Government;
2. the procedure for making such land grants; and
3. the Government's policy on setting the premiums for such land grants; in particular, how the premium is determined, and whether there are circumstances under which payment of the premium is exempted?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands

*14. Dr. C.H. LEONG to ask :

Since the signing of the Community Charter on AIDS by the Government and the Hospital Authority (HA) a year ago, will the Administration inform this Council:

1. whether the 'non-discriminatory policy on AIDS' has been promulgated in the work place of Government departments and public hospitals under the management of HA as stipulated in the Charter; if so, what measures have been taken by the Government and HA to promote the policy among the 180,000 civil servants and 40,000 HA staff;
2. if the answer to (a) is in the negative, whether a time schedule for carrying out all the commitments stipulated in the Charter has been drawn up by the Government and HA; and
3. how long it will take to provide AIDS education in the work place to all civil servants and HA staff?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health and Welfare

*15. Miss Christine LOH to ask :

With reference to the statement in the Financial Secretary's 1994/95 Budget speech that supplementary statements on the Government's accounts concerning certain selected government activities will be prepared on an experimental basis in order to show the full cost of such activities, will the Government inform this Council what progress has been made in preparing such statements?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Treasury

*16. Dr. David LI to ask :

The Commissioner of Police admitted recently that the departure of many of his most senior officers before 1997 would hit the police force. Will the Government inform this Council what measures are being implemented to stabilise the police force in the run up to 1997?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

*17. Dr. LAW Cheung-kwok to ask : (Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

1. whether the Government knows of the statistical methods adopted by the China Light and Power Company Limited and the Hongkong Electric Company Limited in projecting the territory's long-term demand for electricity; if so, what are the details of such statistical methods;
2. how the two companies' projections of demand for electricity are monitored to ensure their accuracy; and
3. whether the Government has conducted any assessment of what impact any deviations in such projections will have on the determination of tariffs?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Economic Services

*18. Mr. Ambrose LAU to ask :

Civil servants wishing to retire are normally required to submit their applications one year prior to the date of retirement, and those wishing to resign have to give three months' notice (leave is normally not counted as part of the three-month notice period). It is learnt that serving "gazetted officers" of the Police Force generally have more than 20 years of service and that the leave they have accumulated may range from three months up to half a year (directorate and expatriate police officers may even accumulate up to one year of leave). With the transfer of sovereignty just one and a half years away, will the Government inform this Council:

1. of the existing number of applications for retirement, as well as the existing number of notices of resignation, received from officers in the Police Force management; and
2. whether it has estimated the possible wastage among the Police Force management in the next two years?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Civil Service

*19. Dr. Samuel WONG to ask : (Translation)

With regard to the construction of the new airport, will the Government inform this Council of the following:

1. whether the new airport can start operating within the first quarter of 1998 as scheduled, given that two to three franchises of the facilities in the new airport have yet to be awarded by the Chinese and British governments, and having regard to the present progress in construction works and other related projects; and
2. when the construction of the second runway of the new airport is expected to be completed and when the second runway will come into operation?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Economic Services

*20. Mr. WONG Wai-yin to ask : (Translation)

The shortage of resources in the Fire Services Department's emergency ambulance service is becoming increasingly serious, particularly so in the New Territories. Will the Government inform this Council:

1. of the strength of the ambulance crew and the number of ambulance calls received in each of the past three years (with a separate breakdown of the number of emergency calls received), together with the percentage increase/decrease in each of the years concerned;
2. of the percentage of the services which have attained their targets set out in the Performance Pledge over the past three years; whether the percentage shows a downward trend, and if so, why; and
3. whether the Government will increase the number of ambulance crew as well as the number of ambulances so that the ambulance service can operate at the normal establishment levels to achieve the targets set in the Performance Pledge; if so, when will this be implemented; if not, why not; and whether there are any measures to improve the current situation?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security

* For written reply.

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III. MOTIONS

1. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE

Chief Secretary:

That the Criminal Appeal (Amendment) Rules 1995, made by the Chief Justice on 15 December 1995, be approved.

2. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE

Chief Secretary:

That the Criminal Procedure (Appeal against Discharge) (Amendment) Rules 1995, made by the Chief Justice on 15 December 1995, be approved.

3. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE

Chief Secretary:

That the Criminal Procedure (Applications under Section 16) (Amendment) Rules 1995, made by the Chief Justice on 15 December 1995, be approved.

4. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE

Chief Secretary:

That the Criminal Procedure (Reference of Questions of Law) (Amendment) Rules 1995, made by the Chief Justice on 15 December 1995, be approved.

5. CRIMINAL PROCEDURE ORDINANCE

Attorney General:

That the Criminal Procedure (Witnesses' Allowances) (Amendment) Rules 1996, made by the Chief Justice on 9 December 1995, be approved.

6. CORONERS ORDINANCE

Attorney General:

That the Coroners (Witnesses' Allowances) (Amendment) Rules 1996, made by the Chief Justice on 9 December 1995, be approved.

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IV. MEMBER'S MOTIONS

1. VISA-FREE ENTRY TO UK

Mr. Howard YOUNG :

That this Council urges the British Government to grant visa-free entry privileges to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport holders after 1st July 1997 as well as to continue granting such treatment to British National (Overseas) passport holders from Hong Kong and to make an announcement to this effect as soon as possible.

Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Security

2. FREEZING OF GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC UTILITY CORPORATIONS’ FEES AND CHARGES, AND PUBLIC HOUSING RENTALS

Mr. SIN Chung-kai : (Translation)

That, in view of the current high inflation, the rising unemployment rate and the Government’s huge surplus and reserve, this Council urges the Government to freeze various fees and charges relating to the people’s livelihood as well as public housing rentals, and also requests all major public utility corporations in the public and private sectors to freeze their fares and charges voluntarily at the present level for one year, in order to alleviate the heavy burden on the livelihood of the general public.

Amendments to Mr. SIN Chung-kai 's motion

1. Mr. James TIEN : (Translation)

To delete "high inflation, the rising unemployment rate" and substitute with "economic slowdown, high inflation and unemployment rates"; to delete "surplus and"; to delete "various fees and charges relating to the people’s livelihood as well as public housing rentals, and also requests all major public utility corporations in the public and private sectors to freeze their fares and charges voluntarily at the present level" and substitute with "government fees and charges"; to delete "livelihood of the general"; and to add ",stimulate the economy and increase employment opportunities" at the end.

2. Miss CHAN Yuen-han : (Translation)

To delete "various fees and charges relating to the people’s livelihood as well as"; to add "as well as government fees and charges which are directly related to the people’s livelihood" after "public housing rentals"; to delete "all major"; to add 01"which are operating with surplus" after "public and private sectors"; and to delete "at the present level".

3. Mr. YUM Sin-ling : (Translation)

To delete "and private sectors" and substitute with "sector"; to delete "at the present level"; and to insert "(1 April 1996 to 31 March 1997)" after "for one year".

Public Officers to attend : Financial Secretary
Secretary for Transport
Secretary for Economic Services
Secretary for Housing
Secretary for the Treasury

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