Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Revised version
A 97/98-19(1)
(Issued at 11:00 am on 1.12.97)

Provisional Legislative Council

Agenda
Wednesday 3 December 1997 at 2:30 pm

I. Papers

	Subsidiary Legislation	L.N. No.
1.	Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Regulation 1997	556/97
2.	Medical Laboratory Technologists (Registration and Disciplinary Procedure) (Amendment) Regulation 1997	557/97
3.	Physiotherapists (Registration and Disciplinary Procedure) (Amendment) Regulation 1997	558/97
4.	Radiographers (Registration and Disciplinary Procedure) (Amendment) Regulation 1997	559/97
5.	Air Navigation (Hong Kong) (Amendment) Order 1997	560/97
6.	Veterinary Surgeons Registration (Fees) Regulation	563/97
7.	Tax Reserve Certificates (Rate of Interest) (No.3) Notice 1997	564/97
8.	Hawker (Permitted Place) Declaration 1997	565/97
9.	Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance (Cap.493) (Commencement) (No.2) Notice 1997	566/97
10.	Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Appeal Board) Rules (L.N.264 of 1997) (Commencement) Notice 1997	567/97
11.	Non-local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Rules (L.N.265 of 1997) (Commencement) (No.2) Notice 1997	568/97

Sessional Paper

No.42-	Environment and Conservation Fund Trustee Report 1996-97
(to be presented by Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands)

No.43-	Hong Kong Tourist Association Annual Report 1996/97
(to be presented by Secretary for Economic Services)

II. Questions

1.Dr HO Chung-tai to ask :

(Translation)

It is reported that the Government will spend several hundred million dollars to decontaminate two polluted landfills in Tseung Kwan O. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

of the landfills in Hong Kong which are polluted;
whether it has any plan to change the planned land use of these landfills (such as to enable the building of sitting-out areas on them); if so, whether the authority will decontaminate the landfills before commencing the construction work, so as to ensure the safety of the users; and
of the measures in place to ensure that the decontaminated landfills will not pose health hazards to the users of the facilities built on them?

Public Officer to reply

Secretary for Planning,
Environment and Lands

2.Mr CHENG Kai-nam to ask :(Translation)

In connection with the quality of the Housing Authority estates (i.e. estates under the Home Ownership Scheme and the Private Sector Participation Scheme), will the Government inform this Council:

of the measures in place to prevent contractors and developers from compromising workmanship because of the tender prices, and to ensure the quality of building inspections; and
whether it will review the existing system of the Private Sector Participation Scheme, under which the Buildings Department will issue "Letters of Satisfaction" according to the building inspection reports submitted by private developers; and of the measures in place to ensure the credibility of the results of building inspections carried out by these developers?

Public Officer to reply: Secretary for Housing
3. Mrs Selina CHOW to ask :
(Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) 's current timetable for the delivery of meals to elderly people living alone and the detailed arrangements in this respect;
whether it has stipulated the nutritional content of the meals;
of the days when meal delivery services are not available from the SWD, and the means to ensure that these old people can still be provided with meals on those days; and
of the present procedures for elderly people living alone to lodge complaints about the meal delivery arrangements; and the number of such complaints last year?

Public Officer to reply: Secretary for Health and Welfare
4.Mr Howard YOUNG to ask :

In respect of visa applications from nationals of Middle East and Eastern European countries, and nationals of other countries, will the Government inform this Council of:

the respective average time taken to process the applications from these two categories of nationals;
the reasons for the difference in time in processing these applications; and
the numbers of applications from these two categories of nationals over the past three years and, of these applications, the numbers which were rejected and the reasons of rejection?

Public Officer to reply: Secretary for Security
5.Mr LAU Kong-wah to ask :
(Translation)

The extensive coverage of the existing frontier closed area in Hong Kong, with a total area of about 3 410 hectares, has caused inconvenience to members of the public. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

whether it has conducted any study to see if it is necessary to have such an extensive frontier closed area; if so, what the finding is; and
whether it will consider reducing the area covered by the frontier closed area in Sha Tau Kok and Ta Kwu Ling, and constructing houses and schools in the disestablished closed area, so that more facilities can be provided for residents in the vicinity?

Public Officer to reply

Secretary for Security

6.Dr TANG Siu-tong to ask :(Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

whether it has studied if an outbreak of hepatitis A would take place next year;
of the estimated number of persons aged below 30 who have no antibodies against hepatitis A virus at present;
whether it has any vaccination plans against hepatitis A; and
whether it will work more closely with the provisional municipal councils on adopting measures to ensure food hygiene?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health and Welfare
* 7.Mr Edward HO to ask :
(Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council of the measures it will adopt to encourage the architectural profession to design more environment-friendly buildings?

Public Officer to reply

Secretary for Planning,
Environment and Lands

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

It is learnt that road maintenance contractors often carry out repair works on highways during rush hours, resulting in traffic congestion or even traffic accidents. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

of the number of traffic accidents directly or indirectly caused by road maintenance contractors carrying out repair works on highways, in each of the past three years;
whether it has drawn up a code of practice in respect of highway repair works; if so, how it ensures observance of the code by contractors; and
whether it has prescribed stipulations prohibiting contractors from carrying out repair works on highways during rush hours?

Public Officer to reply: Secretary for Transport
* 9.Mr LAU Kong-wah to ask :
(Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council:

of the number of Two-way Permit holders (TWPH) arrested by the Police in each of the past five years for taking up employment illegally at construction sites;
whether the Police had, when arresting the TWPHs, also arrested the persons in charge of the concerned construction sites; if so, whether any difficulties were encountered in arresting them and of the average penalties imposed by the court on these persons-in-charge upon their conviction;
whether it is a common practice for persons in charge of construction sites to report illegal workers to the Police before the pay day; and
whether discussion has been held with the relevant Chinese authorities on how to deter workers from taking up employment illegally in Hong Kong, in particular those who have been repeatedly arrested for working illegally in Hong Kong?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security
*10. Dr TANG Siu-tong to ask :
(Translation)

Does the Government know of:

the criteria adopted by the Housing Authority in deciding on the height of parapet walls of Trident public housing blocks; and
the measures in place to prevent children from climbing over and falling off such walls?

Public Officer to reply: Secretary for Housing
*11.Mr CHOY Kan-pui to ask :
(Translation)

Will the Government inform this Council of:

the number of identification parades arranged by the police in each of the past three years; and the breakdown of occasions on which the victims or the witnesses were required to meet the suspects face to face during the course of identification, and those on which the parades were carried out in rooms with one-way viewers;
the circumstances under which the victims or the witnesses have to meet the suspects face to face during the course of identification; and whether the victims or the witnesses may reject such arrangement and request parades be carried out in rooms with one-way viewers; and
the current number of identification rooms in police stations which are not fitted with one-way viewers; whether the authority will consider installing one-way viewers in such rooms; if so, when these will be installed?

Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security
*12. Mr HUI Yin-fat to ask :
(Translation)

Recently, there were quite a number of cases in which staff on duty at accident and emergency departments of public hospitals were alleged to have failed to provide timely or appropriate medical treatment to patients, and directly or indirectly led to the loss of lives. Regarding the services of accident and emergency departments of public hospitals, does the Government know:

of the following statistics in respect of the accident and emergency department of each public hospital over the past three years:
1. the number of attendances and the percentage of increases;
2. the average number of cases handled by each doctor per shift;
3. the average treatment time of each case; and
4. the number of medical and nursing staff on duty;
of the standard adopted by the Hospital Authority (HA) to evaluate the relationship between the workload of doctors at accident and emergency departments and the accuracy of their diagnosis;
whether there is an established standard ratio between the number of doctors on duty and the number of attendances at accident and emergency departments of public hospitals; if so, whether the number of doctors on duty at each of the accident and emergency departments meet the established standard; if the standard is not met, what the reasons are; and
whether the HA will use the increased number of cases handled by accident and emergency departments as the basis for determining the additional manpower required at such departments for each year; if not, of the criteria adopted for determining the deployment of additional manpower at accident and emergency departments?

Public Officer to reply: Secretary for Health and Welfare
*13.Mr NGAN Kam-chuen to ask :
(Translation)

In connection with the earlier criticism by some parents of mentally handicapped children about the inadequate provision of special school places in Northern New Territories (NT), will the Government inform this Council:

whether it has conducted any study to see if the provision of special school places in Northern NT (including both Tai Po District and Northern District) is inadequate; if so, what the outcome is, and if the study indicates an inadequate provision of special school places in Northern NT, of the number that falls short;
of the average waiting time for mentally handicapped children residing at Northern NT to be enrolled in special schools; and
whether it has any plan to provide more special school places in Northern NT to meet the demand; if so, of the timeframe for increasing the number of special school places in these districts?

Public Officer to reply

Secretary for Education and
Manpower

*14.Mr HUI Yin-fat to ask :(Translation)

According to the information provided by the Hospital Authority (HA), non-emergency attendances represent more than 30% of the total attendances at accident and emergency departments of public hospitals and are particularly high during public holidays, resulting in heavier workload for front-line medical staff. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

of the measures to be taken (including liaising and working with the HA) to ensure that general patients seek medical treatment at general out-patient clinics of the Department of Health, instead of accident and emergency departments of public hospitals; and
whether the Department of Health has any plans in place to operate full-day service at its general out-patient clinics during long public holidays (starting from the Christmas holidays this year), and to increase the number of such public holiday clinics; if not, why not?

Public Officer to reply: Secretary for Health and Welfare
*15.Mr NGAN Kam-chuen to ask :
(Translation)

In connection with the staffing and development of the Hong Kong Futures Exchange Limited (HKFE), does the Government know:

of the places from which the last five Chief Executive Officers of HKFE were recruited, and whether they were engaged in related sectors in overseas countries after leaving the post;
of the measures put in place by the HKFE to provide training for local people in the area of futures products and derivatives; and
of the details of the HKFE Five-year Plan; and whether HKFE will re-evaluate its Five-year Plan in the wake of the recent financial crisis; if so, what the details are; if not, why not?

Public Officer to reply: Secretary for Financial Services
*16.Mr Howard YOUNG to ask :

Will the Government inform this Council whether it has any plan to introduce the Octopus system to the Airport Railway upon its commencement next year; if so, of the preventive measures it will take in respect of the problems identified relating to the use of Octopus in other modes of transport?

Public Officer to reply: Secretary for Transport

*17.Mr HO Sai-chu to ask :

(Translation)

It is learnt that the Yaohan Department Store (HK) Ltd has applied for winding up and the arrears of wages and allowances amounting to over 100 million dollars will be advanced in the form of ex gratia payments from the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the financial position of the Fund, and whether it has assessed the capability of the Fund in making such advances in the event of a series of insolvency cases?

Public Officer to reply

Secretary for Education and
Manpower

*18.Mr CHAN Kam-lam to ask : (Translation)

Recently there have been cases in which vegetables contaminated with pesticides were directly imported from Mainland farms and sold in the local market. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

of the respective percentages of vegetables supplied wholesale by the Vegetable Marketing Organization and of those imported directly from Mainland farms, in the total amount of vegetables supplied in Hong Kong;
whether the regulatory measures of and random tests by the Department of Health on vegetables from these two sources are different; if so, what the details are;
whether the Department of Health will step up inspection on vegetables directly imported from the Mainland, so as to prevent vegetables contaminated with pesticide from being sold in the market; and
whether it will consider requiring that all vegetables for sale in Hong Kong be imported through the Vegetable Marketing Organization?

Public Officer to reply:Secretary for Health and Welfare

* For written reply.

III. Bills

Second Reading

Debate to resume

Employment (Amendment) (No.5) Bill 1997

Secretary for Education and Manpower

Committee Stage and Third Reading

Employment (Amendment) (No.5) Bill 1997

Secretary for Education and Manpower

IV. Members' Motions

1. Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance

Mr IP Kwok-him :

That in relation to the Electoral Affairs Commission (Registration of Electors) (Geographical Constituencies) (Legislative Council) Regulation, published as Legal Notice No.499 of 1997 and laid on the table of the Provisional Legislative Council on 5 November 1997, the period referred to in section 34(2) of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Cap.1) for amending subsidiary legislation be extended under section 34(4) of that Ordinance to the meeting of 10 December 1997.

2.Promoting Hong Kong's tourism industry

Mr Howard YOUNG :

(Translation)

That, in view of the recent downturn in the number of visitors to Hong Kong, this Council urges the Government to review the situation and implement short, medium and long-term measures to promote and develop Hong Kong's tourism industry, so as to maintain Hong Kong's position as an Asian tourism centre.

Public Officer
to attend

Secretary for Economic Services

3.Youth policy

Mr Kennedy WONG :

(Translation)

That this Council urges the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to expeditiously formulate a more concrete 'youth policy', revise the 'Charter for Youth' as well as enhance the education of young people about the state of the nation, so as to prepare Hong Kong and the Mainland for attaining the macro-development objectives in the 21st century; and to review the role of the Commission on Youth, consider strengthening its functions and providing it with more resources, so that it can more effectively promote and implement the various tasks involved.

Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Home Affairs

Clerk to the Provisional Legislative Council