A 99/00-3(1)
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 13 October 1999 at 2:30 pm
I. Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation | L.N. No.
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| 1. Noise Control Ordinance (Exemption from Sections 4, 5 and 13) (Millennium Celebrations) Order 1999
| 248/99
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| 2. Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (Amendment of Second Schedule) (No. 2) Order 1999
| 249/99
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Sessional Papers
| 1. No.1 - | Environment and Conservation FundTrustee Report 1998-99
(to be presented by Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands)
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| 2. No.2 - | Revised list of works of the Provisional Regional Council for the 1999/2000 financial year (during the first quarter ended 30 June 1999)
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(to be presented by Secretary for Home Affairs)
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| 3. No.3 - | Revised list of works of the Provisional Urban Council for the 1999/2000 financial year (during the first quarter ended 30 June 1999)
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(to be presented by Secretary for Home Affairs)
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| 4. No.4 - | Schedule of revisions to the 1998/1999 Estimates approved by the Provisional Urban Council during the first quarter of the 1999/2000 financial year
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(to be presented by Secretary for Home Affairs)
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| 5. No.5 - | Clothing Industry Training AuthorityAnnual Report 1998
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(to be presented by Secretary for Education and Manpower)
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| 6. No.6 - | Report of changes to the approved Estimates of Expenditure approved during the first quarter of 1999-2000 (Public Finance Ordinance : Section 8)
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(to be presented by Secretary for the Treasury)
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| 7. No.7 - | Report by the Trustee of the Prisoners' Education Trust Fund for the period 1 April 1998 to 31 March 1999
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(to be presented by Secretary for Security)
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| 8. No.8 - | The Land Registry Trading Fund Hong KongAnnual Report 1998-99
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(to be presented by Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands)
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| 9. No.9 - | Report No.33A of the Director of AuditA follow-up review of the year 2000 problem
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(to be presented by the President)
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| 10. No.10 - | The Government Minute in response to the Report No. 32 of the Public Accounts Committee dated July 1999
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(to be presented by Chief Secretary for Administration, who will address the Council)
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| 11. No.11 - | Estate Agents Authority Annual Report 1998/1999
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(to be presented by Secretary for Housing)
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II. Questions
1. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
The authorities revealed to this Council in January this year that they hoped to establish a system for collecting from various organisations comprehensive information on cases of suicide. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the progress with regard to the system; whether it has used the information collected by the system to analyse the relationship of suicidal behaviour to the economic downturn and unemployment; if so, of the findings;
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| (b) | the services currently provided to the unemployed to prevent them from committing suicide; whether it has assessed the effectiveness of these services; if such services are not available, of the reasons for that; and
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| (c) | the services currently provided to the families of persons who have committed suicide; whether it has assessed the effectiveness of these services; if such services are not available, of the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health and Welfare
2. Hon CHAN Yuen-han to ask: (Translation)
Article 36 of the Basic Law stipulates that Hong Kong residents shall have the right to social welfare in accordance with law. It is learnt that newly arrived Hong Kong residents are subject to residence requirements when applying for public housing allocation and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA"). In respect of public housing allocation, the majority of the applicant's family members must have lived in Hong Kong for seven years; for CSSA applications, the applicant must have resided in Hong Kong for 44 weeks. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the legal basis for subjecting such persons to residence requirements in their applications for public housing and CSSA; and
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| (b) | whether it has assessed if the above requirements are in breach of Article 36 of the Basic Law; if the outcome of the assessment is affirmative, of the time it will amend such requirements; if the outcome is in the negative, of the justifications for that?
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| Public Officers to reply : |
Secretary for Housing
Secretary for Health and Welfare
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3. Hon LAU Wong-fat to ask: (Translation)
At present, diesel-driven machinery such as excavators, bulldozers, high pressure air-compressors and generators are widely used by contractors in road works and on construction sites. Such machinery emit a lot of smoke when they are in operation, causing health hazards to workers, passers-by and residents in the neighbourhood. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the legislation regulating the emission of excessive smoke from such machinery, and the legislative provisions governing smoky machinery; and
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| (b) | the departments responsible for the enforcement of the relevant legislation; and the number of inspections carried out by the departments concerned in relation to emissions of such machinery, as well as the number of prosecutions instituted, over the past three years?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands
4. Hon Kenneth TING to ask: (Translation)
It was reported that more than 70 000 container trucks rushed to the Kwai Chung Container Terminal to effect delivery of containers the day following the passage of Typhoon York through Hong Kong last month, resulting in serious traffic congestion in Kwai Chung and Tsuen Wan districts. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it will review as soon as possible the operational mode and activation time of the Container Port Traffic Liaison Group which has representatives from the Transport Department, the Police and the trade, and study how to enhance the operational efficiency of the Group;
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| (b) | of the measures in place to prevent the recurrence of similar traffic congestion after the passage of a typhoon; and
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| (c) | whether it has plans to discuss with the relevant Mainland authorities the demand for cross-border freight transport, and to conduct a study on the development of freight rail to ease the burden of freight transport on road networks?
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Public Officer to reply :
Secretary for Transport
5. Ir Dr Hon HO Chung-tai to ask: (Translation)
When Typhoon York hit Hong Kong last month, the curtain walls of several government office towers in Wan Chai were seriously damaged. It was reported in the press that around 400 patches of the curtain walls were broken as a result. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the existing legislation or codes for regulating the installation and maintenance of curtain walls on buildings;
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| (b) | whether existing legislation requires owners of buildings to arrange for regular inspection of the curtain walls; and
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| (c) | whether it will consider establishing a task force to assess the effects of Hong Kong's climate on curtain walls, the designs and materials to be used and the installation procedures for curtain walls, and to review the relevant standards?
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| Public Officers to reply : | Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands
Secretary for Works
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*6. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)
It is reported that in the past few months, the Central People's Government has rejected applications for warships of the United States to stop over in Hong Kong waters and the Pope's proposed visit to Hong Kong. It is noted that as the Vatican is maintaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the proposed visit to Hong Kong by the Pope involves foreign affairs. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("HKSAR") Government had liaised with and presented views to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before the Central People's Government made decisions on the above applications; if so, of the time such liaison was made and the details of the views presented;
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| (b) | the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed the HKSAR Government of the reasons for rejecting the applications; if so, of the reasons given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and
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| (c) | any visits to Hong Kong have been made by the heads or officials of states which are maintaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan since Hong Kong's reunification with China; if so, of a list of these visitors together with the dates of their visits to Hong Kong?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
*7. Hon LEE Kai-ming to ask: (Translation)
It was reported that during the summer vacation this year, more than 10 students were injured at work while being employed as summer job workers. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it has examined if there is any urgent need for amending the relevant legislation to prohibit employers from allowing untrained workers to operate machinery involving a certain degree of danger, and to revise the categories of machinery which must be operated by properly trained workers; if legislative amendments are considered unnecessary at this stage, of the reasons for that; and
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| (b) | it has any plan to introduce legislative amendments to impose heavier penalty on employers who fail to provide proper safety equipment for their employees; if not, of the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower
*8. Hon Christine LOH to ask:
At the meeting of the Home Affairs Panel of the Legislative Council on 20 December 1996, the Administration informed the Panel that it had compiled a list of about 1 000 private buildings with potential fire and safety hazards for building management improvement. The Administration also committed on 5 March 1997 to provide the Legislative Council with an updated list each year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:
| (a) | the respective numbers of such buildings that have since been demolished, undertaken improvement to the satisfaction of the Administration, or remain on the list;
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| (b) | the number of buildings added onto the list since 1996; and
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| (c) | the action that the Administration will take to exhaust the list and the estimated time for this being achieved?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs
*9. Hon CHAN Wing-chan to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council of the annual statistics in respect of the following since 1996:
| (a) | the number of enquiries received by the Labour Department in relation to pregnancy of foreign domestic helpers; and
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| (b) | the number of labour disputes in connection with pregnancy of foreign domestic helpers that were mediated by the Labour Department and, among them, the number of those which were filed with the Labour Tribunal for adjudication?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower
*10. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)
With regard to the advance collection of tuition fees from new students by the institutions funded by the University Grants Committee, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it knows:
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| (i) | the due dates for new students to pay their tuition fees as required by each institution in the past and current academic year;
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| (ii) | how these institutions determine the percentage of tuition fees to be paid by new students before an academic year begins; and the rules set for refund of the tuition fees fully or partially paid by new students who have applied for withdrawal before the academic year begins;
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| (iii) | the respective numbers of new students who had paid their tuition fees fully or partially but applied for withdrawal before the new academic year began in the past and current academic year in each of these institutions; their respective total amounts of income from the non-refundable tuition fee; and
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| (b) | whether it will urge these institutions to effect refund of the tuition fees paid by new students who have applied for withdrawal before the new academic year begins?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower
*11. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)
The Department of Justice appointed last month a special adviser remunerated at point 3 of the Directorate pay scale to deal specially with matters related to the Legislative Council. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
| (a) | of the reasons for appointing such an adviser;
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| (b) | of the duties of the adviser; and
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| (c) | whether the scope of the duties of the adviser is confined to handling matters related to the Legislative Council and whether he is mainly responsible for public relations or providing legal advice?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Justice
*12. Hon Mrs Sophie LEUNG to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the respective current costs of pre-employment training for general medical practitioners and paramedical personnel, including registered nurses, pharmacists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and optometrists; and the percentages of the costs shared between the Government and these trainees respectively; and
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| (b) | whether comparison has been made between the above-mentioned training costs borne by public funds and the relevant public expenditure incurred in advanced countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia; if so, of the results of the comparison; if not, of the reasons for that and whether there is any plan to make such comparison; if there is such plan, of the time such comparison will take place?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower
*13. Hon Philip WONG to ask:
In respect of the Hong Kong Futures Exchange's plan to replace the open outcry system for trading Hang Seng Index Futures and Options contracts with an electronic order matching system, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
| (a) | if comprehensive stress tests on the new system have been conducted; if so, of the problems uncovered and whether and how they were solved; if the problems are yet to be solved, when and how they will be solved; and
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| (b) | if a contingency plan has been formulated to cope with failure of the system during live operation?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services
*14. Hon TAM Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
An onslaught of typhoon on Hong Kong at the end of August this year caused landslides in many parts of the territory. Certain sections of South Lantau Road on Lantau Island had to be closed for this reason for a number of days, causing serious disruption to the flow of traffic between the southern and northern parts of Lantau. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the existing number of high risk slopes along both sides of South Lantau Road and Tung Chung Road on Lantau;
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| (b) | whether these slopes are regularly inspected; and whether there is any plan to carry out comprehensive slope maintenance works; if not, of the reasons for that; and
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| (c) | whether it will consider advancing the construction of the north-south road link between Tai Ho Wan and Mui Wo, so as to improve the flow of traffic between the southern and northern parts of Lantau as well as facilitate the development of Lantau; if not, of the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Works
*15. Hon Howard YOUNG to ask:
At present, most Octopus Add Value Machines ("AVMs") are installed at stations of the Kowloon-Canton Railway and the Mass Transit Railway, ferry piers and in 24-hour convenience stores. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows if AVMs have been or will be installed at other places; if so, of the details of that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport
*16. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask:
In respect of the Employees Retraining Scheme, will the Government inform this Council of the following in each of the past three years:
| (a) | the amount of money appropriated to each training body listed under the Scheme for organising retraining programmes; and
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| (b) | the total amount of instruction hours of, money spent on and the total number of retrainees in each course?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower
*17. Hon CHAN Kwok-keung to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
| (a) | the respective numbers of funding applications made in each year to the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Lotteries Fund by statutory bodies or boards and committees receiving support services from various government departments since 1996; the nature of the items involved; the number of successful cases among these applications, and the amount of grants in respect of each successful case in which the amount of grants exceeded four million dollars; and
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| (b) | the criteria and procedure adopted by the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Subventions and Lotteries Fund Advisory Committee for examining and approving these funding applications?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Health and Welfare
*18. Hon YEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the dissemination of information on the availability of Secondary 6 ("S6") places by the Education Department ("ED") to Secondary 5 graduates during the S6 Admission period, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the criteria adopted by the ED for deciding on the Internet service providers ("ISPs") to be invited to bid for the provision of service for disseminating information on the availability of S6 places through the Internet, and the number of ISPs invited to bid this year; whether the ED will consider inviting all licensed ISPs to bid for the provision of such service next year; if not, of the reasons for that;
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| (b) | whether the ED, in commissioning the ISP concerned to provide the above service, has requested it to pay attention to the corporate image projected by its advertisements; whether comments have been received from schools regarding the commissioning of that ISP for the provision of such service; if so, of the details of that, and whether there have been complaints by religious and women organizations that the advertisements are discriminatory;
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| (c) | whether the network was jammed and the transmission of data slowed down on the Internet as a result of a flood of enquiries; if so, of the improvement measures that will be put in place next year; and
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| (d) | whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of disseminating information on the availability of S6 places through the Internet and pagers; if so, of the results of the review and the areas that need improvements?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education and Manpower
*19. Dr Hon LUI Ming-wah to ask: (Translation)
As the possibility of serious earthquakes occurring in Hong Kong cannot be ruled out entirely, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | apart from highways and railways, high-rise building blocks and other large buildings in Hong Kong are required structurally to be capable of sustaining the impact of earthquakes with strengths at point five to six on the Richter scale; if not, of the reasons for that; and whether such a requirement is dispensed with on the grounds that wind loads are already factored into the structural design of high-rise blocks; and
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| (b) | it will consider amending the relevant legislation or codes of practice to provide that the structure of newly built large buildings or high-rise building blocks should be capable of sustaining the impact of earthquakes with strengths at point five to six on the Richter scale; if not, of the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands
*For written reply.
III. Bills
First Reading
1. Legal Aid (Amendment) Bill 1999
2. District Court (Amendment) Bill 1999
3. Mass Transit Railway Bill
4. Industrial Training (Construction Industry) (Amendment) Bill 1999
5. Stamp Duty (Amendment) Bill 1999
Second Reading (Debates to be adjourned)
| 1. Legal Aid (Amendment) Bill 1999 : | Chief Secretary for Administration
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| 2. District Court (Amendment) Bill 1999 : | Chief Secretary for Administration
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| 3. Mass Transit Railway Bill : | Secretary for Transport
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| 4. Industrial Training (Construction Industry) (Amendment) Bill 1999 : | Secretary for Education and Manpower
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| 5. Stamp Duty (Amendment) Bill 1999 : | Secretary for the Treasury
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Second Reading (Debates to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading
| 1. Adaptation of Laws (No.5) Bill 1998 : | Chief Secretary for Administration
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| 2. Adaptation of Laws (No.9) Bill 1998 : | Secretary for Financial Services
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IV. Members' Motions
1. Protecting the environment
Hon LAW Chi-kwong: (Translation)
That this Council urges the Government, while striving to achieve social and economic developments, to implement a strategy for sustainable development in Hong Kong, having regard to the balance between economic development and environmental protection and their interactive relationship; the strategy should include:
| (1) | attaching importance to factors relevant to environmental conservation and sustainable development in formulating various social and economic development plans;
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| (2) | conducting a full review of and making comprehensive laws and policies on the conservation of natural resources to conserve the ecosystem in Hong Kong and enhance its environmental quality, thereby strengthening Hong Kong's economic competitiveness and creating a good living environment for the next generation in Hong Kong;
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| (3) | adopting appropriate economic tools and taxation policies so that the prices of commodities, services and development plans can fully reflect their environmental costs and provide resources for the promotion of green efforts;
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| (4) | using economic means such as introducing private participation and competition to expedite the implementation of infrastructural projects for environmental protection; and
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| (5) | apart from strengthening the co-operation with the Mainland authorities in promoting environmental protection work, enhancing the co-ordination among various policy bureaux and enforcement departments within the Government as the first step and at the same time encouraging and facilitating the participation of the general public, district bodies and non-governmental organizations in planning, formulating and implementing environmental protection policies.
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Amendment to Hon LAW Chi-kwong's motion
Hon LAU Kong-wah: (Translation)
To add ", and specifying the targets for environmental improvement to ensure that the various environmental protection policies can materialize" after "economic development plans"; to add "(3) adopting the most cost-effective methods to solve various environmental problems in formulating environmental protection policies; (4) acknowledging the social service functions of environmental protection industries, and encouraging the development of such industries in Hong Kong through financial subsidy and concrete supporting policies, as well as enhancing the competitiveness of environment-friendly products by introducing appropriate tax concessions and purchasing policies;" after "creating a good living environment for the next generation in Hong Kong;"; to delete "(3)" and substitute with "(5)"; to delete "adopting appropriate economic tools and taxation policies" and substitute with "using economic means such as collecting recovery deposits and landfill charges from the commercial and industrial sectors to make the producers aware of the environmental costs"; to delete "so that the prices"; to add "their" before "commodities"; to delete "can fully reflect their environmental costs and provide resources for the promotion of green efforts" after "services and development plans" and substitute with ", in order to encourage businesses to adopt more environmentally friendly modes of production"; to delete "(4) using economic means such as introducing private participation and competition to expedite the implementation of infrastructural projects for environmental protection; and"; to delete "(5)" and substitute with "(6)"; to delete "apart from strengthening the co-operation with the Mainland authorities in promoting environmental protection work,"; to delete "as the first step" after "enforcement departments within the Government"; and to delete "." from "implementing environmental protection policies." and substitute with "; and (7) strengthening the co-operation with the Mainland authorities in promoting environmental protection work and enhancing transparency to ensure that problems relating to Dongjiang water, air quality and sewage disposal can be fully solved."
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands
2. Referendum on the two Municipal Councils
Hon Fred LI: (Translation)
That this Council urges the Government to conduct a referendum on the retention or abolition of the two Municipal Councils, which should be held on the same day as the 1999 District Councils Election; this Council also requests the Government to respect the outcome of the referendum.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
Clerk to the Legislative Council
