A 03/04-21

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 10 March 2004 at 2:30 pm

(a)	(i)	the numbers of verbal warnings given and prosecutions instituted by the Police in each quarter relating to drivers for violating the above stipulation, broken down by classes of motor vehicles, and
	(ii)	the number of traffic accidents in each quarter in which the drivers concerned breached the above stipulation, since the commencement of the Regulation on 1 July 2002; and
(b)	the measures to reduce breaches of the above stipulation by drivers?

(a)

the contractors are required to set out clearly the manpower arrangements in each stage of the road excavation works in their tenders for such works; and

(b)

the works contracts contain stipulations that, once the road excavation works commence, the contractors must ensure a minimum number of hours per week or per day work is carried out at the work sites, except in circumstances beyond their control (such as inclement weather) and, in case of unsatisfactory progress of the works, that the contractors have to increase the manpower as demanded by the authorities; if so, of the details of such stipulations; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the respective numbers of cases so far in which applicants have received incentive allowance for working "across district" or during the extended "unsocial hours";
(b)	of the respective total amounts of allowance received in relation to cases of these two categories, and whether the authorities have assessed if the $60 million commitment is adequate to cover the expenditure of the Scheme for two years; if they have, of the results; and
(c)	since the extension of the scope of the Scheme, whether the authorities have assessed the effectiveness of the Scheme and drawn up other preferential schemes to actively assist local domestic helpers in securing employment; if they have, of the assessment results and the details of such schemes?

(a)

the Hong Kong Airport Authority and the Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited have co-operation plans to use a new mode of cargo clearance whereby goods from Southern China complete clearance formalities and vanning at the Mainland distribution centre, and are then transported directly by goods vehicles to the Hong Kong Airport for export to other places, rendering it unnecessary for the goods to undergo devanning at the Huanggang checkpoint for customs inspection; if there is such a co-operation plan, of its progress; and

(b)

the authorities have plans to extend the scope of the above new mode of cargo clearance so that in future, consignors and logistics companies can consign their goods by means of this easier and more convenient method; if they have, of the details of the plan; if not, whether they will study the feasibility of such a plan expeditiously?

(a)	of the annual numbers of casualties in work injury accidents resulting from failure to put on industrial safety shoes since three years before the launch of the programme;
(b)	of the measures the authorities and related organizations have taken to promote the programme to contractors and workers since the launch of the programme; and
(c)	whether the authorities have reviewed the effectiveness of the promotional work on the programme; if they have, of the results; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	whether it knows the total number of attendances at public hospitals and clinics arising from the misuse of hydrogen peroxide over the past three years;
(b)	whether there is any legislation governing the publicity on and sale of hydrogen peroxide products; if so, of the provisions of the relevant legislation;
(c)	if there is such legislation, of the respective numbers of cases relating to hydrogen peroxide products in breach of the legislation handled by the authorities through their inspections and public reports in each of the past three years; and, among them, the respective numbers of prosecution and conviction cases, as well as the penalties imposed; and
(d)	whether the authorities have considered bringing hydrogen peroxide into the ambit of the Pharmacy and Poisons Regulations (Cap. 138, sub. leg. A) so as to strengthen the control over it; if so, of the outcome of their consideration?

(a)	the teaching departments closed and programmes discontinued by each public-funded tertiary institution in each of the past five academic years, and the respective numbers of students and staff of the teaching departments/programmes concerned in the academic year preceding the closure/discontinuance; and
(b)	how the tertiary institutions concerned dealt with the staff whose posts were deleted as a result of the closure/discontinuance?

(a)	the average time required for an ambulance from Tung Chung Ambulance Depot to arrive at the place of call;
(b)	the average number of trips made by each ambulance at Tung Chung Ambulance Depot in each of the past five years, how this figure compares to the territory-wide figure; and
(c)	the number of occasions on which the Fire Services Department deployed ambulances from other depots to Tung Chung to transport the sick and wounded in each of the past three years?

(a)	given that the relevant local authorities have set up a reciprocal notification mechanism on food safety matters with the relevant mainland authorities, whether the former have been notified by the latter of the above incident; if they have, of the details of the notification; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	whether it has enquired with the relevant mainland departments and importers regarding the details of the incident and the source of the luncheon meat of that brand on sale in Hong Kong;
(c)	whether it has, in view of the above report, conducted more laboratory sample tests on the canned luncheon meat of various brands; if it has, of the test results; and
(d)	whether it conducts laboratory sample tests on the quality of canned food on a regular basis; if so, of the number of sample tests on each type of canned food every year?

(a)	of the annual number of licensees instructed by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority ("OFTA") to settle the unpaid LAC and USC since 2000; the respective amounts of LAC and USC to be settled; as well as their respective percentages in the total annual LAC and USC paid to all the local FTNS operators;
(b)	as the problem of using non-compliant access numbers for offering ETS has become increasingly serious, whether the authorities have reviewed the existing policies for dealing with and investigating this type of cases and considered tackling the problem with measures such as proactive surveillance by OFTA, heavier financial penalties, longer maximum suspension periods for these licenses, and consulted the trade in this regard so as to further crack down on the above practices which are in contravention of licence conditions and maintain a level playing field for the ETS market; and
(c)	regarding the licensees' use of non-compliant access numbers for offering outgoing or incoming calls, in which one of the two types of calls is the non-compliance more serious; and whether the authorities have formulated corresponding measures to deal with the more serious non-compliance; if they have, of the details?

(a)	of the average waiting time for cremation service provided by the FEHD in each of the past three years and how these figures compare with those of the South East Asian countries and the Mainland; and
(b)	whether it will adopt improvement measures to shorten the waiting time for cremation service; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	whether regular inspections of metered parking spaces were conducted throughout the territory in the past year to check if the parking spaces were illegally occupied; if such inspections found illegal occupation of such spaces, of the details of such occupation and how the authorities dealt with these cases;
(b)	whether it has assessed the amount of parking charges foregone in the past year due to non-payment of such charges by users of the above parking spaces; if so, of the assessment results; and
(c)	of the measures the authorities have to improve the above situation?

(a)	the total number of incidents involving malfunctioning of the signalling system which affected train operations since the opening of WR, together with a detailed chronology of these incidents;
(b)	the reasons for the above incidents; and
(c)	whether the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation has measures to reduce the occurrence of similar incidents?

(a)	given that "cleaning workers' wages" is incorporated into the item of "work plan" which may only score up to 20% of the total marks in HD's evaluation of contractors' tendering documents, whether the authorities will consider designating "cleaning workers' wages" as a separate scoring item and increasing its weighting, so as to better protect the interests of workers; if it will, of the details of consideration; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	whether, in assessing if the cleaning workers' wages pledged by the contractors in their tendering documents are reasonable, HD has made reference to the quarterly average market wages of cleaning workers published by the Census and Statistics Department; if so, whether the tenders will be excluded from consideration if the wages pledged therein are below the average market wages; if it has not, of the reasons for that;
(c)	whether it is stipulated in the service contracts that the contractors shall grant overtime allowance or leave to the cleaning workers in compensation for overtime work; if so, of the details of the stipulation; if not, the reasons for that;
(d)	whether they have reviewed the existing monitoring mechanism on contractors' fulfilment of their commitment on workers' wages; if they have, of the areas identified for improvement; and
(e)	whether they have considered imposing heavier penalties on those contractors who are found to have wrongfully deducted workers' wages and leave benefits; if they have, of the details of consideration; if they have not, the reasons for that?

(a)	the respective numbers of cases reported and settled each year, broken down by sectors; and
(b)	the longest, shortest and average processing time taken in the above cases, broken down by cases settled or otherwise; the highest, lowest, average and total compensation amount (for settled cases) and the claim amount (for unsettled cases) involved; and the reasons for the cases not having been settled?

(a)	in respect of secondary and primary schools, of the respective numbers of assault cases reported to the relevant government departments in which teachers and staff were attacked by students in their schools, as well as the numbers of students who were involved and arrested by the Police, in each of the past three years; and
(b)	of the specific measures to help secondary and primary school teachers and staff identify students who have propensity for violence?

(a)	of the number of inspections on factory canteens carried out by the staff of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in each of the past two years;
(b)	of the number of prosecutions, in each of the past two years, against the proprietors of factory canteens for selling or supplying meals to other persons and the penalty imposed on them by the Court; and
(c)	given that business has been difficult for many factory canteens in recent years, whether it will consider amending the legislation to relax the restriction on the customers that factory canteens may serve; if it will, of the relevant legislative timetable; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the numbers of complaints received by the authorities from tourists against the local service industry in each of the past three years, broken down by the nature of complaints and sectors (such as hotels and retail shops etc);
(b)	how the authorities follow up these complaints, and whether they will punish unscrupulous shops;
(c)	whether the authorities have assessed how the substantial increase in the number of complaints mentioned above has affected the local tourist industry and dampened tourists' confidence in shopping at local shops; if so, of the assessment results; if not, the reasons for that; and
(d)	whether the authorities have explored measures to deter these unscrupulous shops from continuing to rip off tourists; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	they have studied the cause of the drastic increase in the number of low income households in the past few years; if so, of the results of the study; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	apart from the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme, there are other measures to relieve the financial hardship of low income households, such as introducing a statutory minimum wage; if so, of the details of such measures; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	they plan to establish a poverty line for reference in implementing policies, with a view to reducing the number of low income households; if so, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the number of cases in the past three months involving Two-Way Permit holders from the Mainland begging in Hong Kong;
(b)	as begging is an offence under the law, of the actions taken by the authorities against such persons; and
(c)	of the measures the authorities have to prevent these people from coming to Hong Kong for begging?