A 03/04-26

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 5 May 2004 at 2:30 pm

(a)	of the respective numbers of students who were granted travel subsidy at full rate and half rate in the last and current school years, and their respective percentages in the total number of students;
(b)	whether it has completed the review on various travel subsidy schemes; if so, of the review results; and
(c)	whether it has discussed with various public transport operators to encourage them to offer fare concessions to all full time students aged 12 or above, so as to alleviate the financial pressure on them?

(a)	of the existing control over the import of beef from countries which have reported cases of cattle being infected with the mad-cow disease;
(b)	of the countries from which the import of beef has been banned in the past five years as well as the relevant dates at which the ban was imposed or lifted, and the countries from which the import of beef has now resumed, together with the respective dates of resumption and the special quarantine requirements that importers have to observe; and
(c)	given that beef import from Japan has been banned in Hong Kong since September 2001 following the discovery of cases of cattle in farms in Japan being infected with the mad-cow disease, whether it knows which countries are still banning the import of Japanese beef?

(a)	whether it knows the number of young people aged between 18 and 25 who participate in football betting activities each time new betting methods are introduced by the HKJC Football Betting Limited, and whether there is an upward trend in such numbers;
(b)	of the measures that have been taken by the company since its operation of football betting activities, to prevent young people aged below 18 from engaging in such activities, including random checks of bettors' proof of identity and verification of the particulars of bettors placing bets through electronic means, etc; if so, of the number of persons prohibited from engaging in such activities as a result of these measures; and
(c)	whether the authorities have conducted surveys on students' participation in football betting activities; if so, of the survey results?

(a)	of HA's criteria and mechanism for determining whether to negotiate with the claimant for out-of-court settlement first, or bring the case directly to the court for its ruling;
(b)	of the number of claims of medical negligence that were settled between HA and the claimants out of court, and the total amount of compensation paid to the claimants, over the past five years; of the number of cases in which the court ruled that HA had to pay compensation and the total amount thereof, with a breakdown showing whether the compensation was borne by HA or the insurer; and
(c)	of the amount of insurance premium paid out by HA to cover the claims of medical negligence in each of the past five years?

(a)	the number of such cases known by the authorities in each quarter of the past two years, as well as the number of those cases in which members of the public were defrauded and the amount of money involved;
(b)	the results of the enforcement actions taken by the Hong Kong authorities and the relevant authorities in other jurisdictions against such cases; and
(c)	the practical and legal difficulties in preventing and punishing such crimes at present, the cooperative efforts made in this regard by the Hong Kong authorities and the enforcement agencies and financial regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions, as well as the areas for improvement in relation to such efforts?

(a)	they know:
	(i)	the details of such complaints;
	(ii)	the number of complaints of this kind received by the Hospital Authority ("HA") and its hospitals in the past three months; and
	(iii)	whether HA will amend the Manual of Good Practices in Medical Records Management to prevent the tampering of patients' medical records; if amendments will be made, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(b)	the Police have commenced investigations into the allegations in the complaints; if not, of the reasons for that?

(a)	the respective numbers of legal aid applications relating to claims of medical negligence received and approved by the Legal Aid Department over the past five years;
(b)	the number of cases among the approved applications that were settled out of court, as well as the total amount of compensation they received; and
(c)	the number and percentage of cases in which judgement was passed in favour of the claimants among the cases determined by the court, and the total amount of compensation awarded?

(a)	of the respective numbers of non-civil service contract staff whose contracts were renewed or otherwise in the past three years;
(b)	for those staff whose contracts have been renewed, whether their remuneration levels have been adjusted; if so, of the rates and amounts of adjustment; and
(c)	whether employees on non-civil service contract terms are entitled to employee benefits?

(a)	the respective numbers of complaints involving KCRC, Light Rail and red minibuses in 2003, broken down by nature of complaint, and the detailed reasons for the increase in the numbers of such complaints over those of 2002; and
(b)	the actions taken to follow up the above complaints, and whether the red minibus drivers who were the subjects of complaints will be punished?

(a)	of the number of reports received by the Police about elderly residents being defrauded of their assets and the total value of the assets involved in each of the past three years;
(b)	of the measures currently taken by the Social Welfare Department to prevent elderly residents from being defrauded of their assets; and
(c)	whether it plans to reinforce efforts to prevent and curb such fraud cases?

(a)	of the numbers of days when principal officials under the accountability system ("accountable officials") were unable to perform their duties due to their taking leave or absence from Hong Kong since the implementation of the system, broken down by post and month, as well as the titles of other accountable officials who temporarily acted on behalf of the absentees;
(b)	of the numbers of occasions when accountable officials temporarily acted on behalf of other accountable officials since the implementation; and
(c)	whether it will consider creating the post of Deputy Secretary under the existing framework?

(a)	the reasons for HA including only the three types of diseases in the Scheme;
(b)	what impact HA expects the Scheme will have on the waiting time of specialist out-patient service; and
(c)	if HA will consider including other chronic diseases in the Scheme?

(a)	the respective numbers of dedicated web-sites which have been newly set up, deleted or terminated over the past 18 months, as well as the total number of dedicated web-sites at present; and
(b)	the criteria for deciding to set up, delete or terminate dedicated web-sites?

(a)	of the risk of Hong Kong being attacked by terrorists;
(b)	of the measures in place to prevent terrorists from launching attacks in Hong Kong; and
(c)	whether it will strengthen security measures to prevent Hong Kong from becoming a target of terrorist attacks; if it will, of the details of such measures; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	it has looked into the reasons for the tenant concerned not cooperating with HD, and whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of issuing the above letters;
(b)	the existing legislation and tenancy agreements of public housing estates empower HD to punish public housing tenants who refuse to cooperate in this regard; if so, of the details; and
(c)	it will put in place a policy to ensure the cooperation of public housing tenants with HD; if so, of the details?

(a)	the number of cancer cases newly diagnosed each year since 2000, together with a breakdown by the types of cancer and the patients' age profile (in age groups each covering five years);
(b)	the types of cancer showing an upward trend in incidence rates in recent years; and
(c)	the trends on cure rates and mortality rates for various types of cancer in recent years?

1. Requesting the Chief Executive to submit a supplementary report to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
   
   Hon Frederick FUNG: (Translation)
   
   That this Council does not accept the report submitted by the Chief Executive ("CE") to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and is dissatisfied with the nine factors proposed therein regarding constitutional reform, as such a move is tantamount to setting up more barricades hindering the implementation of universal suffrage in Hong Kong and hampering the development of democracy; at the same time, this Council urges the CE to consult Hong Kong people immediately and submit a supplementary report which fully reflects the opinions of the public, so as to meet Hong Kong people's expectations of electing the CE and all Legislative Council Members by universal suffrage in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
   
   

   Public Officers to attend

   :

   Chief Secretary for Administration Secretary for Justice Secretary for Constitutional Affairs

   
   
   
2. Curbing domestic violence
   
   Hon Cyd HO: (Translation)
   
   That this Council urges the Administration to make every effort to curb domestic violence, expeditiously amend the Domestic Violence Ordinance, allocate more resources and provide training to enhance the ability of front-line personnel to deal with cases of domestic violence.
   
   

   Amendments to Hon Cyd HO's motion
   (i)	Hon CHAN Yuen-han: (Translation) To delete "make every effort to curb" after "That this Council urges the Administration to" and substitute with "formulate a comprehensive policy to curb"; to add "study the introduction of legislation to prohibit stalking relating to domestic violence and instil into young people, through education, the concept of refraining from using violence to solve family problems, as well as to" after "expeditiously amend the Domestic Violence Ordinance,"; to add "to the high-risk communities" after "allocate more resources"; to add "such as social workers and police officers" after "the ability of front-line personnel"; and to add ", so as to prevent further occurrence of domestic violence" after "to deal with cases of domestic violence".
   (ii)	Hon Miriam LAU: (Translation) To add "and thoroughly review the current counselling methods," after "expeditiously"; to delete "allocate more resources and provide" after "the Domestic Violence Ordinance," and substitute with "take a stronger lead in co-ordinating the efforts of various government departments and voluntary agencies, optimize the use of existing resources before allocating further resources, and step up"; and to add "and vigilance" after "to enhance the ability".
   (iii)	Dr Hon TANG Siu-tong: (Translation) To delete ", allocate" after "the Domestic Violence Ordinance" and substitute with "and review the existing practice adopted by the Police in handling cases of domestic violence so as to protect the victims, as well as to allocate, with respect to the characteristics and needs of individual districts,"; and to delete "domestic violence" after "to deal with cases of" and substitute with "this nature; at the same time, the Administration should join hands with non-governmental bodies in promoting family harmony, proper interpersonal relations and the neighbourhood spirit, so as to strengthen community support for families and stamp down domestic violence through concerted efforts".

   Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food