A 03/04-29

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 19 May 2004 at 2:30 pm

(a)	of the respective numbers of helping business initiatives studied and implemented so far, broken down by trade;
(b)	whether it has assessed the effectiveness of the above initiatives, and whether there were initiatives not utilized by the industries; if there were, of the initiatives involved; and
(c)	of the annual expenditure of the above Programme, and whether it has assessed the effectiveness of the Programme for the operation of the commerce and industry sectors; if it has, of the assessment results; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	the details of the above programme, including the names of estates and the number of tenants affected as well as the expenditure involved, etc.; and whether the programme will replace the existing public housing redevelopment programme; if it will, of the reasons for that;
(b)	the measures to assist those tenants who will be affected and have to be temporarily transferred to other flats; and
(c)	whether the rent of the rehabilitated public housing flats will be increased?

(a)	of the respective current numbers of rural schools which are still in operation and those which have been closed throughout the territory;
(b)	whether the premises of the rural schools which have been closed have been put to other uses; if so, of the respective numbers of school premises left vacant and those put to other uses; and
(c)	of the policy for disposing of the premises and land of the rural schools which have been closed?

(a)	whether it has formulated contingency plans to tackle the scenario that construction of the canopy involves great technical difficulties or is too costly; if so, of the details of the plans; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	whether it has assessed, in case it is eventually decided that the canopy will not be provided, if the land earmarked for commercial uses can be sold in divided lots by auctions, with a view to generating more revenue; if so, of the assessment results; and
(c)	whether, in view of the recent improvement in its financial position, it will consider dropping the approach of awarding the construction and operation of the entire project to a single developer, and providing the relevant cultural facilities with government funding; if so, of the progress of its consideration; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	in terms of the effectiveness in preventing conflict of interests, how placing the assets of the CE and POs in a "family trust" compares with placing them in a "blind trust", as well as the rationale for the conclusions drawn therefrom;
(b)	of the measures to ensure that the setting up of "family trusts" can prevent the CE and POs from having conflict of interests in discharging official duties; and
(c)	whether they will reconsider requiring that the trusts set up by the CE and POs to prevent conflict of interest have to be "blind trusts"; if so, of the details of the relevant requirements; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the respective numbers of persons arrested, prosecuted and convicted for buying or selling illicit cigarettes, with a breakdown of the persons convicted by the penalty imposed on them, the number of non-Hong Kong residents convicted for selling illicit cigarettes, broken down by the types of travel documents they held, and the quantity of illicit cigarettes seized at retail level, in each of the past five years;
(b)	of the current black spots where illicit cigarettes are sold; and
(c)	whether it has reviewed the reasons for the relevant departments' failure to curb illicit-cigarette trading activities so far, and whether it has formulated measures to step up efforts in combating such activities, such as enhancing the exchange of intelligence with law enforcement agencies on the Mainland?

(a)	of the number of detected criminal cases involving non-organized counterfeiting of currency with computer equipment in domestic premises over the past three years, broken down by age of suspects;
(b)	how the number of such criminal cases in the first four months of this year compares to that of the same period last year, and whether there is a trend of drastic increase; and
(c)	whether it has plans to enhance the education and publicity activities to advise young people not to commit such crimes; if so, of the details; if not, whether it will consider implementing the relevant plans?

(a)	the number of meetings held;
(b)	the manner in which cases were reviewed, the number of such cases and their percentage among the total number of cases in the areas concerned;
(c)	the number and details of problematic cases requiring follow-up;
(d)	the impacts of the procedures of the problematic cases found by PRP to be requiring improvements on the original ruling on those cases; and
(e)	whether reviews have been conducted on the operation of PRP to achieve its aim of providing adequate checks and balances on the measures of SFC; if so, of the results; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the respective current numbers of low-floor buses in the franchised bus companies' fleets;
(b)	of the total number of low-floor buses at present servicing Tin Shui Wai routes, their daily frequencies and such frequencies expressed as a percentage of the relevant total; and
(c)	whether it has requested the franchised bus companies to bring in more low-floor buses; if it has, of the details of the request; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the countries that have adopted the "standards-referencing" approach and how the candidates assessed in that way can find out the academic standard they have attained compared to other candidates;
(b)	of the measures in place to ensure students' knowledge of modern and traditional classics following the abolition of the test in prescribed text; and
(c)	given the differences between the standards of students' performance in different schools, how HKEAA will ensure that, in implementing the above measure of increasing the weighting of candidates' school-based assessment, such assessment results can reflect the academic performance of school candidates, and whether this measure will also be applicable to private candidates; if so, of the details of such application?

(a)	of the number of complaints received in the past three years by the relevant authorities about the covers or contents of newspapers and magazines, together with a breakdown by the subjects of complaint;
(b)	how the relevant authorities have followed up these complaints, and the penalties imposed on those persons in charge of the newspapers and magazines found guilty; and
(c)	whether the operation and effectiveness of the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (Cap. 390) have been reviewed, particularly whether the Ordinance can handle the practice of conveying an erotic flavour on the covers of magazines targeted at young people?

(a)	whether it has reviewed the above situation; if so, of the results;
(b)	as an organization intends to hold a procession on July 1 this year, of the contingency measures it will take to avoid the recurrence of such situation; and
(c)	whether it will monitor the network load of various mobile telecommunications networks during the peak transmission periods of voice communications and short text messages (e.g. during Chinese New Year, Christmas and New Year Eve, etc.), and of the co-ordination measures it will take to reduce the inconvenience of network congestion to users?

(a)	they have reviewed the functions and powers of the Office; if so, of the outcome of review; and
(b)	they will consider amending The Ombudsman Ordinance (Cap. 397) to expand the functions and powers of the Office; if so, whether relevant monitoring measures will also be put in place to prevent the Office from abusing its powers?

(a)	of the total number of applications received since the launching of the Funding Scheme for Workplace English Training in 2000; among these applications, the number of those approved and the total amount of grants involved;
(b)	whether it has collected feedback from various sectors on the effectiveness of the Scheme; if so, of the feedback collected and the criteria adopted by the authorities for assessing the effectiveness of the Scheme;
(c)	as the Scheme will cease receiving applications from individual employees or from companies on behalf of their employees for grants to attend English training courses offered in the market with effect from 1 January 2005 or until all the remaining funds have been earmarked for the applications, whichever occurs earlier, whether the authorities have plans to extend the above application deadline; if not, whether they will introduce a new funding scheme to replace the one in question; and
(d)	of the plans to raise the English standard of the employees in tourism and retail industries?

(a)	the number of complaints about beauty products that the relevant government departments and the Consumer Council received in each of the past two years, together with a breakdown by the subjects of complaint, as well as the percentage of those which involved beauty products with claims of slimming effect; and
(b)	how these authorities have followed up the complaints, and whether they have ordered the sellers to recall questionable products?

(a)	whether it knows if the management company of the Avenue of Stars has plans to carry out regular maintenance and repair works to the Avenue; if so, of the details and the estimated annual expenditure on such works;
(b)	whether it knows if the management company will keep closer watch on visitors to prevent them from causing damage to this tourist attraction; if so, of the details; and
(c)	whether it has assessed the impact of the damage to the Avenue of Stars on the image of Hong Kong; if so, of the assessment results?

(a)	why the Housing Department ("HD") has not started the repair works yet and when such works will commence;
(b)	whether it has examined if there are signs of loose tiles on the walls of the corridors in the remaining buildings of the same housing estate; if it has, of the results of the examination; and
(c)	whether the problem of falling tiles is related to the quality of the materials and the workmanship; if so, whether it will recover the losses from the materials suppliers or contractors concerned through legal proceedings, of the other relevant housing estate projects which have been contracted to these suppliers and contractors, and whether HD has examined the tiles on the walls of the corridors in those housing estates, or requested the personnel concerned to provide relevant data, to ensure that those housing estates do not have the same problem?

(a)	it conducted studies on the air quality of markets in the past three years; if so, of the results;
(b)	it will step up the cleaning work for the air-conditioning and ventilation systems in the markets under its management; and
(c)	it will consider installing independent ventilation systems for poultry stalls in the markets under its management to improve the air quality there?

1. Anti-gambling
   
   Dr Hon TANG Siu-tong: (Translation)
   
   That, as the forthcoming UEFA European Championship finals are likely to attract more people, particularly young people, to participate in football betting, this Council urges that the Administration should, in addition to strengthening its efforts in combating illegal gambling, immediately collaborate with relevant bodies and organizations to step up publicity and education, and formulate other long-term measures to foster an anti-gambling culture and prevent people from indulging in gambling; at the same time, the Administration should also allocate more resources to enhance the counselling and treatment services for problem and pathological gamblers and their families.
   
   

   Amendments to Dr Hon TANG Siu-tong's motion
   (i)	Hon Andrew CHENG: (Translation) To add ", including specifying in the Betting Duty Ordinance the types of football matches on which bets may be accepted by the licensed operator and requiring, through administrative measures, that in future any new football betting options may only be introduced after the consent of the Panel on Home Affairs of this Council and the Football Betting and Lotteries Commission has been obtained, so as" after "long-term measures".
   (ii)	Hon Tommy CHEUNG: (Translation) To delete "an anti-gambling" after "long-term measures to foster" and substitute with "a"; to add "that is conducive to regulating gambling" after "culture"; to add "review the operation of the Ping Wo Fund, optimize the use of existing resources and" after "the Administration should also"; and to add "as necessary" after "allocate more resources".

   Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Home Affairs
   
   
2. Regretting the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to rule out universal suffrage in the years 2007 and 2008
   
   Hon Albert HO: (Translation)
   
   That, in view of the objection of the people of Hong Kong at large to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress ("NPCSC") to rule out flatly the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage in the year 2007 and the election of all the Members of the Legislative Council ("LegCo") by universal suffrage in the year 2008 in Hong Kong, and to maintain the existing ratio between LegCo Members returned by functional constituencies and Members returned by geographical constituencies through direct elections, as well as the procedures of separate voting on bills and motions introduced by individual Members, this Council considers that the decision of NPCSC completely ignores Hong Kong people's general aspirations for democracy; this Council expresses regret about and dissatisfaction with such decision, and calls upon the people of Hong Kong to continue striving for democracy with all might and never give up.
   
   Amendment to Hon Albert HO's motion
   Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung: (Translation)
   
   To delete "; this Council" after "general aspirations for democracy" and substitute with "and"; and to add "; this Council urges the Chief Executive to request the State Council to propose to NPCSC the withdrawal of the above decision" after "dissatisfaction with such decision".
   
   

   Public Officers to attend

   :

   Secretary for Justice Secretary for Constitutional Affairs