A 03/04-1

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 8 October 2003 at 2:30 pm

(a)	of the respective numbers of applications received and approved in respect of each industry;
(b)	of the number of borrowers who closed down their business after having secured loans; and
(c)	whether it has assessed the effectiveness of the Scheme; if it has, of the outcome of its assessment?

(a)	more effective actions will be taken to combat the increasingly rampant on-street soliciting activities; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(b)	it is a priority task for the Police to combat on-street soliciting activities; if not, of the priority of the Police's task concerned?

(a)	of the total number of fixed penalty notices issued since the fixed penalty for littering was increased to $1,500 on 26 June this year, and the percentage of notices issued to tourists;
(b)	of the aggregate amount of fixed penalties not paid by the tourists served with the said notices before their departure, as at the end of September this year; and
(c)	whether it has received complaints from tourists that the authorities have not promoted awareness of the new penalty for littering; and whether the Government will enhance awareness of the penalty among tourists?

(a)	the number of crackdown operations against illegal workers, the effectiveness of such operations, and the respective numbers of employers and illegal workers convicted;
(b)	the average manpower from the Police and Immigration Department deployed in each crackdown operation against illegal workers, and whether the Government has reviewed the adequacy of the manpower deployed; and
(c)	whether prosecutions have been instituted against those who arranged for Mainland tourists or illegal entrants to work in Hong Kong; if not, of the reasons for that?

(a)	of the annual number of accident and emergency service calls the Government Flying Service responded to in the past two years, together with a breakdown by conditions of patients, as well as the number of non-injury cases;
(b)	whether it knows if the Hospital Authority has issued to the health care personnel specific guidelines on the circumstances in which such accident and emergency services may be used; if so, of the details of the guidelines; and
(c)	whether it has assessed if there has been any abuse of the accident and emergency services provided by the Government Flying Service; if the assessment result is in the affirmative, whether the Government has formulated measures to prevent such abuse and, if so, of the details of the measures; if the assessment result is in the negative, the justifications for that?

(a)	of the total number of public markets/cooked food centres without air-conditioning systems in the territory, and apart from seven of these markets/cooked food centres which will be retrofitted with air-conditioning systems, whether there are plans to retrofit air-conditioning systems for the remaining markets/cooked food centres; if so, of the details;
(b)	as lessees of stalls in 19 public markets/cooked food centres have been consulted on the retrofitting of air-conditioning projects, whether stall lessees of other public markets/cooked food centres without air-conditioning systems had been consulted on the retrofitting works, or made requests for such works in the past three years; if so, of the percentage of lessees supporting the retrofitting works and agreeing to pay the recurrent air-conditioning charges among all stall lessees in the markets/cooked food centres concerned; and
(c)	if the percentage mentioned in item (b) above falls short of the 85% required by the authorities, of the authorities' measures, broken down by market/cooked food centre, to address the issue of air-conditioning in the markets/cooked food centres concerned?

(a)	whether there are any HOS sites that are left unattended after construction works have commenced due to the authorities' decision to cease the production of HOS flats; if so, of the number of sites involved and the remedies to be made by the authorities;
(b)	whether due to the change in HOS policy, the authorities have failed to fulfil their contractual obligation of providing the lists of eligible HOS applicants to developers of the Private Sector Participation Scheme within 20 months after consent notices for pre-sale of uncompleted flats and Letters of Satisfaction have been granted; if so, of the respective numbers of such cases and the flats involved and, among them, the respective numbers of those cases brought to the court by the developers and the flats involved; and
(c)	whether the authorities have assessed the aforesaid situations before deciding to cease the production and sale of HOS flats; if so, of the assessment results; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the total number of projects approved under "Head 710 - Computerisation" of the Capital Works Reserve Fund since the financial year 1999-2000 to the present; and the respective numbers of projects commenced in each financial year; and
(b)	among the projects approved under the above Head, of those which have been completed, which are yet to commence, which have been completed ahead of schedule and which are behind schedule, and the reasons for their lagging behind schedule?

(a)	of the number of elderly persons (i.e. those aged 60 or above) who were given influenza vaccinations by the Department of Health last year, and its percentage in the elderly population; whether it will provide influenza vaccination for all elderly persons and other high risk groups as recommended by WHO; if so, of the costs required; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	whether it has statistics on the amount of public health care expenditure incurred in treating influenza and its complications and the number of deaths caused by such diseases each year and assessed, on the basis of these figures, the cost-effectiveness of providing vaccinations for all elderly persons and other high risk groups; if so, of the assessment results; and
(c)	whether it knows the percentage in the total population of those persons who have received influenza vaccination this year; whether it has formulated specific guidelines and programmes to be implemented by public and private medical institutions, for increasing the vaccination coverage and taking measures to ensure an adequate supply of vaccine?

(a)

although the KCR Corporation has indicated that the piece of vacant land adjacent to Hong Kong Management Association David Li Kwok Po College at Hoi Ting Road in Mong Kok West has been reserved for the construction of a community centre, it is not suitable for constructing a KSL station, whether the Government will ask the KCR Corporation to consider constructing the station on the vacant land with the community centre on top of it; and

(b)

whether the KCR Corporation has conducted a feasibility study on construction of a station beneath the above vacant land; if it has, of the findings; if it has not, the reasons for that?

(a)	the number of flights with aircraft noise levels which exceeded 75 decibels during the above hours, as recorded at the Caribbean Coast, the Seaview Crescent and Park Island in the past 15 months, and their take-off and landing times; and
(b)	the measures the Administration will take to minimise the nuisance caused by aircraft noise to residents living in the above estates, including measures such as plans to prohibit aircraft from using the eastern runways at the airport for taking-off and landing and using the north-eastern flight path during the said hours?

(a)	of the reasons for replacing the existing stock of anti-riot gear;
(b)	whether the march on 1 July was one of the reasons for the Administration's decision to procure a large quantity of anti-riot gear; if so, of the details of its considerations;
(c)	how the newly procured riot helmets differ from the existing stock in terms of functions;
(d)	whether the newly procured CS cartridge is more powerful than that of the existing stock; if so, whether the guidelines on the use of anti-riot gear will be tightened up; if such guidelines will not be tightened up, of the reasons for that;
(e)	of the circumstances under which the newly procured anti-riot gear will be used; and
(f)	of the amount of public expenditure incurred in such procurement?

(a)	of the follow-up action to be taken and the procedures and time normally required by various departments concerned upon the lifting of the entry/exit restriction on a particular person; and the number of cases in which such follow-up procedures took longer time in the past three years and the respective reasons for that;
(b)	whether it has received, in the past three years, any complaints about the Immigration Department's failure to update the information in its boundary control point computer systems, which affected or caused delays to the departure or entry of persons whose entry/exit restrictions had been lifted; if so, of the number of such complaints and the causes of such situations; whether it compensates those persons who suffer pecuniary loss because of such delays; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	whether it plans to review the follow-up procedures mentioned in item (a) above; if it has, of the details and time frame of the plans concerned; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the total amount of football bets received by the conductor since it started to accept such bets;
(b)	of the total amount of provisional payments the conductor has paid to the Government so far;
(c)	whether the conductor has placed hedging bets with authorized overseas bookmakers since it started to accept football bets; if so, of the amount of hedging bets placed on each occasion;
(d)	of the respective numbers of operations carried out by the Police against illegal football betting activities between August and September in 2002 and the corresponding period in 2003;
(e)	of the total number of persons who have received treatment for pathological gambling behaviour since the conductor started to accept football bets; and
(f)	whether it will consider discussing with the conductor the possibility of allocating additional resources and setting up more counselling centres to help pathological gamblers in Hong Kong?

(a)	whether there are any "permitted teachers" among the new teachers in the current school year; if so, of the details and the follow-up measures taken by the authorities;
(b)	of the number of teaching vacancies available for application in Hong Kong in the current school year; the number of surplus teachers who have yet to secure a teaching post at present, and the employment situation of the fresh graduates of HKIEd; and
(c)	how long has the over-supply of teachers existed; the supply and demand of teachers during that period, broken down by school year; and the measures taken by the authorities to prevent the recurrence of a surplus of teachers?

(a)	it has assessed or will assess the probability of such an occurrence in Hong Kong;
(b)	it has reviewed, in collaboration with the two electricity companies, the reliability of Hong Kong's electricity supply systems, in order to ensure that there are adequate safeguards against blackouts and that emergency measures have been formulated to minimize economic losses arising from blackouts; and
(c)	there are adequate backup power generators installed in public hospitals, the airport, the railway and tram systems to sustain normal operations during a blackout?

(a)	the current number of Mainlanders serving sentences in Hong Kong and, among them, the number of those who were sentenced for offences under the Immigration Ordinance, broken down by gender, offence committed and term of imprisonment;
(b)	the current average daily cost of detaining a Mainlander in Hong Kong; and
(c)	the progress of the discussion between the Administration and the Mainland authorities concerned on the arrangement for the repatriation of Mainland prisoners to serve their sentences in their places of origin?

(a)	the annual number of "repossessed flats" on sale in the market in the past three years;
(b)	the measures the Government has in place to help "negative-equity property" owners in relieving the burden on mortgage interests and restructuring their debts;
(c)	the number, in each of the past three years, of "negative-equity property" owners who had mortgage rates reduced by their mortgagee banks, and the magnitude of the reduction; and
(d)	the current number of residential mortgage agreements the mortgage rates of which are still above BLR?

(a)	inform this Council whether it knows the current number of courses on intermediary qualifying examinations which are recognized by the Securities and Futures Commission;
(b)	set out in table form the organizing institution, fees, contact hours, commencement date and timetable of each of these courses, and the appropriate qualifying examinations to be taken after completing these courses;
(c)	set out in table form the respective organizing institutions, fees, examination dates and time, examination structure and format, as well as the entry requirements, of the various intermediary qualifying examinations;
(d)	compare the fees for the above courses and licence application with those in the Mainland; and
(e)	compare the fees for various courses, examinations and licence application with those prior to the commencement of the Ordinance?

1. Calling on the Chief Executive Mr TUNG Chee-hwa to step down
   
   Hon Emily LAU: (Translation)
   
   That, as there has been retrogression in human rights, the rule of law and economic development in Hong Kong and democratization of the political system has remained stagnant under the administration of the Chief Executive Mr TUNG Chee-hwa, prompting the public to make repeated demands for him to step down, this Council calls on Mr TUNG to take the responsibility and resign in accordance with the wishes of the people.
   
   

   Public Officers to attend

   :

   Chief Secretary for Administration Financial Secretary Secretary for Justice Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Secretary for Education and Manpower Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Secretary for the Civil Service Secretary for Home Affairs Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Secretary for Security Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology

2. Facing up to the transport needs of people with disabilities
   
   Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung: (Translation)
   
   That this Council expresses strong dissatisfaction with the failure of the government departments concerned to face up to the transport needs of people with disabilities and give full effect to the relevant motion passed by this Council in the 2002-03 session, and demands the Administration to act immediately to press various public transport operators to offer half-fare concessions to people with disabilities and to improve their facilities so as to reduce the barriers to them, as well as to expeditiously improve the Rehabus service.
   
   Public Officer to attend: Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works