A 07/08-8

Legislative Council

Agenda

Wednesday 21 November 2007 at 11:00 am

(a)	of the respective types, luminous efficacies and average service lives of the luminous devices currently used in various kinds of public lighting systems in Hong Kong; and whether it has any plan to switch to more energy-efficient luminous devices; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	as a study on the adoption of light-emitting diode streetlights in Hong Kong is being arranged, of the details, including the timetable and completion date, of the study; and
(c)	whether it has drawn up other measures to reduce the electricity consumption of public lighting systems; if it has, of the details?

(a)

whether it has collected statistics on the number of existing LPG taxis in Hong Kong which emit excessive air pollutants owing to poor maintenance; and

(b)

in addition to its plan to strengthen the control of emissions from LPG vehicles with the deployment of roadside remote sensors and chassis dynamometers to test vehicular emissions, of the measures the Government will consider taking to reduce the emission of air pollutants from LPG taxis; and whether it has any plan to encourage regular maintenance of LPG taxis by their owners; if it has, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	whether they have undertaken preparatory work since November 2000 for introducing amendments to the aforesaid two ordinances; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	apart from making a provision in the Race Discrimination Bill to extend the coverage of unlawful sexual harassment in the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, whether the authorities have decided to legislate in respect of the other proposals to which they have no objection in principle; if so, of the details; and
(c)	whether they will introduce the relevant legislative amendments into this Council in the current legislative session; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	in the past three years, of the number of cases in which the Police took follow-up actions in response to the complaints they received through e-mail, and the number of complaints the Government had received which concerned contents of newspaper articles or reports involving criminal violence;
(b)	whether the Police were concerned about the above complaint and took follow-up actions because the complainant is a public figure; if not, how the Police verified the identity of the complainant to ascertain that such a person had lodged the complaint and conducted the investigation accordingly; and whether the Police, in conducting their investigation, had at the same time considered the above complainant's act of lodging the complaint more than a year after the article had been published; and
(c)	whether it has assessed if the Police had infringed freedom of the press in exercising their power to investigate the media organization in the above case and the impact of such action on freedom of the press and the international image of Hong Kong?

(a)	given that some DC election candidates have printed on their promotion banners and leaflets their photos taken with principal officials, whether the Chief Executive and principal officials have authorized any candidates to do so; if they have, of the list of candidates who have been authorized; if not, whether it will draw up measures to prevent candidates from misleading, by so doing, members of the public into thinking that they have the backing of principal officials to stand for the election;
(b)	whether the Chief Executive and the principal officials have participated in any candidate's electioneering activities during the DC election and since the beginning of the LegCo by-election nomination period; if they have, of the details; and
(c)	of the number of LegCo by-election candidates who have requested to meet with principal officials so far and whether they have all been received by the officials concerned; if not, of the reasons for that?

(a)	of the respective numbers of civil servants and NCSC staff in the professional grades (e.g. lawyers, accountants and engineers, etc.) in various government departments at present;
(b)	following last year's review, whether the Government will conduct another review of the current employment situation of NCSC staff and consider converting more or even all NCSC positions in the professional grades to civil service posts, so as to enhance the job stability of such professionals and boost their morale; and
(c)	whether the Government will, in the light of the situation of an increasingly serious shortage of talents in the market, consider granting more substantial pay increases to NCSC staff in the professional grades in order to retain talents?

(a)	of the parties responsible for meeting the above expenditures, broken down by the mode of subvention of the schools and level of their curricula, and which of these items involve government loans;
(b)	in respect of each item in (a), of the respective total amounts of expenditures, loans granted, interests paid and principals repaid in respect of each school year since 2000; and
(c)	of the vetting and approving criteria, terms of repayment and the mechanism for setting interest rates where such expenditures involve government loans?

(a)	requiring FDHs to provide fingerprints for processing and approving their visa applications so as to facilitate verification against relevant government records, thereby preventing FDHs with criminal records in Hong Kong from obtaining work visas using another identity; if it will, of the details of implementing the relevant measures; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	amending the relevant legislation to stipulate that only people with no criminal records in Hong Kong will be granted work visas; if it will, of the specific details of the work in amending the relevant legislation; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c)	reviewing the above standard employment contract and making appropriate amendments to enable the terms contained therein to be consistent with the requirements in the Employment Ordinance; if it will, of the details of the work in conducting the relevant review and making the amendments; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the respective funding provisions for and donations obtained from the community by each of the following hospitals in each of the past five years: Funding provisions allocated by the hospital cluster concerned Total amount of donations received Respective amounts of the five largest donations received Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital Ruttonjee Hospital Queen Mary Hospital Queen Elizabeth Hospital United Christian Hospital Tseung Kwan O Hospital Yan Chai Hospital Caritas Medical Centre Princess Margaret Hospital Kwong Wah Hospital Prince of Wales Hospital North District Hospital Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital Pok Oi Hospital Tuen Mun Hospital
(b)	whether the Hospital Authority has issued any guidelines on the usage of donations by hospital clusters and hospitals within their purview; and
(c)	as some doctors have relayed to me that public hospitals are presently required to pass all the donations they have raised to their respective hospital clusters for reallocation, whether the Government is aware of this arrangement and whether it has assessed if the arrangement will hamper the desire of people in the community to make donations?

(a)	among the demand notes issued by the Government in the past three years, of the percentage of those with payers' names and addresses printed in English only, as well as the names of the government departments involved; and
(b)	whether it will consider issuing demand notes printed only in Chinese to all recipients, except for a minority of the recipients who do not understand Chinese; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

(a)	of the number and percentage of non-local students who took up employment in Hong Kong upon graduation from local tertiary institutions in the total number of non-local graduates in each of the past five years, and the number of those who remain in Hong Kong at present;
(b)	whether it has conducted any study to find out the reasons for non-local students choosing to leave Hong Kong after graduation and not to pursue employment here; if it has, of the results;
(c)	whether it has assessed if the relaxation of employment restrictions alone will result in a significantly higher retention rate of non-local students upon graduation, or whether additional steps will need to be taken to retain such graduates; if it has, of the results; and the relevant steps the Government is contemplating;
(d)	whether it has assessed if a significant shortfall in student hostel places will affect Hong Kong's ability to raise the number of non-local students in publicly-funded tertiary education programmes from 10% to 20% of the approved student number targets for such programmes, as stated in the new government policy; and
(e)	whether it has considered inviting the private sector to run student hostels on a commercial basis, to complement the provision of publicly-funded hostel places; if it has, of the results?

(a)	whether it has drawn up measures to monitor the progress in the development of TIS so as to ensure that the system will be completed in February 2008 as scheduled; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b)	whether it has drawn up details of and timetables for the work of the next stage in respect of IRN and PTIS; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(c)	given the frequent occurrence of traffic accidents involving pedestrians and increasing prevalence of radio communications, whether the Government will consider the feasibility of deploying the centralized data warehouse of TIS to issue alerts immediately to road users about the detected road conditions, with a view to reducing traffic accidents; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(d)	of the means to publicize and educate the public, particularly the elderly, on using PTIS, as well as the timetable and details of such efforts?

(a)

of the percentage of properties for which government rent is also payable in the total number of rateable private properties at present; and

(b)

given that in his 2007-2008 Policy Address, the Chief Executive announced that the rates for the last quarter of this financial year would be waived subject to a ceiling of $5,000 for each rateable tenement, whether the Government has examined if this is fair to the property owners who have to pay both government rent and rates; of the percentage of private properties in respect of which the amount of waived rates for the last quarter is less than $5,000 in the total number of rateable private properties; whether it will consider waiving both the rates and government rent at the same time, subject to a ceiling of $5,000 for the total amount of money waived per tenement, so as to increase the amount of benefits for the property owners concerned; if such a consideration will not be made, of the reasons for that; and the estimated amount of government revenue foregone as a result of the above measure of waiving both the rates and government rent?

(a)	whether it knows the number of primary and secondary students seeking emotional counselling from school social workers in the past two years, with a breakdown by their reasons for seeking assistance;
(b)	of the authorities' existing policy on providing emotional counselling services for primary and secondary students;
(c)	apart from the counselling services provided by school social workers, whether activities on emotional health are being organized regularly for primary and secondary students;
(d)	whether it has estimated the percentage of students currently having emotional problems in the total number of primary and secondary students; and
(e)	whether it will consider providing additional resources for promoting emotional health among students?

(a)	of the respective percentages of successful applications submitted by schools and non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") in the total number of applications in the 2006-2007 school year, and the reasons for not approving the remaining applications, and of the respective numbers and percentages of schools and students benefited and the number of participating NGOs in each district, broken down by the type of school and the district where the school is located;
(b)	whether it has assessed if the revised mode of funding adopted in the 2006-2007 school year can facilitate the organizations concerned in providing support services to poor students in districts where there are relatively more such students, and establishing support networks; if it can, of the details, and how such networks can serve the purpose of reducing inter-generational poverty; if it cannot, the reasons for that;
(c)	of the results of its evaluation of the effectiveness of the SALS Programmes so far since their implementation, including the nature and forms of the activities, the average amount of grant per student, the participation and completion rates, the views of the relevant stakeholders (including school principals, teachers, students, parents, front-line social workers and heads of NGOs), and the effectiveness of the Programmes in alleviating poverty; and
(d)	whether it will consider increasing the amount of the annual recurrent provision for the SALS Programmes, and relaxing the restrictions on the items for which the grant can be used (e.g. allowing schools to provide assistance in kind to poor students)?

(a)	whether there was a shortfall in the physiotherapy service provided by public hospitals in the past three years;
(b)	in respect of the past three years, the percentage of elderly persons among those receiving physiotherapy treatment in public hospitals, the number of elderly persons in need of such service each year, and their average waiting time;
(c)	the average charges for physiotherapy service in the private sector at present, and the estimated percentage of public hospital patients turning to the private sector for physiotherapy service as a result of excessively long waiting time; and
(d)	whether the Hospital Authority will enhance the physiotherapy service in public hospitals to alleviate the financial burden on patients (particularly the elderly) who have to use the service in the private sector due to excessively long waiting time at public hospitals?

(a)	why it has not consulted the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene of this Council on the above new policy before its implementation;
(b)	of the justifications for implementing such policy; and
(c)	whether it has assessed if such policy is fair to other food premises; if it is not fair, of the ways of improvement; if it is fair, the reasons for that?

(a)	consulted the Central and Western District Council ("DC") and Wan Chai DC on the above idea; if so, of the details of the consultation, and whether the two DCs support the idea;
(b)	assessed the costs required for the works in connection with the above idea; if so, of the details; and
(c)	considered developing pedestrian footbridge systems in other districts apart from Central and Western District, Wan Chai and Mong Kok; if so, of the details?

(a)	of the respective numbers of traffic accidents involving franchised and non-franchised buses, taxis and public light buses in the past three years, and among such accidents, the numbers of those involving drivers with poor physical or mental conditions (including having insufficient sleep or feeling drowsy);
(b)	of the number of complaints received by the Government involving the leave arrangements for franchised bus drivers in each of the past three years;
(c)	given that the authorities have indicated, in a paper submitted for the meeting of the Panel on Transport of this Council held on 23 March this year, that it is currently reviewing with the franchised bus companies the Guidelines on Working Schedule for Franchised Bus Drivers to see what practical improvements can be arranged in scheduling the rest-time of bus captains, of the results of the review and the details of the relevant improvement measures; and
(d)	whether the Government will consider amending the legislation to make it mandatory for drivers aged 50 or above to undergo physical examination upon renewal of their driving licences; if so, of the details?

(a)	they will stipulate the caps on the total greenhouse gas emissions from power companies by way of legislation; if not, of the reasons for that;
(b)	it is a common practice among the international community to stipulate the caps on the total emissions of air pollutants from power companies by way of legislation; if so, of the details; and
(c)	they have compared the merits and demerits of regulating the caps on the total emissions of air pollutants from power companies by way of legislation and by way of agreements; if so, of the outcome?

1. Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
   
   Hon SIN Chung-kai to move the following motion:
   
   RESOLVED that in relation to the Securities and Futures (Contracts Limits and Reportable Positions) (Amendment) (No. 2) Rules 2007, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 198 of 2007 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 31 October 2007, the period for amending subsidiary legislation referred to in section 34(2) of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 1) be extended under section 34(4) of that Ordinance to the meeting of 19 December 2007.
   
   
2. Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
   
   Hon SIN Chung-kai to move the following motion:
   
   RESOLVED that in relation to the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Regulation (Commencement) Notice, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 202 of 2007 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 31 October 2007, the period for amending subsidiary legislation referred to in section 34(2) of the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 1) be extended under section 34(4) of that Ordinance to the meeting of 19 December 2007.
   
   
3. Preventing cancer
   
   Hon LI Kwok-ying: (Translation)
   
   That, as cancer has become the number one cause of death of Hong Kong people, but they generally know very little about cancer and neglect the importance of improving their life style, taking injections of effective vaccines and undergoing regular screening tests to prevent and detect cancer at an early stage, thus causing delay in treating the disease and affecting the efficacy of treatment, this Council urges the Government to:
   
   

   (a)	launch a community-wide cancer screening programme for colorectal and breast cancers, etc, and encourage people to undergo regular screening tests;
   (b)	introduce a vaccination programme for cervical cancer to reduce its incidence rate;
   (c)	promote education on different types of cancers, in order to change people's life style and achieve results in prevention; and
   (d)	expedite the collation of data on cancer to effectively monitor the development trend of this disease, and research on the cancer-causing risk factors so that the Government, the medical sector and the general public can grasp in a timely manner the relevant information, which may serve as reference in the formulation of policies and enhance public awareness of cancer.
   Amendments to motion
   (i)	Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki: (Translation) To add "early diagnosis can reduce the death rates of cancer, yet" after "That, as"; to delete "but" after "number one cause of death of Hong Kong people," and substitute with "and"; to delete ", and encourage people to undergo regular screening tests" after "colorectal and breast cancers, etc"; to add "study the offer of financial incentives, such as tax concessions, to encourage and help people to undergo regular medical check-ups; (c)" after "(b)"; to delete the original "(c)" and substitute with "(d)"; to delete "and (d)" after "achieve results in prevention;" and substitute with "(e)"; and to add "; and (f) allocate more resources to train family doctors and enhance the promotion of family medicine concept, so that the public can know more about cancer and receive diagnosis at an early stage through family doctors in the community, thereby greatly increasing the chance of curing cancer" immediately before the full stop. Amendment to Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki's amendment Hon CHEUNG Hok-ming: (Translation) To add "medical check-up vouchers and" after "study the offer of financial incentives, such as"; and to add "promote the use of Chinese medicine in preventing and fighting cancer and strengthen the co-operation between Chinese and Western medical fields to enhance the efficacy of cancer prevention, as well as to" after "allocate more resources to".
   (ii)	Hon Andrew CHENG: (Translation) To add "there is a rising trend in the percentage of deaths caused by cancer, and" after "That, as"; to add "comprehensively review the work in cancer prevention, education, screening and reporting, including" after "this Council urges the Government to"; to delete "launch" after "(a)" and substitute with "reviewing the popularity of the existing Cervical Screening Programme, and in light of the relevant experience, launching"; to delete "encourage" after "colorectal and breast cancers, etc, and" and substitute with "encouraging"; to delete "introduce" after "(b)" and substitute with "studying the introduction of"; to delete "promote" after "(c)" and substitute with "promoting"; to add "reduce cancer-causing factors such as smoking and overweight, and educating people on how to detect early symptoms of cancer, so as to" after "change people's life style and"; to add "and early detection of this disease" after "achieve results in prevention"; to delete "expedite" after "(d)" and substitute with "expediting"; to add ", improving the statistical information system on cancer and encouraging the participation of the private medical sector, in order" after "the collation of data on cancer"; and to delete "and research" after "development trend of this disease," and substitute with "as well as researching".
   (iii)	Hon CHOY So-yuk: (Translation) To add "and the treatment of cancer patients also consumes a lot of resources" after "number one cause of death of Hong Kong people"; to delete "introduce a" after "(b)" and substitute with "launch a free"; to delete "and" after "achieve results in prevention;" and substitute with "(d) review the policies on drug management and subsidy under the current public medical system, so that people will not be deprived of the chance of receiving timely and proper diagnosis, taking injections of vaccines against cancer, and undergoing medical check-ups, etc, due to the lack of financial means, so as to assist them in preventing cancer; and"; and to delete the original "(d)" and substitute with "(e)".

   Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Food and Health
   
   
4. Consolidating the quality of post-secondary education
   
   Dr Hon YEUNG Sum: (Translation)
   
   That, as the over expansion of sub-degree places in recent years has led to varied programme quality and the qualifications not being given due recognition, which have affected the graduates' further studies and employment, this Council urges the Government to expeditiously implement measures to improve the quality of sub-degree education and increase the articulation opportunities for sub-degree graduates, which include:
   
   

   (a)	establishing a transparent quality assurance mechanism to ensure that the admission criteria of sub-degree programmes and exit performance of the graduates meet the required standards, so as to enhance the recognition of sub-degree qualifications;
   (b)	increasing the number of subsidized articulation places in local universities to eliminate the worsening bottleneck in further studies; and
   (c)	improving the Financial Assistance Scheme for Post-secondary Students to enable sub-degree graduates to receive subsidies for enrolment in articulation degree programmes with assured quality and recognized qualifications, so as to increase the articulation opportunities for sub-degree graduates with outstanding performance.
   Amendment to motion Hon TAM Yiu-chung: (Translation) To add "and expeditiously clarifying the level of sub-degree qualifications in the Qualifications Framework and widely publicizing it to the employers," after "meet the required standards,"; to add "and grant scholarships to sub-degree graduates with outstanding performance," after "recognized qualifications,"; to delete "the" after "so as to increase" and substitute with "their"; and to delete "for sub-degree graduates with outstanding performance" immediately before the full stop.

   Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Education