 |
A 07/08-34
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 25 June 2008 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments | L.N. No.
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|---|
| 1. | Inland Revenue (Double Taxation Relief on Income from Aircraft Operations) (United Mexican States) Order | 172/2008
| | 2. | Inland Revenue (Double Taxation Relief on Income from Aircraft Operations) (Republic of Finland) Order | 173/2008
| | 3. | Specification of Arrangements (Government of the Republic of Finland) (Avoidance of Double Taxation on Income from Aircraft Operation) (Revocation) Order | 174/2008
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Other Papers| 1. | No.99 | - | Report by the Trustee of the Correctional Services Children's Education Trust for the period from 1 September 2006 to 31 August 2007
| (to be presented by Secretary for Security)
| | 2. | No. 100 | - | Airport Authority Hong Kong Annual Report 2007-2008
| (to be presented by the Financial Secretary)
| | 3. | Report of the Bills Committee on Prevention of Bribery (Amendment) Bill 2007
| (to be presented by Hon TSANG Yok-sing, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
| | 4. | Report of the Bills Committee on Revenue Bill 2008
| (to be presented by Hon Andrew LEUNG Kwan-yuen, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
| | 5. | Report of the Bills Committee on Road Traffic Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2008
| | (to be presented by Hon Miriam LAU, Chairman of the Bills Committee)
|
II. Questions
1. Hon WONG Ting-kwong to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the earthquake in Sichuan has prompted the people of Hong Kong to donate money generously for relief work, but there may be lawless elements taking advantage of the situation. It has also been reported that the Police are investigating 12 organizations which have claimed to be raising funds for relief work relating to the earthquake in Sichuan, suspecting that they have carried out unlicensed fund-raising activities. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the progress of investigation into the above 12 cases of suspected unlicensed fund-raising;
| | (b) | of the number of cases of suspected unlicensed fund-raising into which the authorities conducted investigation in the past three years and, among them, the number of substantiated cases of unlicensed fund-raising, as well as the major types of fund raising activities and the total amount of money involved in such cases; and
| | (c) | whether the authorities commence investigation into unlicensed fund-raising activities upon receipt of complaints or on their own initiative, and of the effective measures they currently have in place to prevent members of the public from being deceived into donating money to lawless elements?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Labour and Welfare
2. Hon Andrew LEUNG Kwan-yuen to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that a survey report recently published by an internationally renowned anti-virus software company points out that web sites using domain names ending with ".hk", which are susceptible to viruses and spyware, are the most dangerous in the world, and their security level has dropped drastically by 27 ranks when compared with last year's level. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has ascertained the reasons for the drastic drop in the security level of such web sites, if it has, of the reasons for the drastic drop in the security level (including whether the drop is related to the internal operation of Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited ("HKIRC") which is responsible for the administration of the ".hk" Internet domain names); if it has not, the reasons for that; whether it has assessed the impact of the security problem of such web sites on various sectors of the Hong Kong community; if it has, of the assessment outcome; if not, the reasons for that; and the actions to be taken by the Government to reduce the risks concerned;
| | (b) | how it ensures that HKIRC's administration of the ".hk" Internet domain names meets international standards; whether it knows if HKIRC has provided any guarantee to the users regarding the security level of the domain names; if HKIRC has provided such guarantee, of the details of the guarantee; if not, whether the authorities will require HKIRC to provide a specific guarantee, and whether the authorities have monitored HKIRC's work on a regular basis; and
| | (c) | whether the authorities have accepted the consultant's recommendations mentioned in the Consultation Paper on the Review on Administration of Internet Domain Names in Hong Kong published in May 2007, including the recommendations that HKIRC should establish a new Consultative and Advisory Panel and reduce the number of directors on the Board of HKIRC; if they have, of the transitional arrangements and progress of the restructuring of the Board, and whether the authorities have monitored the implementation of the recommendations by HKIRC and its progress?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development
3. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
It has been learnt that at present a group of graduates from part-time undergraduate degree courses in Chinese medicine are not permitted by the Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board of the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong to take the Chinese Medicine Practitioner ("CMP") Licensing Examination. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it knows the number of the graduates mentioned above; and
| | (b) | the Government will proactively help this group of graduates to obtain permission to take the CMP Licensing Examination; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
4. Hon LEE Wing-tat to ask: (Translation)
The MTR Corporation Limited ("MTRCL") is planning to take forward three property developments at the sites of TW5, TW6 and TW7 at Tsuen Wan West Station of the West Rail. The developments include the construction of 20 residential blocks of 39 to 52 storeys with building heights ranging from 138 to 194 metres, as well as two blocks of hotels. Some of the residential blocks will be constructed in a row along the waterfront promenade, while some others will be spread out in a straight line, and there will also be a total of three groups of paired blocks standing side by side. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it has assessed the impact of such developments after their completion on the air ventilation in the inland areas of Tsuen Wan; if it has, of the results; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | it has assessed the impact on the coastal view of the area to be brought about by the construction of buildings with such heights at the sites along the waterfront, and if the planning policy of constructing low-rise buildings at sites along the waterfront has been violated; and
| | (c) | it will request MTRCL to reduce the scale of such developments and revise the layout and design of the buildings, with a view to minimizing their impact on the air ventilation and coastal view of the area?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Development
5. Hon Alan LEONG Kah-kit to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that the public cargo working areas ("PCWAs") in Kwun Tong and Cha Kwo Ling as well as the scrap metal recovery factory nearby have been causing much nuisance to the residents of the district (e.g. Laguna City) over the years. The Berth Licence Agreements for the two PCWAs will expire next month, yet the authority concerned is planning to extend the operation period of the existing operators for three years and then a refuse transfer station will be built at the Cha Kwo Ling PCWA site. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it will consider withdrawing its plan to extend the operation period of the two PCWAs for three years so as to vacate the land for immediately building a waterfront promenade; if it will not, of the reasons for that;
| | (b) | of the measures in place to address the nuisance caused by the operations of the scrap metal recovery factory and PCWAs to the residents of Laguna City; and
| | (c) | whether it has consulted the residents of the district on its plan to build a refuse transfer station at the Cha Kwo Ling PCWA site; if it has, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that?
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| Public Officers to reply | : | Secretary for Transport and Housing
Secretary for the Environment
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6. Hon CHOY So-yuk to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that on the second day upon his assumption of office in 2005, the Chief Executive visited the Central and Western ("C&W") District, which was then affected by serious flooding, and extended sympathy to the business operators. He pointed out that the Government was concerned about the incident and he had urged the Drainage Services Department ("DSD") to expedite the flood protection works in order to reduce the risk of flooding in future. Last year, the Government also spent over $200 million on the implementation of a drainage improvement works project in the district. However, after the downpour on the seventh of this month, Sheung Wan was still hard hit and the water level there was once chest high. Many dried seafood shops in the district suffered losses of millions of dollars, as their expensive ginseng and dried seafood were totally soaked in water. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it will investigate the above flooding incident to find out if human negligence was involved; if it will, of the details, and if the investigation outcome indicates that human negligence was involved, whether it will consider compensating the affected business operators; if investigation will not be conducted, the reasons for that;
| | (b) | given that the problem of flooding has been troubling business operators of the C&W District, and it has been reported that the stormwater interception drains laying works carried out in the C&W District by DSD can only divert 30% of stormwater, it is expected that the problem of flooding at the district can only be completely solved after the commissioning of the Sheung Wan stormwater pumping station next year, whether DSD had implemented relevant preventive or temporary measures in advance before the torrential rain on the seventh of this month; if it had, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and what short-term and long-term measures the authorities have in place to avoid similar serious flooding incidents in the C&W District during the rainy season this year and in future; and
| | (c) | whether senior government officials have, after the above flooding incident, visited the district to understand the situation; if they have, of the precise time of such visits and the officials involved; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Development
*7. Hon Vincent FANG Kang to ask: (Translation)
The Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment: Requirements for Nutrition Labelling and Nutrition Claim) Regulation 2008 provides for a small volume exemption scheme for food products with annual sales volume not exceeding 30 000 units. The registration fees for small volume items are $345 (for new application) and $335 (for renewal of exemption). The authorities have indicated that the fees are set on a full-cost recovery basis. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the details regarding the handling of the above applications by the authorities, including whether or not capital investment is involved and whether or not designated persons are required to handle these applications, as well as the estimated operation cost per year;
| | (b) | how the authorities arrived at the above fee levels, and whether they have projected the number of types of prepackaged food for which the food trade will apply for small volume exemption each year; if they have, of the information or criteria based on which the projection is made;
| | (c) | given that the above fees are set on a full-cost recovery basis, whether the authorities will raise the fees when the number of applications is lower than their projection, which will lead to the situation of "expenditure exceeding revenue", or lower the fees when the number of applications is higher than their projection, which will lead to an increase in revenue; and whether the authorities have drawn up a mechanism for reviewing the fees; and
| | (d) | whether the authorities will make reference to the current application system for certain commercial documents, such as the Certificate of Origin for textile products, and consider handing over the registration work on small volume exemption to those trade associations which can undertake the work at a lower cost, so as to reduce the Government's administrative expenses?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
*8. Hon TAM Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that due to the rainstorm on the seventh of this month, water and electricity supply to as well as external communication in a number of places on Lantau, such as Tai O, were suspended several days on end, resulting in members of the public criticizing the Government's relief efforts as ineffective. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | why it did not activate the operation of the Emergency Monitoring and Support Centre that day;
| | (b) | why members of the Civil Aid Service were not sent to Tai O to commence relief work until two days later;
| | (c) | given that the National Emergency Plan for the Relief of Disasters on the Mainland provides that the departments under the Ministry of Civil Affairs at county level shall report the preliminary situation of a disaster to their superiors within two hours after its occurrence, whether the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has a similar requirement, e.g. all District Offices are required to report the situation of a disaster to the Government Secretariat within a specific time after its occurrence; if it has, of the details; if not, how it ensures that the Government knows about the situation of a disaster at once, as well as the immediate and actual needs of victims of the disasters; and
| | (d) | whether it has plans to conduct a comprehensive review in the light of the public criticisms about the Government's performance in relief work on this occasion, including the problems of lack of co-ordination among the government departments concerned and delay in activating the emergency co-ordination mechanism, etc., and make reference to the experiences of other regions in the operation of their emergency disaster relief mechanism, in order to perfect the existing mode; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Security
*9. Hon CHAN Yuen-han to ask: (Translation)
A person who is in charge of a school has relayed to me that because the construction of a public housing estate ("PHE") of the Hong Kong Housing Authority ("HA") at a site near the school is in progress, the school premises tremble whenever piling works are carried out every day at noon and in the evening. The noise of the works has also affected students attending classes. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether at present, HA has adopted hydraulic pile jacking across the board, which is more environmentally-friendly and can comparatively reduce the level of disturbances brought by the works, in the construction of its PHEs; if not, of the reasons for that and the HA works projects in which percussive piling is still in use;
| | (b) | in the past three years, whether HA had adopted mitigation measures to abate the nuisance caused to the residents and communities nearby when piling works were carried out at its PHE sites, and whether it had regularly exchanged views with the affected residents and communities on the nuisance caused by the works, so that improvements could be made; and
| | (c) | whether at present, the Education Bureau has set out clear guidelines stipulating that if the noise and nuisance caused to a school premises by piling works have reached a certain level, the school premises will be rendered unsuitable for classes and the authorities and school concerned are required to find alternative venues for students to attend classes; if not, whether the authorities will consider formulating such guidelines?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing
*10. Hon LEUNG Kwok-hung to ask: (Translation)
Some members of the public have relayed to me that the existing Wild Animals Protection Ordinance (Cap. 170) ("the Ordinance") protects wild birds only by banning illegal hunting and possession of hunting appliances, and it does not prohibit the importation and sale of wild birds. At present, with the growing worldwide awareness of wildlife conservation and the emphasis on biodiversity and ecological balance, legislative control and public education in this regard have increasingly been strengthened. For example, in addition to endangered species and valuable and rare species of wild animals, conserved species of wild animals are also included in the conservation projects; the scope of conservation is also expanding continuously, including protecting the wild animals' habitats, prohibiting activities which disturb, abuse, kill, hunt, slaughter, trade, display wild animals, etc., and imposing control over the import/export, feeding and breeding of wild animals. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | in each of the past three years, of the number of cases in which the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department ("AFCD") instituted prosecutions by invoking the Ordinance and the number of convictions among them, the respective numbers of wild birds imported to and traded in Hong Kong, as well as the number of such wild birds which had been inspected by AFCD;
| | (b) | whether it will follow the practice of the European Union to impose a total ban on the sale of wild birds; and
| | (c) | whether the authorities will review and amend the Ordinance, and launch public education to promote protection for wild birds, call on the public to respect the way of life and behaviour of wild birds, and cut back on activities such as "releasing birds to the wild", etc., which encourage the trading of wild birds?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Environment
*11. Hon Andrew CHENG to ask: (Translation)
Under Civil Service Regulation 1291, if a Head of Department ("HoD") considers that an officer is abusing sick leave, he may require the officer to attend a specified government clinic or a clinic of the Hospital Authority or a designated medical officer at these clinics and to obtain a valid sick leave certificate on each occasion the officer wishes to take sick leave, and the sick leave certificates issued by other medical practitioners are not accepted. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the criteria it has adopted for classifying cases where an individual officer "takes sick leave on specific working days frequently", "attends several different medical practitioners for the same illness", and "takes sick leave continually or frequently because of a relatively minor illness", etc., as indications of abuse of sick leave by the officer; if there is no criterion, of its justifications for classifying the above cases as indications of abuse of sick leave by the officer; whether it has consulted the relevant medical organizations before establishing these indications of abuse of sick leave; if not, its justifications for not accepting the sick leave certificates which are issued based on professional diagnosis by the medical practitioners not designated by the Government;
| | (b) | whether it has established a mechanism for officers subject to the Regulation to lodge appeals; if so, of the details of its operation; if not, the reasons for that, and whether there are other channels for reviewing the decisions of HoDs; and
| | (c) | as the departmental management concerned is required to review the cases subject to the Regulation on a quarterly basis, of the details of such reviews, including whether and when the outcome of the completed reviews will be made known to the civil servants subject to the Regulation; if the outcome will not be made known to them, whether the Government will consider so doing to let the officers who have been informed that they are subject to the Regulation know if they are still subject to it?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for the Civil Service
*12. Hon Audrey EU to ask: (Translation)
Some members of the public have relayed to me that the sale of pet birds is against animal rights. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it has compiled statistics on the annual number of pet birds imported into Hong Kong for sale; if it has, of a breakdown of such birds imported last year by bird type; and
| | (b) | it will consider making legislative amendments to ban the commercial sale of pet birds; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
*13. Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
| (a) | the respective amounts of subsidies or loans provided by each University Grants Committee ("UGC")-funded institution for its community college or continuing education arm ("CC/CEA") to operate self-financing sub-degree programmes in each of the past three years; the specific usages of the subsidies or loans, the administrative costs and the interest payable for the loans;
| | (b) | in each of the past three years, the respective amounts of money handed over ("hand-over payments") to the UGC-funded institutions by their CCs/CEAs operating such programmes, the amounts of the administrative costs therein, the percentages of hand-over payments among the total tuition incomes of the CCs/CEAs for the relevant year, and percentages of the hand-over payments among the profits or losses for the relevant year;
| | (c) | how UGC-funded institutions utilize the hand-over payments mentioned in (b);
| | (d) | the criteria adopted by UGC-funded institutions for deciding whether subsidies or loans will be provided to their CCs/CEAs, whether prior approval from UGC is required for such decisions and whether upper limits have been set for the annual amounts of subsidies or loans; and
| | (e) | whether UGC has monitored the provision of subsidies or loans by UGC-funded institutions for their CCs/CEAs to operate self-financing sub-degree programmes; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Education
*14. Hon CHEUNG Hok-ming to ask: (Translation)
Will the Government inform this Council of the following information concerning the concessionary bus fare schemes provided by various franchised bus companies, in the form of the following tables:
| (a) | concessionary Bus-Bus Interchange schemes provided in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (up to 31 March) respectively:
Name of
franchised
bus company | Combination of
route
interchanges | Fare
concession | Average daily number of
trips made by
passengers benefited
from the concession |
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| | (b) | the Same Day Return Discount ("SDRD") provided in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (up to 31 March) respectively to passengers using Octopus cards:
Name of
franchised
bus company | Bus routes for
which SDRD is
available with
the use of
Octopus cards | Fare
concession | Average daily number of
trips made by
passengers benefited
from the concession |
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and
| | (c) | information on the total amount of fare reduction borne by various franchised bus companies as a result of the above concessions?
Name of
franchised
bus company | Total amount of fare reduction | Concessionary
interchange schemes | SDRD with the use
of Octopus cards | | 2006 | 2007 | 2006 | 2007 |
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing
*15. Hon Fred LI to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that when the Hong Kong Agriculture Special Area Corporation ("the Corporation"), formed by pig farmers in Hong Kong, was appointed as the third agent for live pig supply to Hong Kong by the Ministry of Commerce ("MoC") last October, it had undertaken to set up pig farms on the Mainland to raise pigs for supply to Hong Kong. However, to date, the Corporation has yet to honour its undertaking and has only adopted the same practice as that of the other two agents i.e. acquiring pigs from farms for supply to Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
| (a) | it has approached MoC to ascertain how the latter will deal with the Corporation's failure to supply live pigs raised at its own farms to Hong Kong as undertaken so far;
| | (b) | it knows the reasons why the Corporation has not yet supplied live pigs raised at its own farms to Hong Kong;
| | (c) | it has provided assistance to the Corporation in setting up pig farms on the Mainland; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
| | (d) | it has studied whether that the wholesale price of pigs supplied to Hong Kong has not dropped since the introduction of the third live pig agent is attributable to the Corporation's failure to supply to Hong Kong live pigs raised at its own farms; if the study result is in the affirmative, of the solutions in place; if the study result is in the negative, the justifications for that?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
*16. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
Regarding hawker management and control, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the number of complaints relating to "Dai Pai Tongs" received by the authorities in the past three years, with a breakdown by categories of complaints, such as air pollution, noise nuisance, obstruction to public passage, unauthorized expansion of business areas and impact on environmental hygiene, etc.; and among them, the number of substantiated cases, the locations of the "Dai Pai Tongs" involved in such cases and the penalty imposed on the licensees concerned;
| | (b) | given that in reply to my question at the Council meeting on 4 July last year, the Government indicated that it would study how to improve the design of stalls and business environment of the Tung Choi Street Hawker Permitted Places ("Women's Street"), of the improvement measures put in place so far;
| | (c) | given that it has been reported that the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department ("FEHD") admitted that it had reached a consensus with the hawkers at Women's Street that it would, prior to the fire drills conducted by the Fire Services Department at Women's Street, notify the hawkers to remove the objects there, whether FEHD has cancelled such notification arrangement; and
| | (d) | given that in its paper recently submitted to this Council's Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene, the Government has indicated that it is reviewing the policy on hawker licensing, including giving consideration to whether new fixed-pitch hawker licences (including licences for stalls of open-air hawker bazaars and "Dai Pai Tongs") should be re-issued, and it will consult hawker associations and District Councils shortly on its preliminary ideas, of the anticipated time for launching and completing such consultation, whether shop owners or residents affected by Hawker Permitted Places or "Dai Pai Tongs" will be consulted, and when a conclusion will be reached from the review?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
*17. Dr Hon David LI to ask:
Hong Kong has raised over $2 billion to date for relief work following the Sichuan earthquake. According to news reports, reconstruction work will be a multi-year effort and require over 540 billion yuan, indicating that Hong Kong will need to put in place a sustainable infrastructure to support the relief and reconstruction work. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | whether it has provided assistance to the relief work relating to the Sichuan earthquake that is being undertaken by the non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") in Hong Kong that are active on the Mainland; if it has, of the details; and
| | (b) | given the expectation of the Hong Kong community, whether it has plans to facilitate the long-term involvement of the above NGOs in the above reconstruction work on the Mainland, such as helping them to establish contacts with the relevant local communities on the Mainland and mainland government departments; if it has, of the details?
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Public Officer to reply : The Chief Secretary for Administration
*18. Hon Emily LAU to ask: (Translation)
Following the announcement on 7 June that some samples taken from the poultry stalls in Po On Road Market in Sham Shui Po were tested positive of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, the authorities still allowed the sale of live chickens in the remaining markets throughout the territory, and the number of live chickens involved was about 100 000. The authorities took 63 environmental samples from a number of markets on the same day for laboratory tests, and confirmed on 11 June that eight of the chicken faecal samples were tested positive of the H5N1 avian influenza virus. It was not until then that the authorities destroyed all live chickens in markets throughout the territory. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department ("AFCD") cannot locate the source of the infected chickens in question or rule out the possibility that some of them were smuggled into the territory. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
| (a) | given that it has taken as long as five days before the results of the avian influenza virus tests carried out by AFCD were available, and during this period, members of the public might have been infected with the avian influenza virus as a result of consuming chickens carrying the virus but showing no symptom, or exposure to the market environment, whether the authorities will consider carrying out regularly the avian influenza virus rapid tests with results available in just one day, so as to detect the virus as soon as possible and thereby reduce the chance of the public being infected with the virus; if not, of the reasons for that;
| | (b) | of the new measures to intercept the smuggling of chickens into the territory; and whether the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will carry out surprise inspections on live poultry stalls in markets, so as to curb these smuggling activities; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
| | (c) | given that AFCD has adopted measures in various areas to monitor avian influenza, and yet some samples taken from the poultry stalls in markets were tested positive of the H5N1 avian influenza virus, whether the authorities will review if there is any loophole in the mechanism for monitoring avian influenza; if they will not, of the reasons for that; and
| | (d) | given that the Food and Health Bureau advised in November last year that to implement the proposal of central slaughtering of poultry, the authorities were preparing the tendering documentation for the poultry slaughtering and processing plant, conducting the environmental impact assessment concerned and exploring how to reduce the impact of the implementation of central slaughtering on the trade, and they planned to submit the legislative proposal concerned to this Council in early 2008, and as the H5N1 avian influenza virus was recently detected in a number of poultry stalls, of the latest progress of the above work and the timetable concerned?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Food and Health
*19. Hon Frederick FUNG to ask: (Translation)
Some members of the public have recently relayed to me that some of the large parks and leisure grounds (e.g. the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade, etc.) under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department ("LCSD") currently do not have water dispensers installed, and only provide drinks vending machines, causing inconvenience to users of these facilities. On the other hand, earlier on an investigation has found that the bacteria levels in the drinking water from the water dispensers at the parks and sports grounds under LCSD are higher than the standard set by the World Health Organization and the United States for safe drinking water. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
| (a) | of the current percentage of parks and leisure grounds under LCSD at which water dispensers are provided, the factors of consideration for deciding whether or not water dispensers are to be provided at a particular venue, and whether it will provide water dispensers at venues such as the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade, etc.; and
| | (b) | whether last year, the authorities regularly collected water samples for laboratory tests from the water dispensers at the venues under their management; if so, of the test results; if not, the reasons for that; and whether the authorities will, focusing on the results of the above investigation, take measures to safeguard the health of users of the water dispensers (including enhancing sanitization and sterilization of water dispensers, replacing the existing water dispensers with safer new models, and educating members of the public on how to use water dispensers correctly, etc.)?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Home Affairs
*20. Hon LAU Kong-wah to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the public car parks in public housing estates managed by The Link Management Limited ("The Link"), will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
| (a) | the average number of staff at each car park, and whether the authorities concerned have examined if all of the car parks have sufficient manpower to undertake security duties; and
| | (b) | as drivers using the hourly parking spaces in these car parks are required to pay by Octopus card, causing much inconvenience to professional drivers (particularly taxi drivers) who do not have Octopus cards with them, whether The Link has received any such complaints over the past year, and of the ways to address the problem?
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Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Transport and Housing
*For written reply.
III. Bills
Second Reading (Debates to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading
| | 1. | Prevention of Bribery (Amendment) Bill 2007 | : | The Chief Secretary for Administration
| | Other Public Officer to attend | : | Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
| | 2. | Revenue Bill 2008 | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
| | 3. | Road Traffic Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2008 | : | Secretary for Transport and Housing
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IV. Motions
| 1. | Proposed resolution under the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (Transnational Organized Crime) Order, made by the Chief Executive in Council on 8 April 2008, be approved.
| | (The Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters
(Transnational Organized Crime) Order was issued on
18 April 2008 under LC Paper No. CB(3) 536/07-08)
| | 2. | Proposed resolution under the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (Finland) Order, made by the Chief Executive in Council on 22 April 2008, be approved.
| | (The Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters
(Finland) Order was issued on 2 May 2008
under LC Paper No. CB(3) 581/07-08)
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V. Members' Bills
Second Reading (Debate to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Amendment) Bill 2008 : Hon Abraham SHEK
VI. Members' Motions
Proposed resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance
Hon LEE Cheuk-yan to move the following motion:
RESOLVED that the Pension Benefits Ordinance (Established Offices) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2008, published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 104 of 2008 and laid on the table of the Legislative Council on 7 May 2008, be repealed.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for the Civil Service
VII. Address by the Chief Executive
The Chief Executive to address the Council, under Rule 8(a) of the Rules of Procedure, on the Further Development of the Political Appointment System.
VIII. Members' Motions
- Seeking papers, books, records and documents regarding the salary and fringe benefits of Under Secretaries and Political Assistants
Hon LEE Wing-tat: (Translation)
That, pursuant to section 9(1) of the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance (Cap. 382), this Council orders the Director of Chief Executive's Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to attend before the Council on 2 July 2008 to produce any papers, books, records or documents in relation to matters regarding the salary and fringe benefits of Under Secretaries and Political Assistants.
| Public Officers to attend | : | The Chief Secretary for Administration
The Secretary for Justice
Secretary for Education
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
Secretary for the Civil Service |
- Report of the Subcommittee on West Kowloon Cultural District Development
Hon Alan LEONG Kah-kit: (Translation)
That this Council notes the Phase III Study Report of the Subcommittee on West Kowloon Cultural District Development.
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Home Affairs
- Enhancing co-operation between Hong Kong and Macao
Hon TSANG Yok-sing: (Translation)
That, in view of Macao's close proximity to Hong Kong and its remarkable development in recent years, there is much room for co-operation between the two places to achieve synergy through complementing and reinforcing each other, this Council urges the Government to enhance the co-operation between Hong Kong and Macao on all fronts, set up a permanent and high-level co-operation mechanism, and formulate overall plans and policy measures, so as to promote joint development of Hong Kong and Macao.
Amendment to motion
Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong: (Translation)
To add ", both being Special Administrative Regions of our country," after "Macao's close proximity to Hong Kong"; and to add "safeguard the freedom of lawful border-crossing between and human rights of the two places, strengthen anti-corruption and judicial co-operation between the two places," after "on all fronts,".
Public Officer to attend : Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs
Clerk to the Legislative Council
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