A 12/13-32
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 19 June 2013 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments | L.N. No. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (Amendment of Second Schedule) Order 2013 | 101/2013 |
| 2. | Hospital Authority Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2013 | 102/2013 |
| 3. | Prevention and Control of Disease (Amendment) Regulation 2013 | 103/2013 |
| 4. | Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance (Amendment of Schedules 1 and 2) Notice 2013 | 104/2013 |
| 5. | Declaration of Markets (Amendment) Notice 2013 | 105/2013 |
| 6. | Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Public Markets) (Amendment of Tenth Schedule) Order 2013 | 106/2013 |
| 7. | Declaration of Increase in Pensions Notice 2013 | 107/2013 |
| 8. | Widows and Orphans Pension (Increase) Notice 2013 | 108/2013 |
Other Papers
| 1. | No. 97 | - | Correctional Services Children's Education Trust Report by the Trustee for the period from 1st September 2011 to 31st August 2012 |
| (to be presented by Secretary for Security) | |||
| 2. | Report of the Bills Committee on Education (Amendment) Bill 2013 | ||
| (to be presented by Hon Cyd HO, Chairman of the Bills Committee) | |||
II. Question under Rule 24(4) of the Rules of Procedure
Hon MA Fung-kwok to ask: (Translation)
Edward Snowden, a former analyst of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States ("US"), disclosed in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post that the US Government had been hacking into the computer systems in both Hong Kong and the Mainland since 2009 and had acquired huge quantity of communications information, and the targets included the computer systems of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, local public officers, enterprises and students. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether the authorities have taken immediate and effective measures since the aforesaid report was published in the newspapers to ensure that the overall network and computer systems in Hong Kong will not be hacked; if they have, of the details; if not, how the authorities ensure that information security in Hong Kong will not be threatened; (b) whether the Government has immediately followed up the aforesaid report with the relevant authorities of the US and taken immediate and necessary remedial and preventive measures in respect of information security; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (c) as it has been reported that the aforesaid person is now in Hong Kong, and that he has indicated that he worries about his personal safety because he has received reliable information that the US Government has requested for extraditing him to the US, whether the authorities have received any relevant request from the US Government, and whether they have assessed if the personal safety of the person is under threat; if they have received such request or the assessment outcome is that the person's personal safety is under threat, of the immediate follow-up measures to be taken by the authorities?
| Public Officers to reply | : | Secretary for Security Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development |
IIA. Questions
1. Hon Vincent FANG to ask: (Translation)
Last year, a beauty salon referred a number of its customers to undergo high-risk medical procedures performed by medical practitioners, and such procedures caused one death and three persons in serious illness. The incident prompted the Government to set up a working group to differentiate between medical procedures and beauty services. It has been learnt that the Government plans to define certain procedures currently carried out in beauty salons as medical procedures, and prohibit such procedures from being performed in beauty salons again. In future, beauticians who have received the relevant recognized training will no longer be allowed to perform such procedures, and only registered medical practitioners will be allowed to do so. However, some members of the beauty industry have relayed to me that, in the past decade, most of the cosmetic procedures or surgical plastic operations involved in serious incidents were performed by registered medical practitioners or those who had been suspended from practice. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of serious incidents relating to cosmetic procedures or surgical plastic operations in the past three years and, among them, the respective numbers of those in which the procedures or operations concerned were performed by beauticians, registered medical practitioners or those medical practitioners who had been suspended from practice, as well as whether they were penalized; the respective numbers of persons who were hospitalized, became permanently disabled or died as a result of such incidents, the procedures or operations involved in such incidents, as well as the types of premises where such incidents occurred; (b) of the number of private medical practitioners penalized in the past three years by the Medical Council of Hong Kong for contravention of the requirements under the Professional Code of Conduct and, among them, the number of those who were penalized because of their involvement in the incidents mentioned in (a); the reasons for penalizing them and the details of the penalties; whether the authorities monitor if the medical practitioners, who have been suspended from practice, continue their practice during the suspension period; and (c) whether at present the authorities have required that medical practitioners must have received specialized training before performing procedures or operations such as injection of weight-loss drugs, augmentation mammoplasty, removal of eye bags, laser facial depigmentation or dermabrasion; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
2. Hon YIU Si-wing to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that recently an incident occurred in a licensed guesthouse in Chungking Mansions in which a guest was raped by a man who had sneaked into that guesthouse, and that a fire broke out at an unlicensed guesthouse in Mong Kok. On the other hand, some youth hostels were reported to have low occupancy rates. Some members of the tourism industry have pointed out that the above incidents show that the security of licensed guesthouses is poor, the authorities are ineffective in combating unlicensed guesthouses, and the accommodation resources of youth hostels are being wasted. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has compiled statistics on the current number of unlicensed guesthouses; if it has, of the number; if not, the reasons for that; of the number of law enforcement actions taken by the authorities against the operation of unlicensed guesthouses, as well as the respective numbers of prosecutions and convictions, in each of the past three years; (b) whether the authorities have regulated the security arrangements of licensed guesthouses; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (c) whether it knows the names of the youth hostels which had an average occupancy rate below 60% last year, as well as their respective occupancy rates; regarding those youth hostels with low occupancy rates, whether the authorities will urge the operators concerned to boost their hostels' occupancy rates; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
3. Hon Gary FAN to ask: (Translation)
For many years, the MTR Corporation Limited ("MTRCL") and its predecessor have collected an extra charge of $0.1 ("the surcharge") per journey from passengers paying the fares with Octopus Cards, in order to pay for half of the costs of the project of retrofitting platform screen doors ("PSDs") and automatic platform gates ("APGs") at MTR stations. Some members of the public have queried that it is an unfair practice of MTRCL to collect the surcharge from passengers while all the income generated from displaying advertisements on PSDs and APGs goes to the Corporation. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows when MTRCL started to display advertisements on PSDs and APGs, of the current number of PSDs and APGs involved, as well as the income generated from such advertisements last year; (b) given that MTRCL and passengers have each contributed half of the costs of retrofitting PSDs and APGs, whether the Government will, based on the principle of fairness, request MTRCL to directly pass on to passengers the income generated from the advertisements on PSDs and APGs according to the contribution ratio; if it will, of the implementation timetable and details; if not, the reasons for that; and (c) whether it knows the total amount of surcharge collected by MTRCL up to the end of April 2013, when the collection of the surcharge is expected to cease, and if MTRCL will pass on to passengers the costs of retrofitting APGs for the East Rail Line and the Ma On Shan Rail Line in future?
4. Hon WONG Kwok-kin to ask: (Translation)
Last year, the authorities published the Report on Manpower Projection to 2018, which projected a shortfall of 22 000 workers in 2018 at the broad education level covering upper secondary, craft, technician and sub-degree. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) how often the authorities review the manpower resources development strategy; whether they had ever published the details of the relevant reviews in the past; if they had, of the publication dates and the details involved; whether the past reviews had projected the aforesaid manpower supply shortfall; if so, of the measures formulated by the authorities to address the shortfall; if not, the reasons for that; (b) of the process adopted by the authorities for formulating the manpower development strategy; of the cooperative relationships and division of work among the Manpower Development Committee and the relevant manpower resources training agencies such as the Vocational Training Council, Employees Retraining Board and organizations which implement the Qualifications Framework, etc.; and (c) whether it will set up a high-level committee on manpower resources development strategy straddling various policy areas to coordinate the policy areas involved in manpower resources development strategy, such as economic development, people's livelihood and cultural industries, etc.?
5. Hon Albert CHAN to ask: (Translation)
Among the sites included in the 2013-2014 Land Sale Programme released by the Government on 28 February this year, 22 residential sites (including a site located in the southwest of Aegean Coast in Tuen Mun) are currently not zoned for residential purposes. The authorities have yet to make applications to the Town Planning Board for rezoning such sites, or consult the District Councils concerned in this regard. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) when the authorities will apply for rezoning the aforesaid 22 sites and consult the District Councils concerned, and when the planning procedure is expected to be completed (list out in table form); and (b) given that the aforesaid 22 sites are not zoned for residential purposes and the authorities have not applied for their rezoning, of the reasons for the authorities including them in the Land Sale Programme; and when the authorities will put them up for sale?
6. Hon CHUNG Kwok-pan to ask: (Translation)
In order to alleviate the shortage of doctors, the Hospital Authority ("HA") has in recent years employed non-local doctors who were granted limited registration by the Medical Council of Hong Kong ("MCHK") to work in public hospitals. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows the number of local medical graduates and the number of newly recruited specialists in public hospitals in each of the past three years; the current number of vacancies of specialists; the specialties with the most acute shortage of manpower at present; and the average waiting time for outpatient services in each specialty last year; (b) whether it knows the number of job applications received by HA from non-local doctors in each of the past three years, the number of those among them who were granted limited registration by MCHK, and the specialties in which they mainly worked; the number of additional non-local doctors needs to be employed in future as estimated by HA, and if HA will increase the number of recruits particularly for those specialties with the most acute shortage of manpower; given that at present, the contract period for non-local doctors is one year only, whether HA will consider extending the contract period in order to attract more non-local doctors to apply for work in Hong Kong; and (c) whether it will consider urging MCHK to relax the vetting and approval criteria for limited registration of non-local doctors, extend the validity period of limited registration, improve the licensing examination system for non-local medical graduates and simplify the registration procedures for specialists, with a view to alleviating the shortage of doctors and enhancing the quality of medical services?
*7. Hon CHAN Yuen-han to ask: (Translation)
Nga Tsin Wai Village ("NTW Village"), having a history of more than 600 years, is the only walled village remaining in the urban area of Hong Kong. The redevelopment project of NTW Village was one of the 25 urban renewal projects announced by the former Land Development Corporation in 1998, but it has not yet been completed so far, and the authorities have not announced its latest development proposal. Some members of the public have relayed to me that NTW Village has high historic and cultural values, and is an important element in the conservation aspect of the Kai Tak New Development Area. As a result, various sectors of the community are concerned about the redevelopment of the Village and remain vigilant on whether the new plan can retain the history and cultures of the Village. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the latest progress of the redevelopment project of NTW Village; the number of households and shop operators involved in the private land interests yet to be resumed by the authorities so far, the difficulties encountered in the process of resuming private land interests and whether such difficulties are related to the developer that owns the majority of property interests in the Village; the details and timetable of the latest rehousing and compensation proposals offered by the authorities to the affected parties; (b) given that the buildings in NTW Village have a long history, together with a news report that the archaeological works conducted by the authorities in the Village recently have damaged the beams of the village houses and, as a result, affected their structural safety, whether the authorities have assessed if the main structures of the various buildings in the Village comply with the current statutory requirements on building safety at present; if they have, of the number and percentage of buildings which fail to meet the requirements; whether the authorities have formulated proposals to ensure the structural safety of the buildings in the Village so as to safeguard the safety of villagers living in deplorable conditions; if they have, of the details; and (c) given that the authorities are conducting archaeological works in NTW Village at present, whether they will conduct afresh grading assessments on the cultural relics and buildings in the entire walled village in the light of the historic significance of the cultural relics found there; whether the authorities have plans to reconsider the use of lands in the Village in collaboration with the developer mentioned in (a), including considering an exchange of lands owned by the developer in the Village with those in other districts, in order to retain the original appearance of the entire walled village; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
*8. Dr Hon Elizabeth QUAT to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that domestic clinical waste (i.e. residual or expired medicines and used injections, etc.), if disposed of together with domestic waste or poured directly into the drains at home, will pollute the environment. Quite a number of countries and regions, including the United Kingdom, South Korea and Taiwan have drawn up guidelines on how to dispose of domestic clinical waste. For instance, people in the United Kingdom are advised to hand over their household residual medicines to pharmacists; "collection boxes for expired medicines" are set up in various drugstores in South Korea for central incineration of expired medicines collected from households; Taiwan has set up "checkpoints for domestic usage of medicines" to assist citizens in disposing of their expired or spoiled medicines and "collection points for medicines" have been set up in most of the hospitals for the collection of specified medicines (such as antibiotics, cancer drugs, etc.). However, the legislation in Hong Kong only regulates the disposal of expired medicines by chemical waste producers, but has not regulated the disposal of domestic clinical waste. Besides, it has been reported that the sewage discharge into the sea from the sewage treatment plants in Hong Kong has been tested to have contained drug-resistant bacteria. Humans may be infected by "super bad bugs" in the food chain, while the drug-resistant bacteria found in municipal wastewater also originate from human excreta subsequent to consumption of antibiotics. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective quantities of medicines and injections discarded by medical and healthcare institutions as well as their disposal methods in each of the past five years; (b) whether it has assessed the annual quantity of clinical waste (broken down by medicine and injection) discarded by households, their disposal methods as well as their impacts on the environment; if it has assessed, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (c) whether the authorities have plans to conduct studies on regulating disposal methods of domestic clinical waste, to draw up guidelines to prohibit indiscriminate disposal of such waste, and to set up collection points to facilitate the public to surrender medicines and injections; if they have, of the details and the implementation timetables; if not, the reasons for that; (d) whether it has plans to promote the proper handling of domestic clinical waste among members of the public through educational and promotional programmes, so as to reduce pollution to the environment; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (e) whether it has conducted studies on removing the drug residues and drug-resistant bacteria in municipal wastewater; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; whether it will take measures to reduce the pollution caused by domestic clinical waste and the drug residues and drug-resistant bacteria discharged from human bodies; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
*9. Dr Hon Priscilla LEUNG to ask: (Translation)
The Transport and Housing Bureau ("THB") has pointed out earlier that the dual-3 lane tunnel design will be adopted for the proposed Central Kowloon Route ("CKR"). The distance between the top of the tunnel in CKR's Ma Tau Wai section in To Kwa Wan ("CKR tunnel") and the ground levels around some of the buildings in the area is approximately 50 metres. The authorities have indicated that the CKR tunnel will be constructed by the drill-and-blast method, and stressed that such method, being adopted for the construction of tunnels in Hong Kong for over four decades, will not affect the structural integrity of buildings along the tunnel alignment. However, in its paper submitted to a committee of the then Provisional Legislative Council in March 1998, the then Transport Bureau ("TB") indicated that the dual-3 lane tunnel design was not recommended. One of the reasons was that such an option (irrespective of the "very deep" tunnel option at approximately 76 metres below ground or the "medium deep" tunnel option at approximately 51 metres below ground) would create problems and, in particular, the "medium deep" tunnel option would lead to problematic building settlement during construction in the To Kwa Wan area. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the reasons for the completely different assessment results obtained by the then TB and the present THB respectively on the aforesaid design option; (b) of the implementation details of the construction of tunnels by the aforesaid drill-and-blast method, and of the reasons for choosing such method to construct the CKR tunnel; given that the tunnel section will pass through densely populated urban areas, which is different from other tunnels in Hong Kong which were mainly constructed by hill cutting in the past, whether the authorities have assessed if the past experience is applicable to this project; if they have, of the assessment result; if not, the reasons for that; (c) given that it has been pointed out in the environmental impact assessment report submitted by the authorities that, during the construction of CKR, a number of residential buildings, housing estates and schools (which are mainly located at Kansu Street, Yau Ma Tei in the western section of CKR; Chung Hau Street, Ho Man Tin in the central section; and San Ma Tau Street, Kowloon City in the eastern section) will be affected by noise, whether the authorities have, apart from using low-noise construction plant and noise control facilities, formulated other measures to mitigate the noise impact which will be brought about by the future construction works; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (d) of the number of housing estates in Kowloon West under which the present alignment of the CKR tunnel will pass through, and of the names of those housing estates; given that the CKR tunnel will pass through the Maidstone Road area, To Kwa Wan, wherein vibrations with unknown cause were experienced at the same time in May this year in a number of buildings located near the construction site of the MTR Shatin to Central Link under construction, whether the authorities will re-assess if the future construction works of the CKR tunnel will affect the structures of buildings along the tunnel alignment; if they will not, of the reasons for that?
*10. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the interim review of the Scheme of Control Agreements conducted by the Government with the two power companies, the Secretary for the Environment said earlier that "[s]ubject to public aspirations and the situations of the discussion, we hope that this task will be completed in the second or third quarter of this year". He also indicated that the Government would then commence a review of the fuel mix for generation of electricity. Besides, it has been learnt that the development planning and construction of nuclear power facilities on the Mainland have made new progress. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether, during the interim review with the two power companies, the Government has encountered any difficulties in reaching a consensus in relation to the aspirations of members of the community (including setting mandatory energy saving targets, etc.), thus affecting the progress of the interim review; if it has, of the details; (b) whether the Government will within this legislative session (i) complete the interim review and report the results to this Council, and (ii) commence the review of the fuel mix for generation of electricity; if it will not, of the relevant dates; (c) whether the Government has sought information from the mainland authorities on the latest progress of the development planning and construction of nuclear power facilities on the Mainland, including details of the completion dates for various nuclear power projects in Guangdong Province, models of the generating units selected, and whether the scale of the generating units has changed when compared with the past, etc.; (d) whether it has assessed the impacts of the development planning and construction of nuclear power facilities on the Mainland on the future electricity supply for Hong Kong; and (e) when the authorities plan to conduct public consultation on the review of the fuel mix for generation of electricity, and whether the relevant public consultation documents will set out the reference materials on the Mainland's nuclear power projects (e.g. the nuclear power station in Lufeng of Guangdong Province), including Hong Kong Government's assessment on their impacts on Hong Kong's safety risk and electricity tariffs, etc. upon the completion and commissioning of such projects?
*11. Hon Abraham SHEK to ask:
Will the Government inform this Council whether it knows the total number and total amount of outstanding residential mortgage loans as at 31 May 2013?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
*12. Hon LEUNG Che-cheung to ask: (Translation)
The Rent Assistance Scheme ("RAS"), which has been implemented by the Hong Kong Housing Authority since 1992, aims at granting relief in the form of rent reduction to domestic tenants in public rental housing ("PRH") and licensees in interim housing ("IH") who are facing temporary financial hardship. One of the eligibility requirements of RAS is that the size of the flat currently occupied by the applicant must not exceed the maximum allocation standard in respect of his household size ("the average living space per person must not exceed the standard"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total number of RAS applications rejected in the past three years and the reasons for rejection; among such applications, the number of those rejected because the average living space per person had exceeded the standard; (b) of the present maximum allocation standards applicable to different household sizes; when such standards were set; (c) of the justifications for the authorities prescribing the average living space per person not exceeding the standard as one of the eligibility requirements of RAS; whether there is any plan to remove such eligibility requirement; if not, of the reasons for that; (d) whether the authorities will, when allocating flats with an average living space per person exceeding the standard to PRH and IH applicants, remind them that they will thus be ineligible for applying for RAS in future; if they will not, whether the authorities will formulate working guidelines to require their staff to so remind such applicants; and (e) of the total number of PRH applicants in the past three years who had been allocated flats with an average living space per person exceeding the standard?
*13. Hon SIN Chung-kai to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the installation of telecommunications transmitters ("transmitters") by telecommunications service operators ("TSOs") at the public housing estates, Tenants Purchase Scheme estates and Home Ownership Scheme courts ("the estates/courts") under the Housing Department ("HD"), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the current number of estates/courts and number of the buildings concerned at which transmitters have been installed, and set out the names of such buildings and the respective numbers of transmitters installed by the name of the estate/court; (b) whether the authorities had informed the residents in the estates/courts concerned of their decisions to install such transmitters, in particular the residents of upper floors who might be affected by the radiation generated by such transmitters; if they had, of the responses of the residents; if not, the reasons for that; (c) whether the authorities had, prior to the installation of such transmitters, consulted the Estate Management Advisory Committees/Owners' Committees of the estates/courts concerned; if they had, of the responses of such committees; if not, the reasons for that; (d) of the methods by which HD calculates the rents which TSOs are to be charged for such transmitters, and the percentage of the related annual revenue in HD's total annual revenue from all estates/courts in the territory; (e) whether it knows the level of the radiation generated by such transmitters, and of the statutory maximum level of radiation at present; (f) whether it has studied the impact of prolonged exposure to the radiation generated by such transmitters on human health; if so and the conclusion is that there is no impact, whether the conclusion is 100% credible, and of the relevant scientific evidence; and (g) whether the tenants residing on the upper floors of the buildings of the estates concerned may apply for transfer on grounds of concern about the impact of radiation from the transmitters on health?
*14. Hon CHAN Kin-por to ask: (Translation)
The work for establishing Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone of Shenzhen ("Qianhai") is in progress, and it is expected that by 2020, Qianhai will become internationalized with a first-rate modern service industry system. According to the Overall Development Plan on Hong Kong/Shenzhen Cooperation on Modern Service Industries in Qianhai Area approved by the State Council, the Central Government has requested Qianhai to actively implement the early and pilot policies under the framework of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Agreement, and it has been learnt that the finance industry in Hong Kong is also determined to pursue development in Qianhai. It has been reported that Shenzhen Bureau of China Insurance Regulatory Commission is formulating favourable policies to support the development of Hong Kong's insurance industry in Qianhai under the early and pilot policies (including developing a pilot scheme of massive disaster insurance, promoting the development of Qianhai into a reinsurance centre, and appropriately lowering the entry threshold for Hong Kong insurance companies to conduct business in Qianhai). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it will assist Hong Kong's insurance industry in developing business in Qianhai; if it will, of the details, including whether it has held any meeting with the relevant authorities of Shenzhen to discuss specific proposals; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Public Officer to reply : Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
*15. Dr Hon Helena WONG to ask: (Translation)
In June 2010, the Government raised the target for the proportion of women in the number of government-appointed non-official members ("proportion of female members") in advisory and statutory bodies ("ASBs") from 25% to 30%, and that proportion rose to about 33% on the whole in 2012. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers and proportions of female members in ASBs in the past three years (set out one by one in a table); (b) of the number of those ASBs with the proportion of female members currently below 30%, and the percentage of such number in the total number of ASBs, and whether there were any male members of such ASBs whose terms of office had expired in the past three years; if so, whether the Government had taken such opportunities to increase the proportion of female members; if not, of the reasons for that; (c) whether the authorities have taken measures to ensure that the proportion of female members in each ASB will not be lower than 30%; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (d) given that the Home Affairs Bureau has indicated that it encourages women to provide their curricula vitae ("CVs") for inclusion in the Central Personality Index ("CPI"), of the number of women whose CVs have been included in CPI so far; whether the Government has taken further measures to facilitate the inclusion of more women's CVs in CPI; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (e) whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of its efforts in promoting women's participation in ASBs since raising the target of the proportion of female members in June 2010; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; given that the proportion of female members in 2012 had already reached 33%, whether the Government will consider further raising the target of such proportion, so as to better ensure that the viewpoints and concerns of both genders will be fully represented when the Government is making policy decisions?
*16. Dr Hon Joseph LEE to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the employment of staff in the allied health grades, i.e. medical laboratory technologists, radiographers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, optometrists, ancillary dental workers, audiologists, podiatrists, dietitians, orthoptists, clinical psychologists, prosthetists, speech therapists and dispensers, by the Hospital Authority ("HA"), will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(a) the following statistics in respect of each allied health grade in each of the past three years (set out in four separate tables): (i) number of new recruits, (ii) number of staff who left the service, (iii) number of cases handled by each staff member per day on average, and (iv) time taken for handling a case on average; (b) the current manpower shortage in various allied health grades; (c) the number of additional staff HA plans to recruit for each allied health grade in each of the coming three years; and (d) the following in three years' time from now, as estimated by HA: (i) the respective numbers of new cases and old cases to be handled by each staff member per day on average (set out in the table below), (ii) the average time to be taken for handling a new case and an old case respectively (set out in the table below), and (iii) whether the waiting time for various allied health services will be shortened; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Allied health grade New case Old case
*17. Hon Tony TSE to ask: (Translation)
The Buildings Energy Efficiency Funding Scheme ("the Scheme") was implemented between 8 April 2009 and 7 April 2012 with a funding allocation of $450 million. The Scheme subsidized building owners to carry out energy-cum-carbon audits and energy efficiency projects. The authorities received nearly 1 600 applications, of which 870 were approved with total approved grants amounting to some $350 million, benefiting over 5 700 buildings. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has comprehensively reviewed the effectiveness of the Scheme, the scope and amounts of the funding support, the vetting and approval mechanism and related benefits brought to society; if it has, of the energy saving performance of the buildings with grants under the Scheme, as well as other positive results of the Scheme, and whether the authorities have made recommendations and come up with improvement measures for the Scheme; if it has not conducted such a review, of the reasons for that and whether it will do so; (b) of the respective general reasons for approving and rejecting the applications concerned; the maximum and minimum amounts of grants for approved cases; (c) how the number of buildings benefitting from the Scheme and the amount of grants approved differ from the initial targets set by the authorities; how the authorities will handle the remaining funding of around $100 million; and (d) whether it will consider afresh implementing the Scheme again; if it will, of the details and implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that; whether it has considered implementing other funding schemes to tie in with its policies on energy efficiency and waste reduction at source, further encourage building owners to enhance the performance of their buildings in terms of energy saving and environmental protection, and create more business opportunities for relevant sectors such as property management and engineering?
*18. Hon KWOK Wai-keung to ask: (Translation)
Recently, some civil servants serving as Cooks have approached me for assistance, claiming that in recent years, the Fire Services Department ("FSD") has continuously deleted the civil service posts of Cook in the Department and engaged outsourced service contractors to provide catering service instead. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of Cooks in FSD, their total payroll, the number of posts deleted and the reasons for the deletion, in each of the past five years, as well as a breakdown of such figures by the divisions under the Fire Commands; (b) of the details of FSD outsourcing catering service in the past five years, including the number of employees engaged by contractors to provide such service and the annual expenditures on the outsourced service, as well as the reasons for outsourcing the service; and (c) given that various government departments have recruited additional civil servants in recent years to cope with the increasing workload, and the catering service provided for FSD is not a kind of seasonal demand, of the justifications of FSD for implementing the policy of replacing the posts of Cook by outsourcing the service?
*19. Hon Albert HO to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the supply and allocation of public rental housing ("PRH") units, as well as the supply of Home Ownership Scheme ("HOS") units, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the relevant information of each of the PRH and HOS projects completed/to be completed from 2013-2014 to 2016-2017, broken down by District Council ("DC") district (set out in Tables 1 and 2);
(Table 1)
District PRH project Location Site area
(square metres)Date of
completionNumber of units to be provided Sham Shui Po (e.g. Blocks 1 and 2 of Ex-Cheung Sha Wan Police Quarters) (e.g. the junction of Cheung Sha Wan Road and Tonkin Street)
(Table 2)
District HOS project Location Site area
(square metres)Date of completion Number of units to be provided Sham Shui Po (b) given that the Government indicated in its reply in April this year to this Council's question on the Estimates of Expenditure 2013-2014 that "[t]he HA [Hong Kong Housing Authority] has successfully secured enough land to ensure that a total of about 17 000 HOS flats will be completed over the four years from 2016-2017", of the relevant information on the sites concerned (set out in Table 3);
(Table 3)
District Location Site area
(square metres)Anticipated date for commencement of works Number of HOS units to be provided
(c) whether, at present, there is any information regarding those sites which have already been committed for building PRH in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020; if so, of the locations and site areas of all such sites as well as the estimated number of units that can be provided; (d) of the total number of PRH units, the number of vacant units and the percentage of such number of vacant units in the total number of units, and among the vacant units, the respective numbers of refurbished and newly constructed units as well as their respective proportions on the 31st of December of each year in 2010, 2011 and 2012 (set out in Table 4);
(Table 4)
Date Total number of PRH units Vacant units Number
(percentage in the total number of units)Number of refurbished units (proportion) Number of newly constructed units (proportion) 31 December 2010 31 December 2011 31 December 2012
(e) of the total number of PRH units, the number of vacant units and the vacancy rate in each DC district on the 31st of December of each year in 2011 and 2012; and whether there were individual districts in which the PRH vacancy rates were relatively high; if so, of the reasons for that; (f) whether the authorities will implement measures in the coming year to expedite the allocation of vacant PRH units to applicants; if they will, of the details; (g) of the number of applicants who had been offered PRH units for the first time, the number of PRH units involved and the number of units accepted by these applicants in each of the past five financial years (and among such units, of the number of newly constructed and refurbished units and their respective proportions); (h) among the PRH units accepted by the applicants in each of the past five financial years, of the number and percentage of PRH units allocated to applicants who had been offered a unit for the first time, broken down by district (i.e. urban areas, extended urban areas, the New Territories and islands); and (i) of the average time gap between the submission of applications by general PRH applicants and the acceptance of offers by such applicants in each of the past three financial years?
*20. Hon Ronny TONG to ask: (Translation)
On 28 June 2011, the Government announced the arrangements for handling unauthorized building works ("UBWs") in New Territories Exempted Houses ("NT village houses"), including introduction of a Reporting Scheme for UBWs in NT village houses ("the Reporting Scheme"). According to the Reporting Scheme, owners of NT village houses with UBWs completed before 28 June 2011 which constitute less serious contravention of the law and pose lower potential risks to building safety might report the UBWs to the Buildings Department ("BD") by 31 December 2012 and thereafter appoint qualified personnel to conduct inspections and verify the safety of the UBWs every five years, so that they would not be required to remove such UBWs immediately. BD will accord priority to taking law enforcement actions against those UBWs which have not been reported. Moreover, BD set up a Village Houses Section comprising 41 staff members on 1 April last year to survey individual villages and gather evidences in various villages. The Section's first round targets for law enforcement actions are existing UBWs in village houses which constitute serious contravention of the law and pose higher potential risks to building safety. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of a breakdown by category of UBWs of the number of reported cases received by BD under the Reporting Scheme, and the number of reported cases in which the UBWs involved are allowed to be retained; (b) whether the authorities have compiled statistics or made estimations on the present situation of UBWs in NT village houses, including small houses and ancestral homes; if they have, of the number of village houses with UBWs which are the first round targets in various districts, with a breakdown by categories of UBWs; (c) how the authorities handle UBWs which are first round targets; how many removal orders have been issued by BD against such UBWs since 28 June 2011; (d) of the work progress of BD's Village Houses Section since its establishment, including the districts in which village houses have been surveyed, the number of removal orders issued, and the districts and categories of UBWs involved in such removal orders; and (e) as the authorities have indicated that UBWs in both the New Territories and urban areas will be handled under the principle of equal treatment, and BD, after issuing an advisory letter to the owner of House 4 at Peel Rise at the end of December last year in respect of an actionable UBW, has allowed the owner and his authorized person to submit six remedial proposals, and the UBW has not yet been removed so far, whether BD has given up the law enforcement policy under which the owners concerned are required to first demolish the UBWs before they may submit applications and plans to BD for alteration works; if it has, of the reasons for and the details of the change in policy, and when the new policy was implemented; whether BD will also allow owners of NT village houses with UBWs which have not been reported and are the first round targets to submit remedial proposals instead of having to demolish the UBWs first; if not, whether BD has two sets of law enforcement policies in place; if so, of the reasons and application criteria for that; if not, the reasons for handling the cases differently?
*21. Hon TANG Ka-piu to ask: (Translation)
In connection with the disbursement of severance payments ("SPs"), long-service payments ("LSPs") and end-of-contract gratuities to non-civil service contract ("NCSC") staff by various bureaux/departments ("B/Ds"), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective total amounts of employer's contributions made by various B/Ds to Mandatory Provident Fund ("MPF") schemes in respect of their NCSC staff in the past five years; (b) as an employer may offset LSP or SP payable under the Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57) with the accrued benefits derived from the employer's contributions made to an MPF scheme for the employee, of (i) the total amount of LSPs disbursed to NCSC staff and the total amount of LSPs payable before the offsetting arrangements; (ii) the total amount of SPs disbursed to NCSC staff and the total amount of SPs payable before the offsetting arrangements, in respect of each B/D in the past five years; (c) as the recruitment advertisements for some NCSC positions have stated that the end-of-contract gratuities to such employees plus the amounts of contributions made by the Government to the MPF schemes of such employees would equal to 15% or 10% of the total amount of their basic salaries, of the total amount of gratuities disbursed to NCSC staff by each B/D in the past five years, as well as such total amount after including the contributions to MPF schemes; and (d) whether the Government will consider taking the lead in cancelling the arrangements of reducing the payable end-of-contract gratuities by its contributions to MPF schemes as mentioned in (c), so that other employers will follow suit; if it will not, whether it will consider stating separately the formulas for calculating the end-of-contract gratuities and MPF contributions in the employment terms set out in the recruitment advertisements to let applicants better understand the employment terms of the positions concerned?
*22. Hon WU Chi-wai to ask: (Translation)
It has been learnt that at present, it is difficult to provide additional communal facilities or alter the existing communal facilities in certain public housing estates ("PHEs") because the gross floor areas ("GFAs") of those estates have exceeded the relevant planning ceilings, or due to the restrictions imposed by their land lease conditions. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) in respect of all the PHEs (including the Tenant Purchase Scheme ("TPS") estates) in Hong Kong, of the permitted plot ratios of the sites where these PHEs are situated, as well as the actual plot ratios, GFAs and the floor areas of the communal facilities in these estates respectively as at 31 March 2013 (set out in the table below);
Name of PHE Permitted plot ratio Actual plot ratio GFA Floor area of communal facilities
(b) of the procedures (including whether a premium is required to be paid) as well as the vetting and approval criteria for, altering the communal facilities in PHEs according to the types of housing estates i.e. (i) public rental housing estates managed by the Housing Department, (ii) TPS estates, and (iii) PHEs with assets belonging to The Link Real Estate Investment Trust; (c) of the details (including the names of the PHEs, the facilities involved and their areas, and the reasons for rejecting the applications) of each of the cases in which applications for providing additional communal facilities in PHEs had been rejected by the authorities concerned in the past five years; and (d) whether the site coverage of the public areas in a PHE is currently capped at a certain percentage of the area of the site; if it is, of the details, and whether covered walkways and sitting-out areas are included in the calculation of site coverage?
* For written reply
III. Bills
| First Reading
Supplementary Appropriation (2012-2013) Bill Second Reading (Debate to be adjourned) | |||
| Supplementary Appropriation (2012-2013) Bill | : | Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury | |
| Second Reading (Debate to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading | |||
| Education (Amendment) Bill 2013 | : | Secretary for Education | |