A 13/14-27
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 21 May 2014 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
Other Papers
| 1. | No. 102 | - | The 25th Report on the Work of the Advisory Committee on Post-service Employment of Civil Servants
(1 January - 31 December 2013) |
| (to be presented by Secretary for the Civil Service)
| |||
| 2. | No. 103 | - | Report of changes made to the approved Estimates of Expenditure during the fourth quarter of 2013-14
Public Finance Ordinance: Section 8 |
| (to be presented by Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury)
| |||
| 3. | Report of the Bills Committee on Dutiable Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2014 | ||
| (to be presented by Prof Hon Joseph LEE, Chairman of the Bills Committee) | |||
II. Questions for Written Replies
1. Dr Hon Kenneth CHAN to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that St. Margaret’s Girls’ College, Hong Kong on Caine Road, Central has decided to cease operation gradually from September this year as it cannot afford the drastic increase in the rental of its school premises. It has stopped admitting Secondary One (“S1”) students and is discussing the relevant arrangements with the Education Bureau (“EDB”). In the new school year, the school will be relocated to its temporary school premises in Shatin and will continue to operate until all its existing students have graduated. There are comments that this incident reveals that direct subsidy schools (“DSSs”) which need to rent private premises as their school premises are susceptible to relocation or closure at any time as a result of rental problems. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows the current number of DSSs operating in leased school premises, and set out by name of the school concerned the lease periods, the rental levels and the names of the landlords of the school premises; (2) when EDB received notification from the aforesaid school of its planned closure, as well as details of the follow-up work carried out and the specific arrangements made; whether EDB requested the school to consult the students and parents on its decision on closure; if it did, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) whether it has assessed how the closure of the aforesaid school will affect the supply of secondary school places in the Central and Western District, and whether the female students in the district who are progressing to S1 will need to attend schools in other districts as a result; if it has assessed and the outcome is in the affirmative, of the details and whether the Government will take measures to assist the female students in the district who are progressing to S1 in being admitted to schools in the same district; and (4) whether it will consider afresh assisting the aforesaid school immediately in searching for permanent school premises, so that the school can continue to operate, thereby addressing the aspirations of the parents and students; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
2. Hon CHAN Hak-kan to ask: (Translation)
Earlier on, archaeologists have unearthed monuments and antiques, including ancient wells, ceramic shards, coins and stone structures of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, at the construction sites of the MTR Shatin to Central Link ("SCL") in To Kwa Wan, and the related works have been affected as a result. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has assessed the prospects of unearthing new monuments and antiques at the SCL construction sites; if the assessment outcome indicates that the prospects are low, whether it has assessed if the SCL construction works can be completed on schedule; if the assessment outcome indicates that the works cannot be completed on schedule, for how long the completion date of the project will be postponed; (2) whether it knows the details of the monuments and antiques which have been destroyed at or removed from the SCL construction sites; (3) of the preservation proposal for the aforesaid ancient wells and the measures in place to ensure that the monuments and antiques unearthed at the SCL construction sites will not be destroyed further; (4) whether it knows if in-situ preservation of the aforesaid ancient wells will have any impact on the SCL railway alignments; if there will be impacts, whether the travelling time of that railway line will increase as a result; and (5) whether the Antiquities and Monuments Office or the MTR Corporation Limited is responsible for coordinating the surveys of the aforesaid ancient wells; which of these two institutions assumes a leadership role in handling the relevant matters and whether a mechanism is in place to coordinate their work?
3. Dr Hon LAM Tai-fai to ask: (Translation)
On 15 April this year, the MTR Corporation Limited ("MTRCL") announced the newly revised works schedule of the project to construct the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link ("XRL"), a project with an estimated expenditure of $66.8 billion, stating that the commissioning date had to be postponed from 2015 to 2017. MTRCL explained that the causes for the delay of the XRL project included the inclement weather and difficult geological conditions. It has been reported that the West Kowloon Cultural District ("WKCD") project, which is adjacent to the West Kowloon Terminus of XRL, has also been affected and the construction works of some of the facilities will be delayed. The Board of Directors of MTRCL announced on 29 April that an Independent Board Committee would be set up to review the managerial approach of the XRL project comprehensively. Yet, some members of the public have criticized that as all members of the Independent Board Committee are independent non-executive directors of MTRCL, the investigation is "an investigation conducted by peers" that lacks independence. On 2 May, the Government announced that a three-person independent expert panel would be set up to conduct a comprehensive examination of the delay of the project, but the Chairperson-designate resigned from the panel for alleged conflict of interests a few hours after his appointment was announced by the Government. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has assessed the respective numbers of days of delay in the XRL project caused by the inclement weather and difficult geological conditions; (2) whether it has assessed if the Government needs to apply to the Finance Committee of this Council for supplementary provisions for the XRL project; if the assessment outcome is in the affirmative, when it will submit the application and the amount involved; if the assessment outcome is in the negative, the reasons for that; (3) given that documents submitted by MTRCL to this Council have revealed that on 21 November 2013, senior officials of the Transport and Housing Bureau ("THB") had a telephone conversation and a meeting with the senior management of MTRCL, and at that meeting MTRCL told THB that commissioning XRL under an "extended" Minimum Operating Requirement ("MOR") concept in 2015 was still possible ("the information") but THB explicitly questioned this "extended" MOR and did not agree to it, (i) why the Government did not announce the information immediately, (ii) of the person who decided not to announce the information, (iii) whether it was mentioned in the telephone call and meeting that the XRL project had a cost overrun (if it was, of the details), and (iv) why the Secretary for Transport and Housing ("the Secretary") did not attend that meeting; (4) whether it has assessed if there was dereliction of duty on the part of the Secretary in the delay of the XRL project, and how the Secretary should discharge his political responsibility under the Political Appointment System; (5) whether it has assessed if members of the public accepted the explanations and apologies made by the Secretary for his handling of the delay of the XRL project; if it has assessed, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that; (6) whether it has assessed the impacts of the delay in the XRL project, including (i) if it has given rise to discontent among members of the public towards the Government; (ii) if members of the public have lost their confidence in MTRCL and the Government; (iii) the economic losses caused to Hong Kong; and (iv) the impacts on the progress of the WKCD project; if it has assessed, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that; (7) whether it will demand MTRCL to dismiss its Chief Executive Officer and other senior staff members who have been found derelict in their duties, instead of letting them depart upon expiry of their contracts; if it will, when it will make such a demand; if not, the reasons for that; (8) whether it has proposed any remedial plan to MTRCL to deal with the delay in the XRL project, so as to mitigate the adverse impacts of the delay; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (9) whether it has discussed with the mainland authorities the delay of the XRL project, so as to avoid affecting the connection of the boundary control points of both sides and causing other problems; whether it has assessed the impact of the delay on the economies of Hong Kong and the Mainland as well as the integration between the two places; if it has assessed, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that; (10) whether it will demand MTRCL to reorganize the Independent Board Committee to enhance its independence; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (11) when it made the decision to appoint the independent expert panel; whether it has explained to the panel members their specific scope of work prior to their appointments; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (12) when the independent expert panel is expected to complete its investigation; whether it will publicize the investigation report in full; if it will, of the time of publication; if not, the reasons for that?
4. Hon Paul TSE to ask: (Translation)
The Chief Executive ("CE") and some principal officials, such as the Financial Secretary ("FS") and the Secretary for Development ("SDEV"), have been using blogs to make comments from time to time in recent years. For instance, FS posted a blog entry entitled "Turn back and you are ashore" on the 11th of this month, commenting that the "filibustering" at meetings of this Council by some Members during the scrutiny of the Appropriation Bill ("the Bill") had affected various public services and the daily lives of the people. FS further pointed out that since the Government would defer its allocation of funds for June to public organizations should the Bill not be passed on schedule, the Hospital Authority ("HA") had invested its liquid capital in shorter-term bank deposits in order to avoid its daily operation being affected by the delay in funding allocation. It was estimated that the interest foregone by HA would be around $1 million and this would be the first instance of actual loss of public funds caused by the "filibusters" this year. On the other hand, it is noted that a Member of this Council criticized earlier on that a number of principal officials were only good at writing blog posts behind closed doors like "otakus" and refused to give an account of the Government's views openly in person. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the role of the blogs of CE and the principal officials in policy implementation by the Government; whether the blogs are used as official channels through which the Government announces its policies and relevant policy amendments as well as disseminates its information to the public; (2) whether CE, FS and SDEV have communicated with one another to achieve a uniform stance before posting their respective blog entries each time; if they have, of the communication procedure; if not, the reasons for that; (3) whether comments made by the principal officials in their blogs represent the stance of the Government; (4) whether it has studied if it is more appropriate to deliver the aforesaid blog comments at a press conference or in a press release instead of publishing them as a blog post, having regard to the fact that most members of the public do not have the habit of browsing web sites and blog posts every day; if it has, of the results of its study; if not, whether it will conduct such a study; (5) whether CE and the principal officials have adopted uniform criteria in determining the circumstances under which blogs, instead of the Government's prevailing channels, are to be used to disseminate information to the public; and (6) of the respective numbers of staff members in the Office of CE and the offices of the principal officials who are responsible for blog-related duties (including information collation, writing and posting blog entries), as well as the manpower and resources earmarked for such duties in 2014-2015?
5. Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask: (Translation)
The MTR Corporation Limited ("MTRCL") announced on 15 April this year that the completion of the project to construct the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link ("XRL project") would be delayed to 2016, and XRL would not be commissioned until 2017. It has been reported that there would be delay in the completion of the West Kowloon Cultural District ("WKCD") project due to the delay of the West Kowloon Terminus works of XRL. At the meeting of the Subcommittee on Matters Relating to Railways of this Council ("the Subcommittee") held on the 5th of this month, the Secretary for Transport and Housing and representatives of MTRCL informed Members of this Council of the latest position of the XRL project. Based on the information available and the financial analysis conducted to date, the latest projected cost of the XRL project is about $68.4 billion, which exceeds the original funding of $65 billion allocated to MTRCL by $3.4 billion. The detailed cost estimate was expected to be completed in July this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) as MTRCL has indicated that the progress of the XRL project has been affected by the serious damage caused to a tunnel boring machine ("TBM") in the Yuen Long tunnel section during a rainstorm, whether it knows the details of the impact; (2) given that a paper presented by MTRCL at the aforesaid Subcommittee meeting indicates that difficult ground conditions have been encountered in the construction of the Huanggang to Mai Po Tunnels, whether it has looked into the reasons why MTRCL had failed to timely discover the said ground conditions during the trial pit investigations; (3) as it was reported that in March last year, when tunnel boring works under the XRL project were being carried out at Tai Kok Tsui, the tunnel boring machine came across some H-shaped piles which obstructed the works, whether the Government knows the number of similar incidents that happened during the implementation of the XRL project, the details of such incidents and their impacts on the progress of the project; (4) whether it knows how MTRCL calculated the aforesaid latest projected cost of HK$68.4 billion; and (5) whether the existing project vote of the WKCD project can absorb the additional costs caused by the delay of the XRL project; if it cannot, of the Government's specific timetable for seeking the approval of the Finance Committee of this Council for a supplementary provision?
6. Hon LEUNG Kwok-hung to ask: (Translation)
PMQ is a revitalization project implemented at the former Police Married Quarters on Hollywood Road. After the Secretary for Development replied to my question on PMQ on the 8th of this month, quite a number of members of the public, tenants of PMQ and conservation organizations have relayed to me that some parts of the reply are disputable. In addition, it has recently been reported by the media that the PMQ Management Company Limited ("the management company") has faults in managing the project. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) as the Government indicated in its reply that 90% of the 130 or so studio units and eight commercial units at PMQ had been leased out, whether the Government knows the number of studio and commercial units which had opened for business on each floor at present; (2) as the Government indicated in its reply that the management company had, in view of the actual circumstances, decided that the commencement of the rental periods for the studio units should be revised to start from 1 May 2014, if the Government knows: (a) what "the actual circumstances" refer to and whether they include requests initiated by the tenants and offers initiated by the management company; (b) whether the management company has informed all the tenants of the aforesaid decision; if it has, of the means and date; if not, the reasons for that; (c) whether the management company had, prior to making the aforesaid decision, requested tenants to pay rents and open for business from April this year; if it had, of the number of tenants involved; and (d) whether any tenant has paid for the rents for April this year earlier on; if so, of the number of such tenants, and whether the management company will refund to them the rents for April; (3) whether it knows if Chocolate Rain, a local brand, is a tenant of PMQ and if its persons-in-charge/shareholders are members of the tenant selection committee; if the answers to both questions are in the affirmative, of the justification of the Government for stating that "no conflict of interest was found during the tenant selection process" in its reply; (4) as the Government indicated in its reply that the first eatery in PMQ had opened for business at the end of April, whether the Government knows the name, location, opening date, business hours and type of catering service of the said eatery; (5) as some members of the public have complained that the glass podium floor, the transparent staircases in the main building and the glass fences of PMQ have become black spots where women may be peeped on, whether the Government has requested the management company to follow up on the problem and make improvements immediately; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (6) as the Government indicated in its reply that there were 71 000 people visiting PMQ for the first 13 days since its partial opening in mid-April, whether the Government knows the number of female visitors among them; whether it has assessed the number of female visitors who were affected by the problem referred to in (5); (7) whether it knows if PMQ has solicited a number of famous brands and bars to be its tenants; if PMQ has, whether the Government has evaluated if this practice runs against the Government's policy objective to conserve the historic building; and (8) whether it knows if any eateries at PMQ have been issued with liquor licences; if they have, of the dates of issuance and number of the licences issued; whether the authorities concerned have consulted the residents in the local community and conducted assessment on the impacts of alcohol sale at PMQ on such residents when considering the relevant licence applications; if they have not, of the reasons for that?
7. Hon Starry LEE to ask: (Translation)
Section 6(1)(b) of the Places of Public Entertainment Ordinance (Cap. 172) provides that any person who sells, or offers or exhibits or has in his possession for sale, or solicits the purchase of, any ticket authorizing admission to any place of public entertainment licensed under this Ordinance at a price exceeding the amount fixed by the proprietor or manager of such place or by the organizer of the activity held therein shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of $2,000 (such tickets are commonly known as "scalped tickets"). It has been reported in some social networking web sites that in recent years, ticket scalping syndicates hire large numbers of South Asians to queue up overnight at various ticket selling points for buying tickets for scalping. This shows that ticket scalping activities are becoming more organized and sophisticated in division of labour. It has also been reported that the penalty against ticket scalping is too lenient, which is far from adequate to curb such activities. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of reports received and prosecutions instituted by the Police about ticket scalping activities, the number of persons convicted for carrying out such activities, the penalty imposed on such persons in general, as well as the total value of the admission tickets involved, in each of the past three years; (2) of the numbers of reports on ticket scalping received and prosecutions instituted by the Police about ticket scalping activities in respect of the soccer exhibition match between Kitchee and Manchester United held in July last year, the Hong Kong Sevens held in March this year, and the concert by the Taiwanese band Mayday held in this month; the number of persons convicted for carrying out such activities, the penalty imposed on such persons in general as well as the total value of the admission tickets involved; (3) whether it has conducted any study to find out if ticket scalping activities has become more organized and sophisticated in division of labour in recent years; if so, of the outcome; (4) whether police officers disguised as customers (commonly known as "covert operations") were deployed in the past three years to combat ticket scalping activities on the Internet; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; whether it will step up law enforcement actions by, for instance, increasing the frequency of "covert operations"; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (5) whether it will review the penalty for ticket scalping to enhance its deterrent effect; and (6) whether it will make reference to the relevant practices on the Mainland and encourage organizers of mega events to sell their tickets by way of "real name registration", under which ticket purchasers are required to provide the names of the entrants for printing on the tickets at the time of ticket purchase, and ticket holders whose names are different from those shown on the tickets will be denied entry, so as to curb ticket scalping activities; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
8. Hon IP Kin-yuen to ask: (Translation)
Quite a number of the teaching staff members of the member institutions ("institutions") of the Vocational Training Council ("VTC") have expressed the concern that given the continuous decline in the number of secondary school graduates in recent years, the institutions in which they work may reduce manpower due to a decrease in student intake. They have pointed out that as the numbers of teachers to those of students ("T/S ratios") of various institutions have dropped continuously in the past few years, any further reduction in manpower will not only increase the workload of the remaining teaching staff, but also affect teaching quality. Regarding the staff establishment of VTC and its institutions, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(1) the respective T/S ratios of the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education, Hong Kong Design Institute, School of Business and Information Systems as well as the Youth College under VTC in 2000-2001, 2005-2006, 2010-2011, 2013-2014 and the next academic years respectively; the methods and criteria adopted by VTC for determining the T/S ratios of these institutions; whether the T/S ratios of these institutions have been adjusted after the 2000-2001 academic year; if so, of the reasons for such adjustments; and the long-term plans of VTC to raise the T/S ratios of these institutions; (2) the (i) numbers and (ii) starting salaries of the teaching and supporting staff of various ranks for different disciplines/programmes of each of the four institutions mentioned in (1), as well as (iii) the numbers of students of such programmes, in each of the past five and the next academic years (set out the relevant information in tables of the same formats as Tables 1 to 4 below); the policies and methods adopted by VTC for determining the staff establishment of and the starting salaries of various ranks for such disciplines/programmes; and
Table 1: Hong Kong Institute of Vocational EducationDiscipline/ Programme 2009-2010 Head of Department Principal Lecturer Senior Lecturer Lecturer Tutor Teaching Associate Research Assistant Instructor Number of Students (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (iii) Applied Science Engineering Information Technology Business Administration Hotel, Service and Tourism Studies Design Child Education and Community Services Languages
Table 2: Hong Kong Design InstituteDiscipline/ Programme 2009-2010 Head of Department Principal Lecturer Senior Lecturer Lecturer Tutor Teaching Associate Research Assistant Instructor Number of Students (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (iii) Design Foundation Studies Communication Design and Digital Media Fashion and Image Design Product and Interior Design
Table 3: School of Business and Information SystemsDiscipline/ Programme 2009-2010 Head of Department Principal Lecturer Senior Lecturer Lecturer Tutor Teaching Associate Research Assistant Instructor Number of Students (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (iii) Yi Jin Diploma Programme
Table 4: Youth CollegeDiscipline/ Programme 2009-2010 Head of Department Principal Lecturer Senior Lecturer Lecturer Tutor Teaching Associate Research Assistant Instructor Number of Students (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (iii) Business and Services Engineering Design and Technology
(3) the respective names of the administrative units newly added to VTC Headquarters and the numbers of posts with pay levels equivalent to those of senior lecturers or above in such units, in each of the past three and the next academic years?
9. Hon Tony TSE to ask: (Translation)
The Residential Properties (First-hand Sales) Ordinance (Cap. 621), which has been fully implemented since 29 April 2013, provides that property sizes and per-square-foot/per-square-metre property prices may only be quoted on the basis of saleable area ("SA") in sales brochures, price lists and advertisements of completed and uncompleted first-hand residential properties. In addition, the Estate Agents Authority ("EAA") issued a practice circular in May 2012, requiring estate agent practitioners to provide their clients of second-hand residential properties with area and price information on SA with effect from 1 January 2013. In reply to the question of a Member of this Council on 23 January 2013, the Secretary for Transport and Housing stated his belief that gradually, the second-hand residential property market would present floor area and price information of properties predominantly in SA only. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows the number of cases of contravention of the aforesaid practice circular by estate agents which EAA uncovered since it issued the circular, and the number of relevant complaints EAA received; of the follow-up actions taken by EAA on such cases; (2) whether it has assessed the latest situation of the second-hand residential property market "gradually presenting floor area and price information of properties predominantly in SA only" and when that goal will be reached; if it has assessed, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that and whether it will conduct such an assessment; (3) whether it will extend the ambit of the requirement that "property sizes and per-square-foot/per-square-metre property prices may only be quoted on the basis of SA" to cover second-hand residential properties, so that there is a uniform requirement in the residential property market; if it will, of the details and implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and (4) whether it has assessed the prospective changes to the significance, role and function of gross floor area in the residential property market; if it has assessed, of the outcome and corresponding measures; if not, the reasons for that?
10. Prof Hon Joseph LEE to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the resource allocation mechanism of the Hospital Authority ("HA"), will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(1) the criteria currently based on which HA determines the financial and manpower resources to be allocated to various public hospitals; (2) whether HA has based on some criteria in determining the financial and manpower resources allocated to various public hospitals for the provision of nursing services; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) the estimates of expenditure made by various public hospitals in respect of the provision of nursing services and the respective amounts of funding allocated to them in the past five years, and whether there was any surplus funding; if so, of the approach adopted for dealing with the surplus funding; and (4) whether HA has considered establishing an independent funding allocation system for nursing services, so that the respective Cluster General Managers (Nursing) of the various hospital clusters can deploy and use the funding flexibly to assist the hospitals in need and the relevant departments in enhancing their nursing services; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
11. Hon CHAN Chi-chuen to ask: (Translation)
Earlier on, service disruptions of the MTR East Rail Line due to failures in the signalling system occurred one after another, and there were also similar service disruptions of the Ma On Shan Line. Under the existing requirements, the MTR Corporation Limited ("MTRCL") is required to notify the Transport Department within eight minutes of any service disruption incident which has lasted for eight minutes or is expected to last for eight minutes or more. Moreover, according to the service performance arrangement ("the Arrangement") under the Fare Adjustment Mechanism ("FAM") of MTRCL, a fine will be imposed on MTRCL for any service disruption of 31 minutes or more, and the fines must be used for the provision of fare concessions to passengers. There are comments that despite making a profit as large as $13.2 billion last year and having frequent service disruptions, MTRCL has still managed to increase its fares by 3.6%, which reveals that there are problems with the existing mechanism. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows the respective numbers of incidents of disruption in the services of the East Rail Line and Ma On Shan Line in the year ending April 2014, with a breakdown by railway line and duration of service disruption (i.e. (i) less than eight minutes, (ii) eight minutes to less than 31 minutes, and (iii) 31 minutes or more); among such incidents, of the respective numbers of those that were caused by (iv) equipment failures; (v) staff's behaviours; (vi) passengers' behaviours and (vii) inclement weather; the amount of fines to be paid by MTRCL for such disruptions; (2) whether it knows if MTRCL has investigated if the signalling systems of the two aforesaid railway lines are ageing; if the investigation outcome is in the affirmative, whether MTRCL has any plans to replace the entire signalling systems; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) whether it knows if MTRCL has investigated if the ageing of the train systems and their parts as well as the failures of newly installed parts were involved in the aforesaid incidents; whether MTRCL has plans to replace the relevant systems as well as increase the number of maintenance staff and the frequency of inspections on such systems; if MTRCL has such plans, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; whether the authorities will consider requiring MTRCL to allocate a specified percentage of its operating expenditure to repair and maintenance work; (4) whether the authorities will take any follow-up action (including imposition of fines on MTRCL) in respect of MTRCL's making public the service disruption incident of the East Rail Line on the 27th of last month only after it had occurred for nearly 20 minutes; (5) whether it knows at present, how many minutes after a railway service has been disrupted will MTRCL provide free shuttle bus services for its passengers; in the year ending April 2014, of the respective numbers of times for which MTRCL provided free shuttle bus services during service disruptions of the two aforesaid railway lines; (6) whether it will revise the existing Arrangement to stipulate the imposition of a fine for any railway service disruption lasting eight minutes or more, and to introduce a penalty arrangement for the progressive reduction of the salaries of MTRCL's management personnel according to the number of service disruptions; and (7) whether it will review afresh the existing FAM of MTRCL to include the number of service disruptions as one of the considerations for the rate of fare adjustment, so as to avoid the situation of MTRCL raising its fares substantially despite frequent occurrence of railway service disruptions?
12. Hon Albert HO to ask: (Translation)
It is reported that there has been an upward trend in the number of cases of patients being infected in public hospitals with antibiotic-resistant bacteria (including extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing organisms, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in recent years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(1) a breakdown by hospital cluster of the number of cases of patients being infected in public hospitals with any of the aforesaid three bacteria in the past three years; (2) whether the Hospital Authority ("HA") has studied the reasons for the increase in the number of the aforesaid infection cases; if it has, of the results; if not, the reasons for that; and (3) whether HA has formulated new measures to prevent bacterial infection of patients in public hospitals; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
13. Hon Cyd HO to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the statistics on owner-occupier households at year-end in each of the past 10 years, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of owner-occupier households in public and private housing; and (2) among the owner-occupier households in private housing, of the respective numbers of those who (i) did not own any other residential unit, (ii) owned another residential unit, and (iii) owned two or more other residential units?
14. Dr Hon Helena WONG to ask: (Translation)
To prevent and control human infections of avian influenza A (H7N9), the authorities conduct tests at the Man Kam To Animal Inspection Station for H7 avian influenza on samples taken from imported live chickens, and allow these live chickens to be delivered to the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market ("the Wholesale Market") while awaiting the test results. In January this year, avian influenza viruses were found in the samples from a batch of imported live chickens. As a result, the authorities culled more than 20 000 local and imported live chickens in the Wholesale Market and closed it for 21 days. On 29 January, the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene of this Council passed a motion urging the Administration to expeditiously propose plans to improve the live chicken supply system, and immediately study the segregation of local-farm live chickens for independent conveyance to markets. When the trading of live chickens was resumed on 19 February, the Government decided to suspend the import of live chickens for around four months, and focus on studying measures in preparation for the resumption of the import of live chickens from the Mainland, so that in case avian influenza viruses are found in the samples from imported live chickens and the Wholesale Market has to be closed, supply of local live chickens to the market can continue by delivering them to the retail outlets via the proposed check-point at the government farm in Ta Kwu Ling. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that the Secretary for Food and Health has indicated that Fu Tei Au would be considered as the site for keeping imported live chickens temporarily but it would take time to conduct the relevant studies, whether the authorities are still considering that site; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (2) whether, before a site for keeping imported live chickens temporarily has been identified, it will maintain the suspension of the import of live chickens from the Mainland, so as to avoid the situation where the supply of local live chickens to the market is affected by avian influenza viruses being found again in the samples from imported live chickens; and (3) whether it has formulated any measure to deal with, before the segregation of local and imported live chickens, the situation where avian influenza viruses are found again in the samples from live chickens; if it has, whether it will implement again the relevant measures taken in January (including culling all live chickens in the Wholesale Market and offering compensation to affected members of the trade); if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
15. Dr Hon Elizabeth QUAT to ask: (Translation)
Network systems generally use the prevalent Secure Sockets Layer ("SSL") network security protocol to encrypt network communications in order to protect the confidentiality and integrity of data during transmission. OpenSSL Project is an open-source toolkit for the implementation of the SSL network security protocol, and the toolkit can be used to produce digital certificates ("e-Certs"). The official website of OpenSSL announced on 7 April 2014 that a security loophole known as "Heartbleed" was found in version 1.0.1 of OpenSSL. Some network security experts have pointed out that e-Certs produced by servers installed with version 1.0.1 of OpenSSL are susceptible to attacks or hacks, which may result in usernames, passwords or other sensitive information being stolen and may hence cause global network disasters. In addition, the Financial Secretary proposed the initiative of "considering the provision of digital identity to all Hong Kong citizens in order to develop a common, shared and safe platform" in the 2014-2015 Budget. Some members from the information technology sector opine that when implementing the relevant policies, the authorities should ensure that the security loopholes of the encryption technology concerned have been plugged. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has investigated if the aforesaid security loophole has caused any data leakage from the Government's servers; if there was data leakage, whether it has taken effective remedial measures; (2) as it has been learnt that after the aforesaid security loophole was made public, a number of SSL technology service providers in the United States have been busily implementing the relevant remedial measures for their local clients, and a majority of such service providers do not have an office in Hong Kong, whether it has tried to find out if these service providers have given sufficient support to their clients in Hong Kong; whether it has requested these service providers to take the initiative to provide relevant information and assistance to their clients in Hong Kong; (3) whether it has set up a dedicated task force to handle and follow up the problems caused by the aforesaid security loophole, and proactively informed and offered assistance to the business sector and small and medium enterprises; if it has, of the specific arrangements; if not, the reasons for that; (4) whether it has estimated the amount of economic loss brought about by the aforesaid security loophole to Hong Kong; if it has, of the details; (5) given that OpenSSL encryption technology can be used to produce eCerts, whether it has tried to find out if, apart from Hong Kong Post Certification Authority, the service providers issuing eCerts for local use have provided solutions in respect of the aforesaid security loophole, and the jurisdictions in which such service providers are located; and (6) what specific measures it will draw up to plug the security loophole of the encryption technology concerned and further enhance network security, so as to encourage the use of eCerts by the public and the business sector?
16. Hon TANG Ka-piu to ask: (Translation)
At present, government departments and the Community Care Fund ("CCF") administer various assistance schemes for people with low income or economic difficulties ("assistance schemes"), but the income limits for applying for such schemes are different, and there is no standardized review mechanism. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective income limits for three-person and four-person households applying for the assistance schemes listed in the table below, and the respective numbers of applications received from three-person and four-person households with underage members under such schemes last year (set out in the table below); Assistance scheme Income limit for three-person households Number of applications from three-person households with underage members Income limit for four-person households Number of applications from four-person households with underage members Full grant under the Student Financial Assistance Schemes for primary and secondary students Public rental housing Comprehensive Social Security Assistance ("CSSA") Scheme Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme Samaritan Fund "One-off Living Subsidy for Low-income Households Not Living in Public Housing and Not Receiving CSSA" under CCF Waiving Mechanism of Public Hospitals
(2) of the respective monthly income of two-person to six-person households on the official Poverty Line as calculated on the basis of the latest statistics on household income; (3) whether the government departments concerned took into account the official Poverty Line and the Statutory Minimum Wage ("SMW") rate during their last reviews of the income limits for applying for the assistance schemes set out in (1); if so, how these two factors affected the income limits concerned, including their respective weightings in the relevant considerations; (4) whether the government departments concerned consulted the related policy bureaux during their last reviews of the eligibility criteria for applying for the assistance schemes set out in (1); whether the authorities have put in place a set of standardized internal guidelines for reference by various departments in conducting such reviews; if they have not, how the authorities ensure that the eligibility criteria for applying for different assistance schemes will not differ greatly, and whether they will consider drawing up such guidelines and stating clearly in the guidelines that the income limits for applying for different assistance schemes should not be set lower than the levels of SMW rate and the official Poverty Line; and (5) given that the Chief Executive has indicated in the 2014 Policy Address that the Government will commission a consultancy study to examine the feasibility of providing a more user-friendly one-stop service for applying for different welfare schemes, of the current progress of such consultancy study, and the expected time for implementing the measures concerned?
III. Bills
| Committee Stage and Third Reading
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| Appropriation Bill 2014 | : | The Financial Secretary
|
| Amendments to heads of estimates in
Committee of the whole Council on the Appropriation Bill 2014 | ||
| Hon Albert CHAN, Hon LEUNG Kwok-hung, Hon CHAN Chi-chuen, Hon Claudia MO, Hon WONG Yuk-man, Hon SIN Chung-kai, Hon James TO, Dr Hon Helena WONG, Hon Gary FAN, Hon WU Chi-wai, Hon LEE Cheuk-yan, Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG, Hon CHEUNG Kwok-che and Hon Cyd HO to move the Committee stage amendments in the Appendix.
| ||
| (These amendments were also issued on 17, 24 and 30 April 2014
under LC Paper Nos. CB(3)566/13-14, CB(3)573/13-14 and CB(3)602/13-14 respectively) | ||
| (Debate and voting arrangements for Committee stage amendments to the Appropriation Bill 2014 (updated version issued on 5 May 2014 under LC Paper No. CB(3) 615/13-14(01))
| ||
| Other Public Officers to attend the Committee stage | : | The Chief Secretary for Administration
The Secretary for Justice Secretary for Transport and Housing Secretary for Home Affairs Secretary for Labour and Welfare Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Secretary for Security Secretary for Education Secretary for the Civil Service Secretary for Food and Health Secretary for the Environment Secretary for Development Under Secretary for Home Affairs Under Secretary for the Environment Under Secretary for Transport and Housing Under Secretary for Security Under Secretary for Food and Health Under Secretary for Education Under Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Under Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Under Secretary for Development |
| Second Reading (Debate to resume), Committee Stage and Third Reading
| ||
| Dutiable Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2014 | : | Secretary for Food and Health |
IV. Members' Motions
Clerk to the Legislative Council