A 16/17-25
Legislative Council
Agenda
Wednesday 31 May 2017 at 11:00 am
I. Tabling of Papers
| Subsidiary Legislation / Instruments | L.N. No. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Admission and Registration (Amendment) Rules 2017 | 103/2017 |
| 2. | Trainee Solicitors (Amendment) Rules 2017 | 104/2017 |
| 3. | Import and Export (Strategic Commodities) Regulations (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2017 (Commencement) Notice | 105/2017 |
Other Paper
| 1. | No. 101 | - | Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation
Annual Report 2016 |
| (to be presented by Financial Secretary) | |||
II. Questions
1. Hon Michael TIEN to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that in recent years, the Police have detected a number of crime cases of great public concern by taking advantage of the clues obtained from the closed-circuit television ("CCTV") footages near the crime scenes and such footages have constituted crucial evidence in the trials concerned. On the other hand, some members of the public have relayed to me that the installation of CCTV systems is conducive to reducing traffic contraventions. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the current number of CCTV systems installed in public places by government departments; whether the authorities will install more CCTV systems in various crime black spots to enhance the deterrent effect and assist in law enforcement; (2) of the number of crime cases detected in the past 10 years by various law enforcement departments by taking advantage of the clues obtained from CCTV footages; and (3) whether the authorities will conduct a study on the installation of CCTV systems at bus termini, road junctions with yellow box markings, locations where illegal parking is frequent and traffic black spots to assist the Police in taking law enforcement actions against traffic contraventions; whether the authorities will consider amending the relevant legislation to expressly provide that CCTV footages can be taken as sufficient evidence to prove traffic contraventions such as illegal parking and stopping on yellow box markings?
2. Hon IP Kin-yuen to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that in January last year, the Education Bureau ("EDB") and the State Ministry of Education ("Ministry of Education") established a mechanism for holding regular working meetings ("the meeting mechanism") and decided that two working meetings would be held each year. On the other hand, the Ministry of Education published early this year the Key Points of Work for 2017, which included "implementing on a full scale the various tasks assigned by the Central Government in respect of the work on the education in Hong Kong and Macao". However, Article 22 of the Basic Law stipulates that no department of the Central People's Government and no province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government may interfere in the affairs which the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ("HKSAR") administers on its own; Article 136 provides that on the basis of the previous educational system, the HKSAR Government shall, on its own, formulate policies on the development and improvement of education. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) which side proposed the establishment of the meeting mechanism; of the details of the mechanism as well as the differences in nature and contents between this mechanism and previous exchange activities between the two sides; the reasons why EDB has yet to announce the details of the mechanism despite the fact the mechanism has been established for more than one year; whether other bureaux or government departments have established similar mechanisms with relevant Mainland authorities; (2) whether the Secretary for Education, when attending the regular working meeting held early this year, discussed with the officials of the Ministry of Education the Key Points of Work for 2017; if so, of the details; whether EDB received instructions at the meeting or on other occasions to complement the relevant Mainland authorities in implementing the tasks mentioned in the key points of work; whether the Government will make it clear to the relevant Mainland authorities that the education policies of HKSAR are affairs which it administers on its own, and hence are not subject to interference by Mainland authorities as provided in Article 22 of the Basic Law; and (3) of the respective dates on which various regular working meetings were held since January last year and the issues discussed at those meetings; whether it will make public the relevant documents for and the contents of the meetings, and report them to this Council on a regular basis; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
3. Hon Wilson OR to ask: (Translation)
It has been reported that as revealed by the findings of a questionnaire survey released recently, among some 900 students from Primary Five to Secondary One surveyed, 30% and 40% of the primary and secondary school students respectively were assessed as having potential suicidal tendency. The academic who conducted the survey has pointed out that students facing changes such as moving on to secondary school and adaptation to new social circles are more susceptible to emotional distresses, and recommended that the parties concerned should raise students' sense of happiness and improve their ability to face adversities. On the other hand, it has been reported that an online game named "Blue Whale" originated from Russia has recently found its way into Hong Kong. That game, which promulgates ideas of suicide and self-mutilation, may poison the psychological health of young people in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it will follow up the findings and recommendations of the aforesaid survey and take measures to reduce the risks of students committing suicide; if so, of the details of the measures; if not, the reasons for that; (2) whether it has gained an understanding about the number of local players of the aforesaid online game, and assessed the possible psychological impacts of that game on young people; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (3) whether it will step up efforts in educating young people to cherish their lives, so that they may be immune to the influence of ideas of suicide and self-mutilation disseminated through the Internet; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
4. Hon KWOK Wai-keung to ask: (Translation)
In March this year, the Government announced that the Chief Executive in Council had approved in principle that the site of the former Central Market be granted to the Urban Renewal Authority ("URA") by a private treaty for a term of 21 years at a nominal land premium, to enable URA to conserve and revitalize the Central Market Building ("CMB"). On the other hand, when commencing the Lee Tung Street redevelopment project in Wan Chai in 2007, URA stated that it would feature in the redevelopment project a "Wedding City" with a wedding-themed design so as to preserve the original characteristics of Lee Tung Street where there used to be a large number of printing shops for wedding cards. The project was completed at the end of the year before last, but the "Wedding City" was missing. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) as URA has made an undertaking to the Government that it will ensure that the tenants of the revitalized CMB will aim at providing affordable goods and services, of the measures put in place by the Government to ensure that URA will honour that undertaking and will not repeat its failure in the Lee Tung Street redevelopment project; whether such measures will include specifying in the land grant agreement that URA is required to lease the shops in the revitalized CMB to small operators at low rents; (2) whether it knows if URA will conduct a public engagement exercise to consult the public on the modus operandi of the revitalized CMB and on the affordable cultural and retail facilities that should be provided there; how the authorities will rehouse the shop operators that are still running business in CMB at present; and (3) as some members of the public have suggested that URA should make reference to the Lau Pa Sat Market in the central business district of Singapore, and position the revitalized CMB as a food court offering inexpensive food of good quality and with local flavours, whether the Government will request URA to study that suggestion; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
5. Hon POON Siu-ping to ask: (Translation)
In November last year, the Members of this Council from the labour sector and all the six employee representatives in the Labour Advisory Board submitted to the Government a report on legislating for standard working hours ("SWH"). On the other hand, the Standard Working Hours Committee submitted its report on working hours policy to the Government in January this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the current-term Government will, before the end of its term, proceed to implement the recommendations in the two aforesaid reports; if so, of the specific measures; if not, whether measures are in place to ensure that the next-term Government will take forward the work of legislating for SWH; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (2) whether, in order to take the lead, promote family-friendly employment policies, take forward the work of legislating for SWH and protect the rights and interests of grass-roots workers, the Government will revise the "Standard Employment Contract" to be signed between government service contractors and their non-skilled workers to stipulate that the wage rate for overtime work must be higher than the hourly wage rate of the employees concerned, or to stipulate that the SWH for such employees should be 44 hours per week and that overtime work must be compensated at 1.5 times of the wage rate, as recommended in the aforesaid report submitted by the labour sector; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
6. Dr Hon Helena WONG to ask: (Translation)
The Hospital Authority ("HA") has adopted a sentinel event reporting mechanism since 2007 and added two types of serious untoward events to the mechanism since 2010. Under the mechanism, public hospitals must report such events to the HA Head Office within 24 hours. On the other hand, when two doctors in the Renal Specialist Outpatient Clinic of the United Christian Hospital ("UCH") provided high-dose steroid treatments to a hepatitis B ("HBV") carrier in January and February this year respectively, they did not concurrently prescribe antiviral prophylaxis to reduce the risk of acute hepatitis flare-up triggered by steroid treatments. Subsequently, the patient suffered from acute hepatitis and underwent two liver transplant surgeries. UCH had all along not reported the event since uncovering this serious untoward event on the 6th of last month, and it did so only after the patient's family made enquiries on the 19th of last month. UCH then made public the event on the 9th of this month. In addition, it has been reported that such nephrologists are not authorized to prescribe hepatology drugs, and they have to refer such cases to the relevant specialists or more senior doctors for decision. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(1) the number of cases, in each year since HA's adoption of the sentinel event reporting mechanism, in which public hospitals failed to comply with the requirements of reporting such events within 24 hours and details of such cases (including the names of the hospitals involved and whether the staff members involved in delayed reporting on such events were punished); whether HA will conduct an investigation to see if there were events in the past 10 years which have so far not been reported but should have been reported as required, and announce the investigation outcome; if HA will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (2) whether HA will conduct a comprehensive investigation to ascertain whether there were cases, other than the aforesaid UCH incident, in the past 10 years in various public hospitals in which patients were not prescribed anti-HBV prophylaxis despite medical needs and subsequently suffered from acute hepatitis; if HA will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (3) whether HA will review and relax the restrictions currently imposed on specialists' prescribing drugs of other specialties so as to avoid delays in treatment for patients; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
*7. Hon CHAN Chun-ying to ask: (Translation)
The Financial Secretary has indicated in his Budget Speech this year that "[a]s revealed by the Bank for International Settlements' survey findings published last September, Hong Kong continued to rank top globally in terms of the volume of RMB [renminbi] foreign exchange transactions. These are testimonies to Hong Kong's status as the global offshore RMB business hub." However, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication announced in its special edition of The RMB Tracker published in April this year that London had become the largest offshore RMB foreign exchange ("FX") transaction centre globally. According to the data shown in that special edition, in the first quarter of this year, around 36.3% of the world's offshore RMB FX transactions were conducted with the United Kingdom, while Hong Kong was second with a 29.3% share. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has studied why Hong Kong's global ranking, in terms of the volume of offshore RMB FX transactions, has dropped from the top ranking in the fourth quarter of last year to the second in the first quarter of this year; (2) of the measures adopted by the Government since the fourth quarter of last year to consolidate Hong Kong's top ranking; and (3) of the new measures it will adopt in the coming few months (including the third and the fourth quarters of this year) to enable Hong Kong to recapture the top ranking?
*8. Hon James TO to ask: (Translation)
The Stamp Duty (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance, which implements the doubled ad valorem stamp duty ("DSD") measure and has come into operation since 25 July 2014, provides for the following arrangement for stamp duty refund: a Hong Kong permanent resident may, upon production of proof that he/she has disposed of his/her single original residential property within six months after the date of executing the conveyance on sale for acquisition of a new residential property, apply for a partial refund of the ad valorem stamp duty ("AVD") within the statutory time limit ("application for stamp duty refund"). On 4 November last year, the Government announced that the raising of AVD rates to a new flat rate of 15% across the board, with continued adoption of the aforesaid arrangement for stamp duty refund. It is learnt that during two periods from 25 July 2014 to November 2016 and from December 2016 to February 2017, the authorities received respectively 3 042 and 206 applications for stamp duty refund, which were made more than six months after the date of executing the agreements for sale for acquisition of the new residential properties. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) regarding the aforesaid 3 042 and 206 applications for stamp duty refund, of the respective numbers of applications submitted by the applicants (i) within the seventh or eighth month, (ii) within the ninth or tenth month, (iii) within the eleventh or twelfth month and (iv) more than 12 months, after the date of executing the agreements for sale for acquisition of the new residential properties; (2) among the aforesaid 3 042 applications for stamp duty refund, of the respective numbers of applications falling under the following circumstances: the applicant executed the agreement for sale of his/her original residential property within (i) three months, (ii) the fourth or fifth month and (iii) the sixth month after the date of executing the conveyance on sale for acquisition of the new residential property; (3) among the aforesaid 206 applications for stamp duty refund, of the respective numbers of applications falling under the following circumstances: the applicant executed the agreement for sale of his/her original residential property within (i) three months, (ii) the fourth or fifth month and (iii) the sixth month after the date of executing the conveyance on sale for acquisition of the new residential property; and (4) regarding all of the applications for stamp duty refund received by the authorities in the aforesaid two periods, of the respective numbers of those applications in which the new residential property purchased by the applicant was first-hand and second-hand?
*9. Hon Charles Peter MOK to ask: (Translation)
In March this year, the computer system of a consultancy firm engaged in a related project of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was attacked by ransomware, causing a large number of its files being encrypted and locked. Moreover, WannaCry, a ransomware program targeting at the old versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, caused havoc on a global scale early this month, and quite a number of users in Hong Kong were affected as well. Regarding the information security of government departments, public bodies and organizations involved in public works projects (i.e. works contractors, consultancy firms and suppliers of materials), will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of reports on computer system and information security incidents received last year by the authorities from (i) government departments, (ii) organizations involved in public works projects and (iii) public bodies; among such reports, the number of those involving ransomware and the resultant monetary losses (if any); the respective mechanisms whereby these three types of organizations should report incidents on computer system and information security, and the respective contingency measures to be taken by them; (2) whether it knows the contingency measures taken by the aforesaid consultancy firm after its computer system was attacked by ransomware; whether the process through which the firm reported the incident to the Government was in compliance with the existing procedure and the relevant details; of the types and quantities of the information contained in the locked files of the firm, and whether there were files deleted in the end; if so, of the types and quantities of the information contained in the deleted files, and whether such files had backed-up copies; whether the incident has caused any monetary losses to the Government and the firm; (3) whether the contract signed between the Government and the aforesaid consultancy firm has specified the requirements in respect of the firm's computer system and information security (e.g. mandatory installation and regular updating of computer security software); if so, of the details; if not, whether the Government has issued guidelines on computer system and information security to the firm after the incident, and required the firm to install or update anti-malicious code software and firewall software; (4) whether the Government has drawn up standard requirements in respect of the computer and information security systems and anti-virus software to be used by organizations involved in public works projects and public bodies; if so, of the details, including (i) whether such requirements include timely updating of computer system and information security software and hardware, and (ii) whether the contracts signed between the Government and the organizations involved in public works projects and the guidelines issued to public bodies contain such requirements; (5) whether the Government has, after the incident of the aforesaid consultancy firm's computer system having been attacked by ransomware, assessed the computer system and information security risks of organizations involved in public works projects, and formulated arrangements for third-party audits; if so, of the details; if not, whether it will immediately take such actions; (6) of the respective numbers and percentages of computers, among the computers currently used by various government departments, that are using the following versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system: (i) Windows 10 containing the latest and free anti-virus software but the system updating function has not been activated, (ii) Windows 7 not installed with the security update patch KB4012215, which is available for download, (iii) other old versions (including Windows XP, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2003 (set out the details of such versions)); (7) of the number of offline computers currently used by government departments, and the names and versions of the operating systems that such computers are using; (8) whether it has drawn up internal guidelines to require various departments to regularly update their computer software and hardware, and whether it has plans to update those outdated computer operating systems; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (9) of the measures taken by the Government so far to deal with the threats posed by WannaCry ransomware, so as to prevent computer system and information security incidents; whether it will assess afresh Government's capability to deal with various types of computer system and information security incidents, and assist private enterprises and public bodies in strengthening their capability to guard against information security incidents?
*10. Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask: (Translation)
Regarding public dental services, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that under the Outreach Dental Care Programme for the Elderly, 22 outreach dental teams have been set up by 11 non-governmental organizations to provide outreach dental services for eligible elderly people, of (i) the establishment of each outreach team, (ii) the details of the dental services (e.g. oral care training and oral health assessment), and (iii) the average duration of and average number of elderly people receiving services in each service session at present; (2) given that the Pilot Project on Dental Service for Patients with Intellectual Disability is due for completion in August 2017 and the authorities are now studying the way forward to continue to provide dental service for patients with intellectual disability, of the details and latest progress of the study; (3) as the Director of Audit pointed out in his Report No. 68 published in April this year that there were a number of problems with public dental services (e.g. outdated oral health goals, low overall participation rate of eligible elderly people in the Elderly Dental Assistance Programme launched under the Community Care Fund, a number of students who made appointments through the School Dental Care Service not attending scheduled appointments, under-utilization of the emergency dental services in General Public Sessions), whether the authorities will conduct a review of the public dental services in the light of those problems and make improvements; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (4) as it was pointed out in a research report published in December last year that there were only 2.13 dentists per 1 000 elderly people in Hong Kong, and such ratio lagged behind those in advanced countries (e.g. the relevant figures in Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan were 8.84, 4.16, 3.60 and 3.15 per 1 000 elderly people respectively), whether the Government will set a target on elderly population/dentist ratio and, based on such target, train up a sufficient number of dentists; and (5) whether the Government will, in the long run, formulate policies on the provision of comprehensive public dental services; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
*11. Hon WU Chi-wai to ask: (Translation)
Regarding the support provided for start-up enterprises which apply innovation and technology ("start-up enterprises"), will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the various policy bureaux will, when conducting policy review or legislative work at present, assess issues relating to innovation and technology applications and consult the relevant parties of the innovation and technology industry; if so, whether the relevant consultation work is to be carried out by individual policy bureau or by the Invest Hong Kong ("InvestHK") under the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau in a consolidated manner; whether the authorities will review the existing practice in respect of consulting the relevant sector; (2) whether it has grasped the information about start-up enterprises which are not set up in the Hong Kong Science Park or the Cyberport, as well as those which are not operating at any co-work space or under various incubation and acceleration programmes; if so, how the departments concerned collected such information; if not, whether it will consider collecting the information; (3) whether the government departments concerned received in each of the past five years requests for assistance from start-up enterprises in relation to government policies or existing legislation hindering their development, and whether unlawful business activities or modes of operation were involved among them; if there are such requests, set out the information with a breakdown by the contents of the requests; (4) of the current support provided by InvestHK for start-up enterprises; whether consultation services on government policies and legislation are included in its support to help start-up enterprises to operate lawfully; if not, of the policy bureaux and government departments currently responsible for providing such support, and whether the Innovation and Technology Bureau ("ITB") and the Innovation and Technology Commission under ITB currently provide such consultation services; if so, of the details; and (5) whether ITB and relevant government departments have studied ways to prevent newly formulated government policies or newly enacted legislation from smothering the development of start-up enterprises, e.g. introducing an internal mechanism, by making reference to the requirement that a heritage impact assessment must be conducted for all new capital works projects, to require that an impact assessment on the development of innovation and technology must be conducted for new policies as and when necessary; if so, of the details; if not, whether they will conduct relevant studies?
*12. Hon Frankie YICK to ask: (Translation)
Under the Road Traffic (Traffic Control) Regulations (Cap 374 sub. leg. G), it is an offence for a driver to use a mobile phone while holding it in his hand or between his head and shoulder if the motor vehicle being driven by him is in motion. Recently, quite a number of members of the public have relayed to me that some taxi drivers placed a tablet or several mobile phones on the dashboard of their vehicles and operated those mobile communication devices with their fingertips while they were driving, endangering the safety of passengers and other road users. However, such behaviours are not regulated by the existing legislation. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the numbers of traffic accidents in each of the past three years arising from drivers being distracted by using mobile communication devices such as mobile phones or tablets while driving, and the resultant casualties of such accidents; (2) as the authorities indicated in reply to my question on 29 April 2015 that the Road Safety Research Committee under the Road Safety Council had been invited to conduct a study on whether the restrictions on the use of mobile phones by drivers while driving should be tightened futher, of the latest progress of that study, and whether any study would be conducted on tightening the restrictions on the use of tablets by drivers while driving; and (3) whether it will consider enacting legislation to impose restrictions on the number of tablets and mobile phones that may be placed by a driver on the dashboard of a vehicle; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and whether it has measures in place to avoid traffic accidents arising from drivers being distracted by using such devices while driving; if there are such measures, whether it has assessed the effectiveness of such measures?
*13. Hon Kenneth LAU to ask: (Translation)
On the 2nd of this month, the Government sent staff to post notices at Wing Ning Tsuen, Fung Chi Tsuen and Yeung Uk Tsuen of Wang Chau in Yuen Long for resumption of land for the implementation of the development at Wang Chau (Phase 1). Feeling very flustered, residents of these villages have made several requests through Heung Yee Kuk to the Government, including the Government's identifying sites for redevelopment of their villages, exempting them from comprehensive income and asset tests in allocating public rental housing ("PRH") units to them, deferring land resumption, etc.. Regarding the rehousing of residents affected by land resumption and squatter clearance programmes, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of households, residents and squatters affected by the development at Wang Chau (Phase 1), as well as the number of households registered in the freezing survey conducted in October 2015 by the authorities; (2) given that households affected by land resumption and squatter clearance programmes announced before September 1998 could be allocated PRH units without being subject to comprehensive income and asset tests but it is learnt that the authorities have revised the policy subsequently, whether such non-means-tested arrangement is no longer applicable at present; if so, of the implementation date; whether the authorities have explained the latest rehousing policy to the affected households when taking forward various programmes involving land resumption and squatter clearance; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) whether it will consider making compassionate arrangements for households affected by land resumption and squatter clearance programmes, such as exempting such households from comprehensive income and asset tests in allocating PRH units and granting them ex-gratia cash allowances; if so, of the details and the timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and (4) whether there are differences in the rehousing arrangements for households on private lands, old scheduled lands and unleased government lands; if so, of the details and the justifications for that?
*14. Hon Holden CHOW to ask: (Translation)
Reclamation works for the Tung Chung New Town Extension will commence at the end of this year. Upon completion, the project will provide 49 400 residential flats for accommodating about 144 400 residents, with the first population intake projected for 2023. To cope with the additional traffic demand, the MTR Corporation Limited ("MTRCL") is going to build the Tung Chung East ("TCE") Station along the Tung Chung Line, but it is expected that the relevant works will not be completed until 2026. During the three-year transitional period, TCE residents have to take shuttle buses to Tung Chung MTR station in order to change for the MTR Tung Chung Line. Moreover, as there are several developments (e.g. the Topside Development at the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, North Commercial District on the Airport Island and Sunny Bay development) being or soon to be undertaken in North Lantau, the working population involved will inevitably aggravate the traffic load in Tung Chung district. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the authorities will ask MTRCL to expeditiously commence the relevant works on Tung Chung Line, so that the works can be completed before the first population intake in TCE; (2) whether it has studied jointly with the Airport Authority the feasibility of building an environment-friendly, efficient and quiet elevated monorail system with high carrying capacity to connect Tung Chung Town Centre with the Airport Island; if so, of the findings; and (3) given that the Airport Express is the only mass transit carrier commuting to and from the Airport Island at present, whether the Government has studied extending the Tung Chung Line to the Airport Island to cater for the increasing traffic demand; if so, of the findings?
*15. Dr Hon Elizabeth QUAT to ask: (Translation)
In his speech at the annual press conference held in February this year, the Commissioner of Correctional Services indicated that the Correctional Services Department ("CSD") "is still undergoing a peak period of staff wastage and the phenomenon will last for another few years". In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective wastages of various ranks of staff members in CSD in the past three years, and their percentages in the total numbers of staff members in the relevant ranks; (2) given that the number of persons in custody ("PICs") being transferred to Accident and Emergency Departments for medical treatments due to acute illness or accidental injuries, or admitted to outside hospitals or sent regularly to outside clinics for specialist treatments due to illness has remained high in recent years, and the related medical escort duties have greatly strained CSD's manpower, whether the authorities will allocate additional resources to CSD for employing additional manpower to cope with such duties; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) as some CSD staff members have relayed to me that they are required to work in rotating shifts and as the rest periods between the first and second shifts are shorter than normal when they have to "catch up with the previous shift", they prefer to stay in the staff common rooms during such rest periods, instead of travelling a long distance to return home (given that most of the correctional institutions are located in remote areas), and yet those common rooms are small with insufficient number of beds and facilities, whether the authorities will make improvement in this respect; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and, (4) of the authorities' measures in place to mitigate the serious wastage of CSD staff; whether they will consider improving the remuneration packages for such staff members, adjusting their hours of work or adopting other measures; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
*16. Hon Tanya CHAN to ask: (Translation)
On the 17th of this month, the Government announced that the Hong Kong Housing Society ("HKHS") will, on invitation, undertake technical and ecological studies (including the potential for developing public housing and elderly housing) ("peripheral areas study") in respect of two sites on periphery of country parks and that HKHS would undertake the study with its internal resources. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the Government commissioned HKHS in the past 10 years to conduct studies on the development of public housing projects; if so, of the dates when such studies were conducted, their nature and the amounts of expenditure incurred; the justifications and procedures for the Government's decision to commission HKHS to undertake the peripheral areas study and the commissioning process involved, including the time when it decided to commence the study, when it extended the invitation to HKHS, and when HKHS accepted the invitation; (2) whether it knows the amount of expenditure incurred by HKHS in each of the past five years in conducting project studies; the estimates of expenditure on the peripheral areas study to be undertaken by HKHS, and whether HKHS has assessed the impact of this additional expenditure on its financial position; (3) of the reasons why the Government has not conducted public consultation before commencing the peripheral areas study; whether the Government will conduct public consultation on the use of sites on periphery of country parks for subsidized housing development; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (4) as the Chief Executive ("CE") has indicated that the Government has discussed with CE-elect the conduct of the peripheral areas study, whether CE-elect has agreed and undertaken that the Government of the new term will continue to support the conduct of the study; if so, of the time when she indicated such stance to the Government; (5) whether the Government has, before inviting HKHS to undertake the peripheral areas study, consulted the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Country and Marine Parks Board, and sought legal advice on whether the conduct of the study would contravene the Country Parks Ordinance (Cap. 208); if so, of the details (including the dates on which such work was undertaken and the relevant outcome); if not, the reasons for that; and (6) of the areas and expected scales of development (including the types and numbers of public housing flats to be provided) of the two sites involved in the peripheral areas study, and the plan for the follow-up work after the completion of the study?
*17. Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung to ask: (Translation)
At present, government departments normally adopt a marking scheme for evaluating tenders for outsourced services, and set the weightings of a tender's scores on technical and price aspects against the overall score to be 30% to 40% and 70% to 60% respectively. Some workers and concern groups on cleaning workers' remunerations have relayed to me that as some outsourced service contractors have cut their manpower in order to suppress wage costs, the workload of cleaning workers has increased substantially, and yet such cleaning workers are only paid meagre wages calculated on the basis of the minimum wage rate. Moreover, some contractors request their cleaning workers to work for seven days a week and refuse to let them take leave on statutory rest days. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that under the existing tendering system, if a government department has full justifications and has secured the consent of the relevant tender board, the department may flexibly adopt a higher weighting for the technical score, of the number of contracts awarded in the past three years under a marking scheme adopting a higher weighting for the technical score; the average extent of the upward adjustments of technical score weightings made in such contracts and the total number of workers involved in such contracts (broken down by government department); (2) whether it will consider adding, in the marking schemes, evaluation items such as staff benefits (e.g. the number of days of paid leave), occupational safety, and the number of times for which the court ruled against a tenderer in previous labour disputes; if so, of the details (including the weightings assigned to such items and the implementation timetable); if not, the reasons for that; (3) given that the Government revised the procurement guidelines in May 2016 to stipulate that when government departments use marking schemes for evaluating tenders for non-construction services contracts which involve the employment of a large number of non-skilled workers (e.g. cleaning workers), the evaluation items of the technical aspect must include "wage levels" and "working hours", of the number and percentage of contracts, among those outsourced service contracts awarded by government departments since the revision, that the tenderers' scores in respect of wage levels and working hours were crucial for their success in the bidding, and the number of workers involved in such contracts (broken down by government department); and (4) whether the Government will revise the procurement guidelines further to stipulate that the evaluation items, adopted by government departments for evaluating tenders for non-construction services contracts that do not involve the employment of a large number of non-skilled workers, must also include wage levels and working hours; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
*18. Hon HUI Chi-fung to ask: (Translation)
The Government has implemented since 1994 the measure of fully exempting electric vehicles from the payment of first registration tax ("FRT"). However, from the current financial year onwards, the FRT concession for electric private cars is capped at $97,500. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of newly-registered electric private cars and electric motor cycles in each of the past five financial years, broken down by model; (2) of the number of newly-registered electric private cars in each of the past five financial years, broken down by retail price ranges as set out in the table below; and
Retail price (HK$) Financial year 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 100,000 or below 100,001 to 300,000 300,001 to 500,000 500,001 to 700,000 700,001 to 900,000 900,001 to 1,100,000 1,100,001 to 1,300,000 1,300,001 to 1,500,000 1,500,001 or above (3) whether it will consider resuming the granting of full FRT exemption for electric private cars; if not, of the reasons for that?
*19. Dr Hon Pierre CHAN to ask: (Translation)
The Government has indicated that it has a long-standing commitment to protect, promote and support the optimal feeding of infants and young children, and that the exceedingly aggressive marketing of formula milk in Hong Kong is considered one of the contributing factors of the low exclusive breastfeeding rates in Hong Kong. Regarding the marketing of formula milk by distributors and the promotion of breastfeeding by the Government, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the quantity of formula milk imported into Hong Kong in each of the past five years; (2) as the Under Secretary for Food and Health indicated at the meeting of the Panel on Health Services of this Council on 10 April this year that the amount of advertising expenditure on milk powder in 2015 was as high as $3.14 billion, and such amount ranked the third largest among the various categories of advertising expenditures that year, whether the authorities know the amount and ranking of advertising expenditure on milk power in each of the years from 2012 to 2014 and in 2016; and (3) of the details (including the expenditure incurred) of the activities conducted by the authorities to promote breastfeeding in each of the past five years, in particular the respective production costs of Announcements in the Public Interest ("APIs") for broadcasting on television and other media and APIs for broadcasting on radio as well as the respective numbers of times that such APIs were broadcast?
*20. Dr Hon YIU Chung-yim to ask: (Translation)
Recently, some members of the public and urban planning experts have relayed to me that pier and related ancillary facilities are lacking in quite a number of places along the shore in Hong Kong, rendering people from the local communities unable to take advantage of a waterfront location. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the definition of "water-friendly" used by the authorities and the policy bureau currently in charge of the water-friendly policy; (2) of the water-friendly facilities currently available and under planning; the policies in place to promote a water-friendly culture, and set out the relevant information one by one; the measures that the authorities have put in place to facilitate local communities' participation in the public engagement exercises when they construct water-friendly facilities and promote relevant policies; (3) whether the authorities made reference to the experience of overseas countries or regions in the past three years in designing local water-friendly facilities and formulating relevant policies, and whether they have assessed the effectiveness of such facilities and policies; and (4) whether the authorities will, in their studies of the construction of piers and related facilities, consider local communities' demands for water-friendly facilities, apart from taking public transport demands into consideration; of the other policies and measures in place to address local communities' demands for water-friendly facilities so as to promote a water-friendly culture?
*21. Hon Kenneth LEUNG to ask: (Translation)
Regarding an incident in which a man committed suicide and died in a detention cell of a police station, the 2015 Coroners' Report recommended to the Police that (i) the number of close-circuit television ("CCTV") cameras be increased or the angles of CCTV cameras be adjusted to monitor the situation in various detention cells, (ii) contractors be arranged to conduct regular checks on the video systems and recording functions of CCTV cameras, and (iii) more monitors be installed to display the footages captured by various CCTV cameras throughout to facilitate the monitoring of the situation in various detention cells and to ensure the normal operation of CCTV cameras. On preventing detainees in police stations from injuring themselves or others, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of cases in which detainees in police stations attempted to commit suicide in each of the past 10 years; (2) of the number of cases in which detainees died in police stations in each of the past 10 years, and set out by year (i) the causes of their deaths, (ii) the names of the police stations concerned and (iii) the reasons for which the deceased persons were detained before death; (3) of the details of the body searches which a detainee is currently required to undergo before entering a detention cell; whether the Police have taken measures other than body searches to prevent detainees from injuring themselves or others; (4) of the respective numbers of police stations which currently have (i) detention cells and (ii) CCTV cameras installed in the corridors outside detention cells; whether the Police have assigned dedicated police officers to monitor the CCTV screens; the reasons why no CCTV cameras have been installed in the corridors outside some detention cells; and (5) whether the Police have assessed if the recommendations put forward in the aforesaid report are feasible; whether the Police have implemented the recommendations; if they have implemented the recommendations, of the expenses incurred and the manpower deployed so far, and the latest progress of the relevant work; if not, the reasons for that?
*22. Hon Jimmy NG to ask: (Translation)
Given Hong Kong's dense population, it will be too ghastly to contemplate the consequences in the event that Hong Kong falls victim to terrorist attacks. Regarding the enhancement of capabilities of countering terrorist attacks, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of (i) the number of counter-terrorism exercises conducted by the authorities in each of the past five years, (ii) the contents of such exercises, (iii) the government departments and related organizations that took part in the exercises, and (iv) the number of personnel who took part in the exercises; (2) whether the authorities will invite public participation in future counter-terrorism exercises to allow members of the public to grasp directly the ways to counter terrorist attacks; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (3) how the authorities will heighten public preparedness in countering terrorist attacks, including reminding members of the public to stay vigilant and the ways to safeguard personal safety during terrorist attacks; of the current manpower and expenses required for such efforts each year; (4) in the past five years, (i) of the number of visitors who were suspected terrorists refused entry into Hong Kong by the authorities each year, and (ii) whether the authorities encountered any difficulty in intercepting terrorists from entering Hong Kong (if so, of the details and ways of handling); whether the authorities have reviewed the existing immigration procedure to see if there are any loopholes (if there are loopholes, of the measures to plug such loopholes); and (5) given that in recent years terrorist attacks have occurred in a number of European and South Asian countries which are frequently visited by Hong Kong people for sight-seeing, of (i) the number of Hong Kong people who sought, while they were travelling abroad, assistance from the authorities in the past five years due to local occurrence of terrorist attacks, and (ii) the details of the assistance offered by the authorities, including the manpower and expenses involved; whether the authorities will allocate additional resources to strengthen the assistance offered to such Hong Kong people; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
* For written reply