6 items of subsidiary legislation/instruments and 1 other paper to be laid on the Table of the Council set out in Appendix 1

Members to ask 22 questions (6 for oral replies and 16 for written replies)

Contents of 22 questions, Members to ask such questions and public officers to reply set out in Appendix 2

(Standing over from the meeting of 23 October 2019)

(Debate and voting arrangements set out in LC Paper Nos. CB(3) 195/19-20 and CB(3) 218/19-20 issued on 9 and 17 December 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 23 October 2019)

(Debate and voting arrangements set out in LC Paper Nos. CB(3) 195/19-20 and CB(3) 218/19-20 issued on 9 and 17 December 2019)

(Items 6 to 10 standing over from the meeting of 23 October 2019)

(Item 11 standing over from the meeting of 13 November 2019)

(Item 12 standing over from the meeting of 11 December 2019)

(Debate and voting arrangements set out in LC Paper Nos. CB(3) 195/19-20 and CB(3) 218/19-20 issued on 9 and 17 December 2019)

(Item 13 standing over from the meeting of 13 November 2019)

(Item 14 standing over from the meeting of 27 November 2019)

(Debate and voting arrangements set out in LC Paper Nos. CB(3) 195/19-20 and CB(3) 218/19-20 issued on 9 and 17 December 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 12 June 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 12 June 2019)

Hon CHAN Hak-kan to ask:

In recent months, huge quantities of dangerous chemicals have been stolen from the laboratories of three universities; improvised explosive devices and petrol bombs have been seized by the Police on a number of occasions; a secondary school laboratory assistant and two other persons have been arrested on the spot for suspected testing of remote-controlled bombs; a secondary school student has been prosecuted for suspected carrying of the explosive TATP to school; and rumours about plots to vandalize electricity supply facilities and to put poison into reservoirs have been circulated on the Internet. Regarding the law and order in Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Holden CHOW to ask:

Some academics have pointed out that quite a number of people have recently been misled by wrong messages into identifying with and even advocating Hong Kong independence. They suggest that the Government should step up publicity and education efforts within the Government and among education institutions at various levels and the various youth uniformed groups, so that more people will understand the constitutional status of the Hong Kong SAR under the "one country, two systems" as well as the national conditions. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:

Hon Mrs Regina IP to ask:

Since June last year, the ongoing demonstrations and violent acts have dealt a heavy blow to Hong Kong's economy and various sectors, especially the tourism, catering and retail industries. The real Gross Domestic Product for the whole of last year is expected to see a drop of 1.3%, and the unemployment rate may rise continuously. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council, in order to stimulate consumer spending for boosting economic recovery and employment, whether it will consider the following proposal put forward earlier on by the New People's Party: handing out to each of the Hong Kong residents aged above 18 a local consumption voucher, with a six-month validity period and a total value of $10,000 (of which the amounts to be spent on catering and retail services are both $4,000 and the amount on tourism services is $2,000); if not, of the reasons for that?

Ir Dr Hon LO Wai-kwok to ask:

A report of the Study on Existing Profile and Operations of Brownfield Sites in the New Territories, published by the Planning Department in November last year, pointed out that there were 7 373 active brownfield sites throughout the territory, involving an area of around 1 414 hectares and providing about 52 000 jobs. The authorities have indicated that they would assist brownfield operators affected by government development projects to identify alternative sites for reprovisioning of their business, including reserving, in major development projects, sites suitable for the development of multi-storey buildings ("MSBs") or open-air sites for reprovisioning of such brownfield operations. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHAN Han-pan to ask:

On 1 January last year, the Government launched the Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme. The amount of monthly subsidy was set at one fourth of the actual public transport expenses after deducting the first $400, subject to a cap of $300 ("the former Scheme"). On 1 January this year, the Government enhanced the Scheme by raising the subsidy rate and the cap to one third and $400 respectively, but no change was made to the aforesaid $400 threshold for subsidy collection ("the new Scheme"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHAN Kin-por to ask:

It has been reported that while international crude oil prices have dropped by nearly half from the peak in 2014, local petrol pump prices have gone up instead of going down over the same period and even hit record high time and again. A website which monitors global oil prices has pointed out that, taking the end of last year as an example, the petrol pump prices in Hong Kong was the highest in the world and even far higher than the relevant prices in neighbouring places (e.g. Singapore, South Korea and Japan). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Alice MAK to ask:

Since the 2011-2012 financial year, the Hospital Authority ("HA") has employed non-locally trained medical practitioners who have been approved by The Medical Council of Hong Kong for limited registration. Persons employed as Service Residents under limited registration must possess qualifications comparable to the Intermediate Examinations of the constituent Colleges of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine ("HKAM") ("Qualification One"), while persons employed as Associate Consultants under limited registration must be certified or registered as a specialist in relevant specialty in the country of practising medicine or possess equivalent qualifications, and the certification or registration system of the specialist status concerned must be nationally or officially recognized in the country of practising medicine ("Qualification Two"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon MA Fung-kwok to ask:

Since 2018, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department ("LCSD") has, in collaboration with the Education Bureau ("EDB"), implemented the reading-for-all campaign with the theme of "Discover and Share the Joy of Reading". To this end, public libraries have organized various reading promotion activities, and EDB has also provided financial resources to kindergartens, primary and secondary schools for promoting reading. However, a report on the 2019 Survey on Hong Kong People's Reading Habits released by the Hong Kong Publishing Professionals Society in April last year showed that about 30% of the respondents did not have the habit of reading physical books in the year before, and almost 80% of the respondents had not heard of the aforesaid campaign. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon LEUNG Che-cheung to ask:

Special child care centres ("SCCCs") subvented by the Social Welfare Department ("SWD") provide special training and care services for children with moderate to severe disabilities who are aged two to under six and have not yet started primary school education. In the financial year of 2017-2018, the average waiting time for SCCC service was as long as 19.6 months and, as at 30 November last year, there were 1 856 children waiting for this service. Such children, while waiting for SCCC service, may be arranged to receive other pre-school rehabilitation services. It is learnt that quite a number of parents of such children have enrolled their children in ordinary kindergartens in order that their children may have certain physical and mental development while waiting for SCCC service. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon SHIU Ka-fai to ask:

It is learnt that the disturbances arising from the opposition to the proposed legislative amendments, which erupted more than half a year ago, have brought great impacts on trade fair activities, including a substantial decrease in the number of exhibitors, a slump in the attendances of overseas and local buyers, and shortened exhibition hours due to unexpected incidents or traffic conditions, causing heavy losses to the exhibitors. On the other hand, the Government has announced earlier that there will be enhancements to the SME Export Marketing Fund ("EMF"): starting from the 20th of this month, the cumulative funding ceiling for each small and medium enterprise ("SME") will be raised from $400,000 to $800,000, and an option will be added whereby SMEs may apply for an initial payment of up to as much as 75% of the approved government funding. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Alvin YEUNG to ask:

The controlling officer for Head 122 (Hong Kong Police Force) of Government expenditure is the Commissioner of Police ("CP"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the following information in respect of each of the financial years from 2015-2016 to 2019-2020:

Dr Hon Priscilla LEUNG to ask:

It is learnt that currently quite a number of buildings which do not have owners' corporations ("OCs") or any form of residents' organizations, or have not engaged property management companies ("PMCs") (commonly known as "three-nil buildings") are plagued by poor building management, which has given rise to problems in respect of hygiene, security, fire safety, building maintenance, etc., thus making it difficult for the residents concerned to live in peace. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHAN Chun-ying to ask:

Hong Kong used to be the premier global centre for offshore Renminbi ("RMB") businesses, with over RMB1 trillion being parked in Hong Kong during the peak period at the end of 2014. However, the volume of offshore RMB transactions in Hong Kong has shrunk year after year in recent years, and RMB deposits also dropped to RMB636.4 billion in October 2019. On the contrary, despite the fact that London, a competitor of Hong Kong, established its offshore RMB centre only in 2011, it has now replaced Hong Kong as the largest offshore RMB foreign exchange ("FX") transaction centre globally. In August last year, the market shares of London and Hong Kong in offshore RMB FX transactions were 43.9% and 24.37% respectively. In addition, the Government of the United Kingdom proposed in June 2019 that banks should be allowed to include RMB-denominated bonds in their eligible collateral lists so as to further consolidate London's position as an offshore RMB FX transaction centre. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Dr Hon Pierre CHAN to ask:

On 18 June 2017, the Hospital Authority ("HA") raised the charge payable by eligible persons for using the services of the accident and emergency ("A&E") departments of public hospitals from $100 to $180, so as to encourage A&E patients whose conditions are not the most urgent to switch to using outpatient services. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:

Hon Jimmy NG to ask:

Regarding the revitalization scheme ("the scheme") for industrial buildings ("IBs"), the reactivation of which was announced by the Government in the 2018 Policy Address, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Elizabeth QUAT to ask:

It is learnt that "sponge city" is a modern stormwater management approach which helps collect stormwater effectively, optimize the use of stormwater through the water recycling system and drain away stormwater timely to prevent the occurrence of flooding. At present, quite a number of countries and more than 30 Mainland cities have adopted the sponge city concept, and Hong Kong has planned for many years to develop a sponge city. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Prof Hon Joseph LEE to ask:

The Government announced on 29 January last year that it had earmarked an allocation of $500 million for the Hospital Authority ("HA") to assist HA in meeting the additional expenditure to be incurred in coping with the winter surge of influenza. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Kenneth LEUNG to ask:

On improving Mandatory Provident Fund ("MPF") schemes, will the Government inform this Council whether it has plans to: (i) require trustees to offer, as investment choices for all of the MPF schemes managed by them, equity funds that track the performance of global equity indices and funds that track global bond indices, (ii) enact legislation to provide that the expense ratios of index funds must not be higher than 0.2%, (iii) enact legislation to stipulate the caps on the expense ratios of various funds, and to lower such caps year after year, and (iv) require trustees to remove funds with unsatisfactory performance (e.g. persistently having rates of return lower than the relevant benchmarks by 5% or more for the past five years) from their MPF schemes; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Hon Dennis KWOK to ask:

The Court of Final Appeal has pointed out, in a judgment on a judicial review case concerning the Office of the Communications Authority Trading Fund ("OFCATF") handed down on 27 December 2017, that the objectives for the establishment of a trading fund under the Trading Funds Ordinance (Cap. 430) are directed to self-funding from income generated by the trading fund. As such, the authorities erred by wrongly construing Cap. 430 as permitting the inclusion in OFCATF's budgets projections for notional tax or dividends to be treated as surplus funds to be transferred to the general revenue. Moreover, as the Telecommunications Ordinance (Cap. 106) does not authorize recovery in excess of cost by the authorities, any incidental profits made in OFCATF's operation cannot be a "distributable profit" transferable into the general revenue under Cap. 430. With effect from the date on which the judgment was handed down, the five trading funds established by the Government under Cap. 430 (namely OFCATF, the Companies Registry Trading Fund, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Trading Fund, the Land Registry Trading Fund and the Post Office Trading Fund) are no longer required to pay notional profits tax and dividends to the Government. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Charles Peter MOK to ask:

It is learnt that the mainstream design of new-generation telematics is to connect smart devices and cloud platforms through radio waves for drivers to access driving information, communicate and browse the Internet for information, as well as to provide features that help enhance driving safety and efficiency. However, the existing legislation imposes stringent restrictions on the contents of the information or the view given by a visual display unit visible to the driver whilst in the driver's seat ("visual display unit"). As such, it is required to disable some features of new-generation telematics and even remove some accessories from them prior to vehicle registration. On the other hand, the Government indicated in April last year that the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office ("PICO") would review the Road Traffic Ordinance (Cap. 374) and relevant subsidiary legislation to see whether the relevant legislation was capable of supporting the development and application of autonomous vehicles and telematics. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Tony TSE to ask:

Tso/Tong lands (commonly known as "ancestral land") in general refer to the village lands in the New Territories which are collectively owned by traditional organizations (e.g. families or Tongs) and not by individual persons. It is learnt that as the criteria for the sale of Tso/Tong lands are rather stringent, including the requirement that the registered manager of the Tso/Tong concerned must obtain the consent issued by the District Officer ("DO") of the relevant district on behalf of the Secretary for Home Affairs, and the DO will issue such consent only when there is unanimous consent of all the stakeholders, coupled with the problem that different villages act according to their own customs, the overall planning and development of Tso/Tong lands and the lands in their vicinity have been restrained. It has been reported that the Heung Yee Kuk and the Home Affairs Department formed a working group last year to study ways to facilitate the sale and development of Tso/Tong lands, so as to promote the development of the New Territories and increase the overall supply of land in Hong Kong for development. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHU Hoi-dick to ask:

The Chief Executive indicated in the Policy Address delivered on 10 October 2018 that the Government would introduce the following measures ("the new measures") which sought to enhance the protection of the employment terms and conditions as well as labour benefits of non-skilled workers engaged under government service contracts that relied heavily on the engagement of non-skilled workers ("contracts"): (A) a worker with no less than one year's continuous service under a Standard Employment Contract of the contract would be entitled to a contractual gratuity being 6% of the total wages earned, (B) a worker with no less than one month's service would be entitled to statutory holiday pay, and (C) a worker who works when Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 8 or above is in force would be entitled to no less than 1.5 times of the wages. Such measures would be applicable to contracts tendered from 1 April 2019 onwards. As for contracts at the tendering stage or already awarded during the period between the day on which the relevant measures were announced in the aforesaid Policy Address and 31 March 2019, transitional arrangements would be put in place by the Government: the new terms would be incorporated into the relevant contracts having regard to the actual circumstances to enable the workers concerned to benefit from the measures, and the Government would provide service contractors ("the contractors") with top-up payments in this regard. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: