12 items of subsidiary legislation and 3 other papers to be laid on the Table of the Council set out in Appendix 1

Members to ask 21 questions (6 for oral replies and 15 for written replies)

Contents of 21 questions, Members to ask such questions and public officers to reply set out in Appendix 2

Prevention and Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation (L.N. 32 of 2020)

(No public officer will attend this item)

(Debate and voting arrangements set out in LC Paper No. CB(3) 433/19-20 issued on 19 May 2020)

(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 8 to 12 standing over from the meeting of 23 October 2019)

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

(Item 14 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 15 standing over from the meeting of 13 November 2019)

(Item 16 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)

(Items 17 and 18 standing over from the meeting of 15 January 2020)

(Standing over from the meeting of 12 June 2019)

(Standing over from the meeting of 12 June 2019)

Hon Paul TSE to ask:

The social incidents, which have persisted for more than half a year, have dealt a heavy blow to Hong Kong's economy. Then, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 epidemic (formerly referred to as "novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia") has been sweeping across the globe, plummeting the global economy and stock markets. Some members of the accounting sector have predicted that if the Government does not implement additional relief measures, the economy of Hong Kong may fall further, with bankruptcy and winding up cases reaching a peak in August this year and registering a huge year-on-year increase of 20% to 30%. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Andrew WAN to ask:

Some members of the public have relayed that recently, some police officers, who had lost control of their temper when handling public events, misbehaved themselves, for instance, hurling abuses at members of the public and reporters as well as subjecting them to violence. Although the Police have indicated that the police officers involved in 21 incidents have been rebuked, those members of the public doubted the effectiveness of this course of action. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask:

Since January this year, there have been successive confirmed cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (commonly known as "Wuhan pneumonia") imported into Hong Kong from the Mainland. In February, several thousand members of the healthcare personnel of the Hospital Authority ("HA") went on strike for five consecutive days, demanding that the authorities impose a ban on the entry of all visitors into Hong Kong via the Mainland and adopt measures to reduce their risk of infection, including ensuring an adequate supply of face masks. Moreover, it has been reported that due to the tight supply of personal protective equipment ("PPE"), some healthcare personnel are requested to reuse their isolation gowns or temporarily keep their used face masks in paper bags for reuse. HA has also repeatedly lowered the requirements stipulated in the infection control guidelines on the protection specifications of PPE that should be used by healthcare personnel when conducting various medical procedures. Regarding HA's tackling of the epidemic and related matters, will the Government inform this Council:

Dr Hon Fernando CHEUNG to ask:

In recent months, the Police have placed a large number of mills barriers on certain footpaths, and fenced off government buildings with huge water barriers. Some wheelchair users and visually impaired persons have complained to me, alleging that such objects have caused inconvenience to them, including passageways leading to lifts being obstructed, tactile guide paths being broken up, and iron gates of the water-barrier enclosures being too narrow for wheelchairs to pass. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHUNG Kwok-pan to ask:

To prevent infection of the Coronavirus Disease 2019, healthcare personnel and members of the public need to always wear face masks. Some environmentalists have pointed out that a large number of face masks are disposed of improperly every day, giving rise to not only risks of virus spreading but also pollution to the environment. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Dr Hon Priscilla LEUNG to ask:

While the Government has been searching for suitable premises for use as temporary quarantine facilities since the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 epidemic in Hong Kong, it has encountered much difficulty. On the other hand, among the camps operated by non-governmental organizations ("NGOs"), only Po Leung Kuk Jockey Club Pak Tam Chung Holiday Camp was earlier on used as a temporary quarantine facility. Regarding the provision of quarantine facilities, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Andrew WAN to ask:

At present, the Hong Kong Housing Authority ("HA") has to pay the Government, for each subsidized sale flat ("SSF") project, 35% of the development cost of the flats sold as the land cost for the Government's provision of site formation and supporting infrastructure, with the development cost being the aggregate of the construction cost and overhead cost. Regarding the land costs for SSF projects, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHAN Hoi-yan to ask:

The Chairperson of the Competition Commission ("the Commission") attended on the 27th of last month, before her departure from office at the end of last month, a meeting of the Panel on Economic Development of this Council. At that meeting, she used the term "market failure" to describe Hong Kong's fuel market, and suggested that the Government should formulate policies to make the fuel market operate in a fairer manner, and confer on the Commission greater powers to gather evidence to facilitate its investigation into whether oil companies had engaged in collusive price-fixing. On promoting competition in the fuel market, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Dennis KWOK to ask:

The Immigration (Amendment) Ordinance 2012, which came into operation in December 2012, provides for a statutory process for making and determining non-refoulement claims. It also provides that a claimant who is aggrieved by the decision may lodge an appeal, which will be handled by a statutory Torture Claims Appeal Board ("TCAB"). The Government later introduced a unified screening mechanism ("USM"), which commenced operation in March 2014, to screen claims made by illegal immigrants refusing to be removed to another country on all applicable grounds (such as the risk of subjecting to torture or persecution). Besides, under the Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115), the Director of Immigration ("the Director") may, on an application of a claimant who has a substantiated claim, permit the claimant to take employment. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Jimmy NG to ask:

The Hong Kong Housing Authority is currently studying the feasibility of redeveloping its six factory estates for public housing (particularly public rental housing ("PRH")) use. At present, there are about 3 300 tenants in these factory estates and the occupancy rates of the units therein are as high as 98%. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon CHAN Hak-kan to ask:

A site located at the junction of Sung Wong Toi Road and To Kwa Wan Road, where the Kowloon Animal Management Centre ("AMC(K)") of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department as well as the ex-quarters and vehicle workshop of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department are housed, was rezoned in April 2016 for the purpose of public housing development. In a paper recently submitted to the Finance Committee of this Council, the Government indicates its plan to relocate AMC(K) to another place and then complete the demolition work for the vacated AMC(K) in the second quarter of 2024. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Charles Peter MOK to ask:

The Government presented a paper to the Finance Committee ("FC") of this Council in the middle of last month to seek funding approval for the implementation of the second round of relief measures. The relief measures include the offering of special subsidies to exchange participants of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong ("SEHK") and Hong Kong Futures Exchange and to Securities and Futures Commission ("SFC") licensees: exchange participants belonging to Categories B and C ("Categories B and C brokerages") will each be disbursed $50,000, and each SFC licensee will be disbursed $2,000. The justification for the proposal set out in the paper is as follows: "[d]ue to the COVID-19 outbreak, the business opportunities and hence income of small and medium-sized intermediaries and licensed individuals of SFC (i.e. brokerage firms and their responsible officers/representatives) have been adversely affected. Small and medium-sized intermediaries serving primarily retail clients are particularly hard-hit by the [current] adverse business environment. The reduced face-to-face contact and the recent market volatility have impeded the businesses of these small and medium-sized intermediaries, notwithstanding the recent surge in market turnover." Recently, some members of the industry have queried that the aforesaid justification is factually incorrect, and hence the aforesaid paper has allegedly misled FC. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Kenneth LEUNG to ask:

For several consecutive days in April this year, the Air Quality Health Indexes recorded by the general and roadside air quality monitoring stations in various districts reached 8 or above (i.e. "Very High" or "Serious" health risk), with the 1-hour concentrations of ozone ("O₃") in some districts even exceeding 200µg/m³. Under the prevailing Air Quality Objectives ("AQOs"), the 8-hour average concentration limit of O₃ in air is 160µg/m³, which is less stringent than that of 100µg/m³ as recommended by the World Health Organization. However, in the latest review of AQOs, the Government did not propose to tighten the AQO for O₃ on the grounds that the regional background O₃ level was relatively high and the various emission reduction measures would further reduce the emission of nitric oxide in the urban areas, thereby reducing the consumption of O₃ in the urban areas. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Elizabeth QUAT to ask:

Recently, complaints have been lodged against a university lecturer about his making misrepresented and hatred-inciting comments in public, and a teacher for the subject of General Studies ("GS subject") for primary education distorted historical facts when teaching the history of Opium War to students. Furthermore, some textbooks for GS subject for primary education and teaching materials for the subject of Liberal Studies ("LS subject") for senior secondary education are alleged to have biased contents, e.g. overemphasizing negative examples when mentioning the situation on the Mainland and deliberately exaggerating the conflicts between the Mainland and Hong Kong. With regard to guarding students from being corrupted by incorrect or biased teaching contents, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Charles Peter MOK to ask:

In February this year, the Innovation and Technology Bureau was allocated $800 million under the Anti-epidemic Fund to subsidize the research and development ("R&D") as well as the production of reusable masks ("masks") for use by members of the public. In early May, the Government announced that it had earlier commissioned the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel ("HKRITA") to coordinate the production of the masks. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Elizabeth QUAT to ask:

In view of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 epidemic, classes of all schools in Hong Kong have been suspended since the end of January this year. As the epidemic has subsided, the Education Bureau ("EDB") has announced that classes of primary and secondary schools will resume in three phases starting from 27 May. Regarding the arrangements for class resumption, will the Government inform this Council:

Prof Hon Joseph LEE to ask:

At present, the Hospital Authority ("HA") recruits part-time nurses through its Locum Recruitment Website and other channels, and it also hires the services provided by nurses employed by agencies ("agency nurses"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:

Hon Jeffrey LAM to ask:

The Government proposed amendments to the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112) at the end of 2017 to implement a two-tiered profits tax rates regime ("the two-tiered regime"), so that the profits tax rates applicable to the first $2 million of assessable profits for corporations and unincorporated businesses could be reduced by 50%. The Government's proposed legislative amendments aimed to reduce the tax burden on enterprises (especially small and medium enterprises and startups), foster a favourable business environment, drive economic growth, create job opportunities and enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness. The Government projected at that time that the tax revenue would be reduced by about $5.8 billion per year as a result of the implementation of the two-tiered regime. The two-tiered regime has come into operation and is applicable to any year of assessment commencing on or after 1 April 2018. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon Starry LEE to ask:

Hong Kong's economy and people's livelihood are badly hit by the Coronavirus Disease 2019. As revealed by the findings of a survey conducted in April this year by the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, 64.9% of the respondents indicated that their income had dropped due to the epidemic, and 67.5% of the respondents were worried that they or their family members would lose their jobs. Although the Government has earlier launched two rounds of relief measures under the Anti-epidemic Fund ("AEF"), some operators and practitioners in a number of trades still indicate that they have not benefited from the measures. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Hon WU Chi-wai to ask:

The Hong Kong Housing Authority ("HA") has implemented a Quota and Points System ("QPS") applicable to non-elderly one-person applicants since 2005. Some members of the public have relayed that in recent years, while the number of such applicants has remained on the high side, the number of public rental housing ("PRH") units available for allocation to them has been on the low side, resulting in their average waiting time for PRH rising continuously. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Dr Hon KWOK Ka-ki to ask:

The Child Assessment Service under the Department of Health ("DH") provides professional assessments for and follow-up services needed by children who are under 12 years of age with developmental disorders or behavioural problems. Seven Child Assessment Centres ("CACs") under DH provide such services. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: