Minutes of the 17th Meeting of the Tuen Mun District Council · By Invitation: Mr CHAN Ka-shun Commissioner for Labour, Labour Department Ms YIM Lai -kwan, Cindy . Senior Labour Officer

Minutes of the 17th Meeting of the Tuen Mun District Council

Date: 3 July 2018 (Tuesday) Time: 9:30 a.m. Venue: Tuen Mun District Council (TMDC) Conference Room Present: Time of Arrival Time of Departure Mr LEUNG Kin-man, BBS, MH, JP (Chairman) 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr LEE Hung-sham, Lothar, BBS, MH (Vice-chairman) 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr SO Shiu-shing 9:30 a.m. 12:40 p.m. Mr KWU Hon-keung 9:30 a.m. 12:20 p.m. Mr TO Sheck-yuen, MH 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr CHU Yiu-wah 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms KONG Fung-yi 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr NG Koon-hung 9:33 a.m. 12:42 p.m. Mr CHAN Yau-hoi, BBS, MH, JP 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms WONG Lai-sheung, Catherine 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr AU Chi-yuen 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms HO Hang-mui 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr LAM Chung-hoi 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr TSUI Fan, MH 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms CHING Chi-hung 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms LUNG Shui-hing, MH 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr CHAN Man-wah, MH 9:30 a.m. End of meeting The Hon LAU Ip-keung, Kenneth, BBS, MH, JP 10:40 a.m. 12:41 p.m. Mr CHAN Manwell, Leo 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr CHEUNG Hang-fai 9:30 a.m. End of meeting The Hon HO Kwan-yiu, JP 13:00 p.m. End of meeting Ms CHU Shun-nga, Beatrice 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr TSANG Hin-hong 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms SO Ka-man 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr KAM Man-fung 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr MO Shing-fung 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr YIP Man-pan 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr YEUNG Chi-hang 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr YAN Siu-nam 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr TAM Chun-yin 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr LAU Chun-fai, Lawrence (Secretary)

Senior Executive Officer (District Council), Tuen Mun District Office, Home Affairs Department

By Invitation: Mr CHAN Ka-shun Commissioner for Labour, Labour Department Ms YIM Lai-kwan, Cindy Senior Labour Officer (Employment Services) (Operation),

Labour Department Mr CHONG Tze-wai, Jonathan Principal Information Officer, Labour Department Mr LIU Chun-san Under Secretary for Development, Development Bureau Ms CHONG Yau-ling, Christina Principal Assistant Secretary (Planning & Lands) 6,

Development Bureau Mr LAM Chi-man, David Principal Assistant Secretary (Planning & Lands) 5,

Development Bureau Mr FUNG Ying-lun, Allen Political Assistant to Secretary for Development,

Development Bureau Mr WONG Lap-ki Assistant Secretary (Planning) 6, Development Bureau Ms CHIU Lee-lee, Lily Chief Estate Surveyor (Acquisition Section), Lands Department Mr WU Pak-lam Senior Manager/Clearance (Clearance/Headquarters Office),

Lands Department Mr YAM Sai-ling Principal Land Executive/RD & SP, Lands Department Mr LIN Tang-tai Senior Engineer/Planning Policy, Water Supplies Department Mr FUNG Yuk-ming Engineer/New Territories West (Distribution 2),

Water Supplies Department In Attendance: Ms FUNG Ngar-wai, Aubrey District Officer (Tuen Mun), Home Affairs Department Ms TSUI Man-yee, Joanna Assistant District Officer (Tuen Mun)1, Home Affairs Department Mr LEUNG Tsz-hong, Billy Assistant District Officer (Tuen Mun)2, Home Affairs Department Ms YAN Yuet-han, Fion Senior Liaison Officer (1), Tuen Mun District Office,

Home Affairs Department Mr CHAU Ka-nin, Eric Senior Liaison Officer (2), Tuen Mun District Office,

Home Affairs Department Mr CHEUNG Ka-leung, Tony Chief Engineer/W3, Civil Engineering and Development

Department Mr LAM Man-kwong Senior School Development Officer (Tuen Mun)3,

Education Bureau Ms LEUNG Shu-yan Chief Health Inspector 1, Food and Environmental Hygiene

Department Mr David Christian FREMAUX Deputy District Commander (Tuen Mun), Hong Kong Police Force Ms NG Man-wai Police Community Relations Officer (Tuen Mun District),

Hong Kong Police Force

Ms LEE Pui-kun Senior Housing Manager, Tuen Mun, Housing Department Ms NG Suet-yee, Joyce District Lands Officer, Tuen Mun, Lands Department Mr TAM Kwok-leung Administrative Assistant, Lands (District Lands Office,

Tuen Mun) (Acting), Lands Department Mr WONG Shu-yan, Francis Chief Leisure Manager (New Territories North), Leisure and

Cultural Services Department Ms TAM Yin-ting, Pat District Leisure Manager (Tuen Mun), Leisure and Cultural

Services Department Mr NG Yuk-man, David District Planning Officer, Tuen Mun & Yuen Long West,

Planning Department Mr YU Wai-yip, Ricky District Social Welfare Officer (Tuen Mun), Social Welfare

Department Mr LEUNG Chun-him, Damon Senior Transport Officer/Tuen Mun 1, Transport Department Ms YU Tsz-yan, Blanche (Assistant Secretary)

Executive Officer I (District Council)1, Tuen Mun District Office, Home Affairs Department

Action I. Opening Remarks

The Chairman welcomed all present to the 17th meeting of the Tuen Mun District Council (“TMDC”). On behalf of the TMDC, he also welcomed Mr David NG, District Planning Officer, Tuen Mun & Yuen Long West, and Ms NG Man-wai, Police Community Relations Officer (Tuen Mun District), who were for the first time present at a meeting of the TMDC of the current term. The Chairman took this opportunity to thank Mr LAM Chi-man, David, the former District Planning Officer, Tuen Mun & Yuen Long West, and Ms CHOI Sau-kuen, the former Police Community Relations Officer (Tuen Mun District), for the contributions they had made to Tuen Mun. Besides, he congratulated Mr Leo CHAN for being awarded the Chief Executive’s Commendation for Community Service.

2. The Chairman further said Mr LIU Chun-san, Under Secretary for Development, would join the meeting later. He knew that some Members wanted to present petitions to Mr LIU Chun-san, so he would suspend the meeting for 15 minutes before moving on to the first discussion item (i.e. Proposed Enhancements to Ex-gratia Compensation and Rehousing Arrangements for Government’s Development Clearance Exercises), so that the Members could go to the demonstration area to present their petitions to Mr LIU Chun-san.

3. The Chairman went on to say that Members who were aware of their personal interests in any matters discussed at the meeting should declare the interests before the discussion. The Chairman would, in accordance with Order 39(11) of the TMDC Standing Orders (“Standing Orders”), decide whether the Members who had declared interests might speak or vote on the matters, might remain at the meeting as observers, or should withdraw from the meeting. All cases of declaration of interests would be recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

II. Absence from Meeting 4. The Secretary said the Secretariat had received no applications from Members for leave of absence.

III. Meeting between Commissioner for Labour and Tuen Mun District

Councillors

5. The Chairman welcomed Mr CHAN Ka-shun, Commissioner for Labour, and Ms Cindy YIM, Senior Labour Officer (Employment Services) (Operation) of the Labour Department (“LD”) to attend the meeting to introduce the department’s work to Members and hear Members’ views on matters of concern to the local

-1-

Action community. 6. Mr CHAN Ka-shun said he was very glad to attend the TMDC meeting and take this opportunity to give Members an outline of the LD’s work, including its employment services and related measures, the Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme (“WITS”), the Statutory Minimum Wage (“SMW”), the promotion of labour relations, the importation of labour, occupational safety and health (“OSH”), working hours policy and so forth.

7. Mr CHAN Ka-shun started by giving an introduction on the general employment picture and employment services as follows:

(i) Amid the recent favourable economic conditions in Hong Kong, the unemployment rate stood at the lowest level in more than a decade. The latest unemployment rate was 2.8%, with 112 000 people jobless. The unemployment rate in Tuen Mun was 4.0% in 2017, with 10 400 people jobless, which was high than the unemployment rate in Hong Kong at large;

(ii) A new high of more than 1.41 million job vacancies from the private sector had been recorded under the LD’s recruitment services in 2017, whereas over 600 000 private sector vacancies had been recorded from January to May 2018, up 9.1% compared with the same period in 2017;

(iii) The LD had helped more than 154 000 job seekers to secure employment in 2017. The LD had helped more than 56 000 job seekers to secure employment from January to May 2018;

(iv) The 13 job centres set up by the LD in various districts provided comprehensive employment services free of charge. Job seekers in Tuen Mun could visit the Tuen Mun Job Centre during office hours for employment services. The public could also obtain employment services through the employment services hotline, Interactive the Employment Services website and the mobile application of the department;

(v) To provide job seekers with more convenient services, the LD held large-scale job fairs at shopping centres and community halls in different districts and district-based job fairs at its job centres. From January to May 2018, the LD had held eight large-scale job fairs, with 22 400 job vacancies offered. During the same period, the Tuen Mun Job Centre had organised 33 district-based job fairs to serve the needs

- 2 -

Action

of job seekers living nearby, with a total of more than 9 000 job vacancies offered;

(vi) In recent years, the LD had launched the Higher Education Employment Information e-Platform to enhance employment support for job seekers with higher education (including Hong Kong students who had been educated in tertiary institutes outside Hong Kong, and persons who possessed overseas higher academic/professional qualifications and were interested in working in Hong Kong) to understand the latest Hong Kong employment market and to search and apply for suitable jobs through this online platform;

(vii) On employment support for the youth, the LD had launched the Youth Employment and Training Programme to provide “through-train” training and employment support services for young people aged 15 to 24 with educational attainment at sub-degree level or below; and

(viii) The LD had set up employment resource corners and special counters in all the 13 job centres to serve the employment needs of ethnic minority job seekers and new arrival job seekers. The LD had also hired employment assistants and Employment Service Ambassadors who were proficient in ethnic minority languages to provide employment services for ethnic minority job seekers.

8. Mr CHAN Ka-shun then gave an introduction on the WITS Scheme as follows:

(i) From its launch in October 2011 and up to the end of May 2018, there had been over 400 000 applications in respect of which subsidies totalling $1.8181 billion had been granted to about 122 000 applicants;

(ii) Among the measures introduced in the 2018-19 Budget was the provision of a one-off extra allowance for eligible recipients under the WITS Scheme. The LD had been paying the extra allowance to the eligible recipients since mid-June, and the majority of the eligible recipients were expected to receive the extra allowance by mid-July; and

(iii) The Government implemented the Working Family Allowance (“WFA”) Scheme starting 1 April 2018. As the WFA Scheme could basically cover applicants for the household-based WITS, the Government had cancelled the arrangements for the household-based WITS applications at the same time. From then on, eligible applicants might apply for the WFA and/or the individual-based WITS.

- 3 -

Action 9. Mr CHAN Ka-shun then gave an introduction on the SMW as follows:

(i) The SMW had been raised to $34.5 per hour on 1 May 2017. Since the implementation of the minimum wage in May 2011, the overall employment market had remained stable and the earnings of low-income employees had kept improving. When compared with the quarter before the implementation of the minimum wage (February to April 2011), there had been a 54.9% cumulative increase in the average monthly employment earnings of low-paid full-time employees (i.e. those in the lowest decile group) in February to April 2018, which was higher than the 24.6% cumulative increase in the underlying Composite Consumer Price Index. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in March to May 2018 was 2.8%, down 0.8% when compared with the pre-SMW period; total employment stood at 3 864 900, representing an increase of 322 600 people when compared with the pre-SMW period, among whom some 70% were female. This showed that the implementation of the minimum wage helped attract more people (especially women) to join or rejoin the labour market;

(ii) Since the implementation of the minimum wage (i.e. May 2011 to May 2018), the LD had carried out about 300 000 inspections and, in general, employers’ compliance with the Minimum Wage Ordinance was satisfactory. Including reported cases, a total of 197 cases involving suspected violation of the Minimum Wage Ordinance had been detected. After follow-up actions, LD had confirmed that the employees had received the SMW or recovered the shortfalls in wages; and

(iii) The Minimum Wage Commission was conducting a new round of review on the SMW rate and would submit a report on its recommendation to the Chief Executive in Council by the end of October 2018.

10. Mr CHAN Ka-shun then gave an introduction on labour relations, the importation of labour and OSH as follows:

(i) The LD provided employers and employees with consultation and conciliation services through the offices of its Labour Relations Division (“LRD”). It was mainly the Tuen Mun office that provided services in cases arising in areas covered by the TMDC. Labour

- 4 -

Action

relations in Hong Kong had remained generally stable in 2017 and the numbers of labour disputes and claims handled by the LD had been steady, with 70% of the cases resolved after the department’s conciliation. Cases that could not be resolved through conciliation would be referred to the Labour Tribunal or the Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board for judicial adjudication if the claimants so wished;

(ii) It was the Government’s long-established policy that employers must give priority in employment to local workers and the importation of labour was allowed only when the recruitment of the required labour was proven impossible in Hong Kong. In view of the persistent understaffing in certain industries, the Government would explore with stakeholders how to increase imported labour on an appropriate and limited scale. There were currently about 4 800 imported workers working in Hong Kong under the Supplementary Labour Scheme, representing about 0.1% of the labour force (3.98 million people) in Hong Kong;

(iii) It was undesirable that major industrial accidents had happened one after another in Hong Kong in the previous year, which included five fatal cases involving the local works and hand-dug tunnelling works for Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (“HZMB”). The LD set great store by OSH protection for workers, and it had taken a series of steps to enhance the OSH level in Hong Kong, which included stronger inspection and enforcement efforts, more powerful publicity that encouraged workers to understand their own rights and interests and to report unsafe working environments, efforts to promote the protection given by wearing safety helmets with chin straps properly buckled up, and the production of promo videos that served to boost OSH awareness among site management personnel and construction workers; and

(iv) The LD was carrying out a full review of penalties under the OSH legislation (including giving consideration to suitably raising the maximum fine and imprisonment), with a view to a stronger deterrent effect.

11. Finally, Mr CHAN Ka-shun gave an introduction on working hours policy and the Mandatory Provident Fund (“MPF”) offsetting arrangement as follows:

(i) In response to the studies and recommendations of the Standard

- 5 -

Action

Working Hours Committee, the Government of the previous term had proposed legislation on “contractual working hours” and “mandatory overtime compensation”. In the absence of broad-based support for these two legislative proposals, the Government of the current term had decided to take them no further for the time being and focus efforts to draw up 11 sector-specific working hours guidelines through the LD’s industry-based tripartite committees comprising representatives from employers, employees and the Government. The Government would review and evaluate the 11 sector-specific working hours guidelines three years after their introduction and further explore feasible proposals to improve the working hours policy; and

(ii) The Government had put forward preliminary ideas for the abolition of the MPF offsetting arrangement in March 2018 and had actively met with different employer bodies, chambers of commerce, labour unions and political groups in the previous few months to gather opinions. In the preliminary ideas, severance payments and long service payments would still be calculated based on two-thirds of monthly wages, whereas the Government’s financial commitment would be increased to $17.2 billion from the $7.9 billion proposed by the Government of the previous term, with a view to mitigating the impact of the abolition of the offsetting arrangement on enterprises, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (“MSMEs”). The Government had put forward the preliminary ideas to the Panel on Manpower of the Legislative Council (“LegCo”) and the Labour Advisory Board (“LAB”) on 15 May and 13 June 2018 respectively for discussion. After hearing the opinions of various sectors, the Government would refine the preliminary ideas to work out the final proposal.

12. A Member held the view that the Government should promptly and decisively abolish the arrangement for offsetting severance payments against MPF contributions to stop employees from being deprived of their rights and interests. Moreover, the Member suggested the numbers of statutory holidays and general holidays be aligned to let more employees enjoy the same number of holidays for rest. Besides, she strongly requested the prompt introduction of the seven-day paid paternity leave. She said that from her personal experience, women in pregnancy not only bore physical pain but also needed emotional support, especially care from their husbands. Post-partum depression became an increasingly serious problem

- 6 -

Action among women in recent years, with pregnant women suffering not only from deteriorated health conditions but also a lot of emotional changes and, in serious cases, even hurting their babies by violence. In the long run, babies’ growth could be affected and marital problems could arise as a result. In view of this, she reckoned that the Government should introduce the seven-day paid paternity leave without delay instead of increasing paternity leave by one day each time. She added that the LD should step up the inspection of construction works and the prosecution for offences in construction works to protect the lives and safety of workers. She noted that with significant growth in the number of industrial injury and fatality cases in the previous year, her councillor office had received many cases for assistance in incidents with injuries and deaths of workers. She therefore hoped Mr CHAN Ka-shun would accept her ideas. 13. A Member said the Tuen Mun Job Centre was formerly situated in Parklane Square of Tuen Mun Town Centre, which could be easily located by the public. While the centre had been moved to near her councillor office, there were still many people making enquiries to councillors, so she hoped the department could choose a more suitable place. On the issue of standard working hours, she said the three-shift system (with eight hours per shift) was currently in operation for many job types (e.g. security guard), but wages under this system were not enough to meet the daily expenses of a family, so workers, though unwillingly, had to work 12 hours. In view of this, she opined that the LD should focus on setting standard working hours and at the same time protect employees’ wages and health. Besides, she requested the introduction of the seven-day paternity leave because after childbirth, a woman needed a very intimate person to take care of her, but a man might have to take paid or no-pay leave to stay at home to take care of the woman. Therefore, she considered it more appropriate to extend paternity leave from five days to seven days. Moreover, she hoped the Government could extend the full-pay maternity leave to 14 weeks.

14. A Member said the Government was the largest provider of services to be outsourced and his political party had argued for many years that this system was unsatisfactory when it came to service performance, monitoring of service quality, workers’ remuneration, and issues of labour rights and interests faced by workers who had to enter into new contracts due to changes of contractors. In view of this, he opined that the Government should abolish the outsourcing system to let workers receive reasonable treatment and to ensure service quality. Moreover, he said that as an international metropolis, Hong Kong was not on par with international

- 7 -

Action standards in welfare systems (e.g. the matter of maternity leave for women and paternity leave for men). As a husband with two daughters, he knew very well that after giving birth, a woman needed mental support from her husband very much, so he hoped the Government would extend paternity leave from five days to seven days. 15. A Member reckoned that the Government should set standard working hours as soon as possible. She noted that currently some employees worked more than 10 hours a day and their health was badly affected. Even with contractual working hours in place, employees might be forced to sign contracts to keep their jobs. In view of this, she hoped the Government could set standard working hours as soon as possible to protect employees’ health. Besides, she requested that paternity leave be extended from five days to seven days so that women could receive proper care from their families after childbirth. In addition, opining that Hong Kong lagged behind other places in maternity leave policy, she said maternity leave of 98 days was provided in Mainland China as opposed to the mere 10-week maternity leave provided in Hong Kong, so she requested the Government to introduce the 14-week maternity leave. Furthermore, women felt unwell during their menstrual periods, so she also hoped menstrual leave could be provided to let women get enough rest. She added that many employees wondered if their employers had made MPF contributions for them and they often came to know that their employers had failed to do so only when they left their posts and, as a result, they needed to spend a long time pursuing their claims. She therefore hoped the LD could monitor matters concerning MPF contributions more closely.

16. A Member hoped the LD would align the numbers of statutory holidays and public holidays to protect the rights and interests of all employees. On bankruptcy management and compensation, he noted that foreign enterprises could set up companies in Hong Kong very easily but they often applied for bankruptcy afterwards, leaving Hong Kong people to pay the bankruptcy fees for them. In view of this, he hoped that when foreign enterprises set up companies in Hong Kong, the department could impose stronger regulation under which bank guarantees should be provided to ensure that those companies would pay wages to their employees and there would be no need for Hong Kong people to bear responsibility. He further said that in corporate bankruptcies, some employees failed the authority’s checks and thus received no compensation. He hoped the department could scrap the checking system to ensure employees affected by corporate bankruptcy applications could receive the wages they were entitled to.

- 8 -

Action 17. A Member supported the recommendations made earlier by the labour sector for improvement to labour rights and interests, and he opined that the LD should actively follow up on the measures concerned. He said the LD should move with the times and make improvements, as the protection for labour rights and interests in Hong Kong, a well-developed city with a high GDP, was just at a standard comparable to that in a Third World country, with most of the legislation introduced in the 1970s and 1980s and some of them being imperfect or outdated. Besides, on the outsourcing system matters just raised by a Member, he said that the Hoi Lai Estate incident was just the tip of the iceberg and that, having connections with each other, new and old contractors might exploit loopholes in the tender mechanism to continue their operation with their responsibility of making severance payments evaded; however, employees who wished to keep their jobs had no option but to sign new contracts with the contractors, ending up in being exploited. In view of this, he hoped the department could improve the outsourcing system, so that the relevant departments could carry out strict examination of tenders and require that contractors must make severance payments to their employees upon the end of contracts. In addition, he said a number of large-scale works would be carried out one after another in Hong Kong, so he expressed concern about the many fatal industrial accidents in large-scale works in recent years.

18. A Member said the Panel on Manpower of the LegCo had recommended earlier that the Government should give more weighting to technical scores when examining tenders for outsourced services and should introduce termination compensation. In view of this, he asked whether the Government had undertaken reviews by reference to the LegCo’s recommendations. On the WFA Scheme, he noted that currently the WFA had been relaxed to allow individual-based applications. In view of this, he enquired whether it was possible to combine the applications for the WITS and the WFA and lower the requirements on working hours, so that the public were not required to make separate applications for assistance under two schemes. On labour disputes, he noted that members of the public might need to go beyond areas they belonged to for work, but in case of labour disputes, the LRD offices of the areas they belonged to would not take up their cases. In view of this, he asked whether the arrangements could be improved to allow applicants to register their cases with the LRD offices of the areas they belonged to. On OSH, he said there had so far been 10 and 600 cases of industrial fatalities and injuries respectively in the HZMB project, so it was necessary for the department to step up supervision in this regard. He said he did not know the

- 9 -

Action number of cases followed up by the LD’s Labour Inspection Division and suggested heavier penalties (including putting the contractors involved on a blacklist) be imposed. He further said the Government should legislate on standard working hours as soon as possible, change the frequency of the minimum wage review to once a year, abolish the MPF offsetting arrangement, and align the numbers of statutory holidays and public holidays at 17. [Post-meeting note: According to the information provided by the LD, there had been a total of seven cases of fatal industrial accidents (seven workers) in the local works for HZMB from its commencement in 2011 until 3 July 2018, among which two cases involved the same accident; there had also been two fatal cases (two workers) involving work on vessels, which were investigated and followed up by the Marine Department. Records showed that from 2011 until 2017, a total of 455 workers had been injured in industrial accidents in the local works for HZMB.]

19. On the WITS Scheme and the WFA Scheme, a Member said the application forms were too complicated for members of the public to fill them in correctly and the Government did not provide enough support for applicants to complete the forms. Also, the application thresholds were so unduly high that applicants were required to provide not only the numbers of working hours but also supporting documents; however, some employers did not provide wage slips, or the numbers of working hours were not shown on wage slips. Employers might not necessarily provide such information even if asked by their employees. Therefore, he hoped the LD could raise this with the Labour and Welfare Bureau for improvement to the schemes. He also suggested the LD provide consultation services so that the public could seek assistance from councillors or the LD at the same time.

20. A Member said the existence of different types of subsidies reflected the severity of the problem of workers being exploited by employers; otherwise, there was no need at all to put the subsidy systems in place. In view of this, he requested an across-the-board increase in wage levels. He further said labour rights and interests were not fully protected, adding that the figures for industrial injuries and deaths reflected inadequate effort on industrial safety and the existence of loopholes in works supervision and the outsourcing system. The three-million or so working population in Hong Kong, plus their family members, represented all citizens in Hong Kong, so the LD should do better in labour welfare (including driving forward the MPF, retirement and long service payment systems, etc.). Moreover, understanding that women faced a lot of problems during their childbirth periods

- 10 -

Action and their husbands needed to go out for work, he had for years been striving for the extension of maternity leave, and the extension of paternity leave to seven days. In addition, he requested that the numbers of statutory holidays and public holidays be aligned at 17 and overseas healthcare personnel be imported. 21. A Member said the WITS form was so highly complicated that members of the public often spent several hours at her office filling in the form and they sometimes had to read further information after going home. Thus, the department should simplify the form and set up an enquiry hotline. On maternity leave, she said women were under immense stress before and after childbirth and it took time for them to recover. Currently, maternity leave lasted for as long as 18 months in Canada and, in general, lasted for up to 98 days (0.5 months before delivery and 2.5 months after delivery) in Mainland China, which was extendable to four months in case of late marriage and pregnancy. In view of this, she reckoned that the Government should consider whether the current total maternity leave of 10 weeks in Hong Kong was appropriate and requested an extension of maternity leave to address the needs of women before and after childbirth.

22. A Member said the community had discussed in depth labour welfare for many times, and she hoped the department would legislate on a number of welfare systems as soon as possible, including the alignment of the numbers of statutory holidays and public holidays, the extension of paternity leave to seven days, the setting of standard working hours, the extension of maternity leave to 14 weeks or longer, the cancellation of the outsourcing system and the abolition of the MPF offsetting arrangement. She hoped the department would consider her views seriously.

23. While expressing no objection to the views of other Members, a Member pointed out that small enterprises with only a few employees would face difficulties when their staff were on leave, but these small enterprises had never received government support. He therefore asked whether the Government had considered offering assistance to these small enterprises, and he noted that the Government only invited representatives from the business sector to join the relevant committees. He hoped the departments would not listen to one-sided opinion.

24. Mr CHAN Ka-shun gave a consolidated response to Members’ comments as follows:

(i) After hearing Members’ views, the department would study them

- 11 -

Action

seriously, and it had undertaken reviews on some of the matters; (ii) The Government had put forward preliminary ideas on the abolition of

the MPF offsetting arrangement, and it would consider the opinions received during the consultation period in working out the details of the final proposal for the abolition of the MPF offsetting arrangement. The preliminary ideas currently put forward by the Government were better than the proposals made by the previous Government in terms of the financial commitment to employers, the rates for calculating employees’ interests in severance payments and long service payments and so forth. Besides, the Government would take the concerns and views of MSMEs (especially micro enterprises) into account and explore stronger support for them;

(iii) Through the LAB, discussion with representatives from employers and employees on matters concerning different labour laws was underway, with certain progress made on some matters. Statutory paternity leave had been put into practice in 2015 and the LD had reviewed the implementation of the legislation one year after it had come into effect. During the review, MSME employers were concerned about the manpower implications of a further increase in paternity leave amid the tight labour market. As employers had responsibility for their employees’ leave and wages and most enterprises in Hong Kong were MSMEs, the Government should consider the arrangements concerned cautiously. The department had reported to the LAB on the results of the review and sought its opinions, and the employer and employee representatives had reached a consensus in support of the extension of statutory paternity leave from the current three days to five days. With the proposal having been endorsed by the LegCo Panel on Manpower, the relevant bill had been submitted to the LegCo for scrutiny and it was hoped that it would be implemented as soon as possible. Besides, statutory maternity leave was currently under the LD’s review, in which the needs of working women and the affordability of enterprises would both be addressed. The LAB had not yet come to a consensus about the alignment of statutory holidays with public holidays, which would have far-reaching implications for employers (especially SMEs);

(iv) It was not the LD who decided whether the Government should scrap the outsourcing system; instead, an inter-bureau and inter-departmental working group would work towards enhancing labour protection in a

- 12 -

Action

bid to minimise contractors’ disputes with their non-skilled employees on matters concerning, for example, severance payments or long service payments incidental to the contractors’ failure to extend service contracts. The working group would also explore whether it was possible to give more weighting to technical scores in the examination of tenders for outsourced services;

(v) The Government of the previous term had set up the Standard Working Hours Committee to discuss the controversial topic of standard working hours. After three years of extensive consultation and discussion, various sectors in society remained obviously divided on the topic. In the absence of broad-based support for the legislative proposals for “contractual working hours” and “mandatory overtime compensation”, the Government had decided to take these legislative proposals no further for the time being and focus efforts to draw up 11 sector-specific working hours guidelines, which would be up for review three years after their full introduction;

(vi) While the department conducted more than 130 000 OSH inspections each year, inspections alone might not be adequate. To effectively reduce risk and prevent incidents happening, OSH awareness must be enhanced among employers and employees. In addition, heavier penalties would be of some help, so the Government had been following up on legislative work in this regard;

(vii) Employees who were owed wages and/or other statutory interests under the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund (“PWIF”) due to the bankruptcy of their employers’ companies operating in Hong Kong (whether run by local or overseas investors) might apply for ex gratia payments under the PWIF (with caps set for the ex gratia payments in respect of various protection items). And any employees whose applications were unsuccessful might approach the LD for follow up. Funding under the PWIF mainly came from levies on Business Registration Certificates rather than tax revenues; and

(viii) The LD had simplified the application form for the WITS Scheme to strike a balance between facilitating applicants’ completion of the form and ensuring the proper use of public money. One of the application requirements under the WITS Scheme was working no less than 72 hours per month (for applications for the full-rate subsidy) or working less than 72 hours but at least 36 hours per month (for applications for the half-rate subsidy), so applicants were required to produce proof of

- 13 -

Action

the numbers of working hours to avoid the abuse of the WITS Scheme. In addition, the office of the WITS Division provided support services for applicants in need to complete the application form, and applicants might also call the hotline for enquiries.

25. A Member reiterated that foreign enterprises often went bankruptcy with excuses after setting up companies in Hong Kong, leaving the PWIF to pay the wages concerned, and eventually the payments could hardly be recovered from these foreign enterprises. In view of this, he enquired how to ensure that employees working in such companies were paid, but not by the Official Receiver’s Office. Moreover, when applying for the fund, some employees failed the asset test and their applications were thus unsuccessful. Such an arrangement was not fair on employees with higher incomes, so no asset test should be applied in processing the claim applications.

26. A Member enquired about the figures for industrial fatalities. Moreover, he said a number of large-scale projects would be developed in Hong Kong and suggested the Government impose heavier penalties to lower the risk of workers’ death in industrial accidents. In addition, he opined that it was unfair not to increase the wages of workers, so the frequency of the minimum wage review should be changed to once a year.

27. A Member said the suggestion on LRD offices served to request that applicants be allowed to register their cases with, rather than having their cases processed by, the offices of the areas of their residential addresses. As regards the application form, he suggested a combined form be introduced for the public to complete. Besides, he considered the PWIF application requirements too stringent, with the relevant authority sometimes even refusing to use the Labour Tribunal’s judgments as references. In view of this, he opined that consideration should be given to relaxing the application requirements.

28. A Member said she was glad to know that the Government would review the maternity leave arrangements, which had not been improved for many years. She said the Government generated publicity to encourage childbearing but provided no incentive, so she suggested maternity leave, which was currently on four-fifths pay, be extended and converted into full-pay maternity leave.

29. A Member noted that the WITS Division office was located at Kowloon Bay

- 14 -

Action with opening hours from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., closed on weekends. Opining that such arrangements were not ideal, he hoped the department could provide consultation services at its job centres so that the public needed not rely on the WITS Division office. 30. Mr CHAN Ka-shun gave a consolidated response to Members enquiries and comments as follows:

(i) There was no figure at the department showing whether the bankruptcy rate of overseas companies was exceptionally high. The objective of setting up the PWIF was to protect affected employees rather than the companies concerned. Under this principle, whether the companies concerned were operated by local or overseas investors was not a consideration in the vetting of PWIF applications. Moreover, there was no asset test under the fund, but a cap had been set for the ex gratia payment in respect of each protection item, so employees with higher incomes might not be able to receive from the PWIF the full amounts owed by their employers;

(ii) The number of deaths in industrial accidents was 29 in the previous year;

(iii) The minimum wage committee was responsible for reviewing the minimum wage level and its members came from the labour sector, the business community, academia and the Government. The committee had to adopt an evidence-based approach in carrying out reviews by reference to data in “a series of indicators” and other relevant information, and to make recommendations after in-depth and objective analysis. Thus, it took time to conduct the reviews, and the depth of data analysis and assessment might be affected if the frequency of review was changed to once a year. Hong Kong did not have a long history of implementing the minimum wage, and the current arrangement of conducting the review once every two years had been working well;

(iv) As regards the proposal to unify WITS and WFA applications, since the WFA Scheme could basically cover applicants for the household-based WITS, the Government had cancelled the arrangements for the household-based WITS applications upon the implementation of the WFA Scheme. From then on, eligible applicants might apply for the WFA and/or the individual-based WITS. Applicants for the WITS could not only use the form-filling support

- 15 -

Action

service at the WITS Division office but also call the hotline (3690 8282 or 2717 1771 (manned by 1823) for enquiries; and

(v) The current review of statutory maternity leave mainly served to explore feasible proposals to extend maternity leave, and other items relating to statutory maternity leave, such as maternity leave pay, would also be examined in the report of the review. The current maternity leave pay was the sum equivalent to four-fifths of the average daily wages, which was aligned with the arrangements for sick allowance and paternity leave pay. In addition, some places provided longer maternity leave, but the pay amounts might be lower than four-fifths of the average daily wages, while in some places employees might even be entitled to minimum wages only.

31. The Chairman thanked Mr CHAN Ka-shun for his responses and would like him to consider the TMDC’s views.

IV. Confirmation of Minutes of the 16th Meeting held on 8 May 2018 32. The Chairman said that on 28 June 2018, the Secretariat had sent the draft of the above minutes to all participants in the meeting. As no proposed amendments had been received thereafter and no amendments were proposed by Members at the current meeting, the above minutes were confirmed.

V. Matters Arising (A) Extendable Allocation Arrangement for Public Niches

(TMDC Paper No. 15/2018) (Paragraphs 7 to 36 of Minutes of the 16th Meeting of TMDC) (Written Response of Food and Health Bureau) (Written Response of Transport and Housing Bureau) (Written Response of Environmental Protection Department)

33. The Chairman said Members had noted at the previous meeting that ossuary niches in Tsang Tsui were due for completion in 2019 and they had expressed concern about the ancillary arrangements for transport from Lung Mun Road to Tsang Tsui. After discussion, the TMDC had resolved to further discuss this matter and invite representatives from the Food and Health Bureau (“FHB”), the Transport and Housing Bureau (“THB”) and the Environment Bureau (“ENB”) to the current meeting to address Members’ questions and concerns directly. After that, the Secretariat had received the written responses of the FHB, the THB and the Environmental Protection Department (“EPD”) and emailed the documents

- 16 -

Action concerned to Members for perusal. 34. The Chairman said the EPD stated in its written response that the department was carrying out studies on ancillary transport facilities to support the project to extend the West New Territories Landfill. The proposal concerned involved complex technical issues in engineering and had to take into account the compatibility between the overall regional traffic and transport plan and the development of the neighbouring areas. The study was still underway and due for completion within this year. The department would make reports to the TMDC in due course. In this connection, he suggested the TMDC follow up on this matter when further information was available from the EPD.

35. A Member said that when the Government had proposed years before that 100 000 ossuary niches be built in the district, the TMDC had not only agreed with the proposal but even proposed building 160 000 ossuary niches, and it had also requested the widening of Lung Kwu Tan Road. The TMDC had expressed the demand for the widening of Lung Kwu Tan Road many years before, but the authority still had no plan to widen the road. Given the forthcoming completion of the Tsang Tsui columbarium and the forthcoming commissioning of HZMB, he did not understand why the road issues concerned remained outstanding at such a late stage. As for the 20-year term arrangements for public niches, he opined that the Government should consult with the public to ensure the proposal was fair and just.

36. A Member said the THB stated in its written response that the roads concerned had not yet reached its capacity. In his view, the Chairman might invite the relevant departments to join Members to visit Wong Chu Road and Lung Kwu Tan Road to get a real picture. He further said the TMDC had readily agreed with the proposal only because it hoped the authority would improve the ancillary transport facilities, but the EPD said in its response that it was still conducting studies on the relevant ancillary transport facilities for the project to extend the West New Territories Landfill. Opining that the Government’s responses always came to no conclusion, he was worried very much and hoped the authority would not fool and deal perfunctorily with the TMDC anymore. This matter was further discussed because at the previous meeting there had been dissatisfaction with the transport arrangements, but disappointedly the relevant bureaux again failed to send representatives to this meeting. He hoped the Chairman would follow up on this.

37. A Member said that according to the THB’s written response, the traffic

- 17 -

Action assessment report of the consultant pointed out that the relevant road networks were adequate to cope with visitor flow at the Tsang Tsui columbarium. In this connection, she questioned whether the assessment was based on the visitor flow before or after the completion of the columbarium. As far as she knew, only 20 000 ossuary niches would be allocated at the initial stage of the operation of the Tsang Tsui columbarium, but there would be 160 000 niches when it was in full operation in the future; if calculated on the assumption that each niche was visited by a total of four people, there would be a flow of several hundred thousands of visitors. While the EPD claimed that a study had been carried out, the study served to support the project to extend the West New Territories Landfill and might not necessarily help cope with the additional visitor flow associated with the completion of the Tsang Tsui columbarium, and it would be too late if it was only then that roads were built, so the roads concerned should be widened at the current stage to forestall traffic congestion at that time. 38. A Member cast doubts on whether the assessment conducted by the consultant was thorough and served the purpose. He said HZMB would be commissioned very soon but he doubted whether the consultant had assessed its vehicular traffic volume, and there were no concrete solutions to the traffic problems brought on by the 160 000 ossuary niches during the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung Festivals. He reckoned that if the Government took an uncaring attitude towards the TMDC after gaining its support, the TMDC would need to give a rethink about the partnership between the two sides. He added that at that time the TMDC had agreed a columbarium be built in the area of Lung Kwu Tan in the belief that there was a genuine need for ossuary niches in society, but at this time the Government merely gave the TMDC written responses and said there would be no traffic problem. Furthermore, as roads in Lung Kwu Tan would be used for traffic to and from the landfill to be extended, the TMDC and residents could hardly be convinced that there would be no problem. He therefore opined that the TMDC should further follow up on this matter.

39. A Member said she had no confidence in the traffic impact assessment mentioned in the THB’s written response. She noted that congestion often occurred on Wong Chu Road although the authority had claimed that the road could manage the vehicular traffic volume until 2026; therefore, she found the bureau’s argument unconvincing. And it was unrealistic for the FHB to argue in its response that the transport network near the Tsang Tsui columbarium had enough capacity to cope with the traffic volume after the completion of the facility. What worried

- 18 -

Action Members were the traffic problems arising after the rollout of all the 160 000 ossuary niches, especially during the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung Festivals. She added that when the TMDC had agreed with the construction of the columbarium in Tsang Tsui years before, it had requested not only the widening of Lung Kwu Tan Road but also the linking up of roads in Sheung Pak Nai and Ha Pak Nai, but no such arrangements were in sight so far. Roads in Lung Kwu Tan were for one-lane traffic, and residents had been left with no access after an accident had happened in the Lung Kwu Tan area two years before; hence, she reckoned that support in terms of ancillary transport facilities should be provided during the construction of the facility concerned to avoid impact on residents there and make it easier for people to go to the facility for worship after its completion. In her view, the authority not only had no long-term plans but also stalled the TMDC. She therefore requested the TMDC to further discuss this matter. 40. A Member said the Government had used to enhance roads before developing community facilities, but this time the authority said in its written response that the ancillary transport facilities concerned were still under study. He said the Traffic and Transport Committee of the TMDC were also aware that the building of so many facilities in the Lung Kwu Tan area would certainly bring on traffic problems, so it had been following up on this for many years, and he questioned why the authority was still studying road arrangements even shortly before the completion of the Tsang Tsui columbarium. He said that according to the initial proposal, one of the portals of Tuen Mun Western Bypass would lead to Lung Mun Road, but no headway had been made on the proposal as yet. As regards the proposal, he opined that the two sides of Tsang Tsui should be linked up, with one side leading from Nim Wan to the landfill and Lung Mun Road directly and the other side leading from Yuen Long to Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor directly. He hoped the Chairman could assist in following up on this.

41. A Member reckoned that the Government should take the related ancillary transport facilities into account before building the columbarium. She pointed out that Tuen Mun Road was congested every day and the areas of Lung Mun Road and Lung Kwu Tan Road would see the landfill extension in addition to the columbarium under construction. The TMDC had raised a lot of questions about roads but the authority gave no explanation at all, so she wanted to see closer attention by the Chairman and District Officer (Tuen Mun) (“DO(TM)”) in concert.

42. A Member said that in addition to the columbarium and the landfill

- 19 -

Action extension, there would also be such projects as the Lung Kwu Tan reclamation in the area and, when the vehicular traffic from HZMB was taken into account as well, Tuen Mun Town Centre would also be affected by congestion in the future. He pointed out that slow-lane traffic was already common on sloping roads near Castle Peak Power Station and, even if there had been no landfill extension project, it was hard to accommodate the daily vehicular traffic generated by residents in the area. He also pointed out that the impact from the periods of the Ching Ming and Chung Yeung Festivals was not confined to the two days on which the festivals fell because most members of the public paid worship visits early, so there would be two months each year when traffic in that area was affected. Besides, he did not see any room for the widening of Lung Kwu Tan Road, and the only solution was to build a tunnel through Castle Peak and link up Sheung Pak Nai and Ha Pak Nai. He said it was unfair on the residents of Tuen Mun and Lung Kwu Tan Village as Tuen Mun had accepted all obnoxious facilities. Villagers of Lung Kwu Tan Village would be left with no way at all if traffic incidents happened in the Lung Kwu Tan area. In addition, he held the view that unless the Government could handle this matter properly, Members should consider not endorsing other government proposals for development in that area in the future. 43. A Member said that while the Government was a single entity, the recent meeting discussions had given him an impression that there was a lack of coordination and overall planning among departments. He hoped the Chairman and DO(TM) would liaise with the relevant departments to handle this matter properly.

44. The Chairman said it was not the first time Members made the above comments, and a number of facilities were situated in the areas of Tuen Mun Lung Mun Road, Lung Kwu Tan and Tsang Tsui in Tuen Mun, so it was believed that connecting Tuen Mun Western Bypass with Tsang Tsui and linking up Sheung Pak Nai and Ha Pak Nai were requests shared by Members. He would continue voicing opinions to the bureau, including requesting the three policy bureaux to provide reports as soon as possible within this year, and invite representatives to meetings. He further said representatives from the Development Bureau (“DEVB”) would attend the meeting soon to discuss other matters, and Members could take the opportunity to voice their opinions on this matter to the bureau.

[At this point, the Chairman announced that the meeting be adjourned for 15 minutes and would resume at 11:35 p.m.]

- 20 -

Action VI. Discussion Items (A) Proposed Enhancements to Ex-gratia Compensation and Rehousing

Arrangements for Government’s Development Clearance Exercises (TMDC Paper No. 19/2018)

45. The Chairman welcomed Mr LIU Chun-san, Under Secretary for Development, Ms Christina CHONG, Principal Assistant Secretary (Planning & Lands) 6, Mr David LAM, Principal Assistant Secretary (Planning & Lands) 5, Mr Allen FUNG, Political Assistant to Secretary for Development, and Mr WONG Lap-ki, Assistant Secretary (Planning) 6, of the DEVB; Ms Lily CHIU, Chief Estate Surveyor (Acquisition Section), Mr WU Pak-lam, Senior Manager/Clearance (Clearance/Headquarters Office), and Mr YAM Sai-ling, Principal Land Executive/RD & SP, of the Lands Department (“LandsD”); and Mr Tony CHEUNG, Chief Engineer/W3 of the Civil Engineering and Development Department.

46. Mr LIU Chun-san said that in its previous implementation of development plans (e.g. the Hung Shui Kiu New Development Area (“HSK NDA”) Project), the Government had heard the views of affected people and local stakeholders on compensation and rehousing arrangements, and many residents affected by clearance had claimed that the existing arrangements could not satisfy their reasonable needs. In July of the previous year when the bureau had introduced the implementation arrangements for HSK NDA to the TMDC, some Members had expressed the view that the income and asset tests should be relaxed, while some Members had expressed the view that rehousing should be arranged for households even in case of clearance of non-surveyed squatters. The bureau understood very well the worries of affected people about development-induced clearance and displacement, and it was also aware of the community’s expectation that while carrying out development, the Government could make good use of resources to address the needs of different social sectors, especially the grassroots, as far as possible based on the principles of equity and rationality. As a matter of law, with no title, surveyed squatters that were tolerated and allowed to exist had to be demolished when the places concerned were due for development. With the “people-oriented” philosophy in mind, the Government of the current term had announced enhanced measures on the existing ex-gratia compensation and rehousing (“C&R”) arrangements on 10 May this year after consolidating the views it had heard from various stakeholders on a number of occasions, in a bid to positively respond to the concerns of different people, striking a pragmatic balance between the use of public money and public housing resources on one side and the expectations of the community and affected people on the other

- 21 -

Action side. Also, the Government hoped to facilitate land resumption and clearance, thus providing the public with more housing, economic and community facility sites as early as possible. He then invited Ms Christina CHONG of the DEVB to give an outline of the proposed C&R arrangements. 47. Ms Christina CHONG of the DEVB said the proposed C&R arrangements were “unified arrangements” by which a unified and enhanced general ex-gratia C&R package would be applicable to all government development clearance exercises (irrespective of project scale) in the future. Under this proposal, the bureau intended to make greater efforts on rehousing by not only keeping the current means-tested rehousing option offered by the Hong Kong Housing Authority (“HA”) but also introducing a non-means tested rehousing option for eligible affected households to be rehoused in dedicated rehousing estates to be developed and managed by the Hong Kong Housing Society (“HKHS”). Subsidised rental and subsidised sale flats would be provided in the estates, and the dedicated rehousing estate in HSK NDA would be available for occupation around 2023/2024 at the earliest. Before the occupation, the HKHS and the HA would use vacant units in their rental housing estates to provide transitional arrangements for eligible people, and after the completion of dedicated rehousing estates, the households concerned might choose to move into the estates. She reiterated that the above arrangements would be applicable to all government development clearance exercises in the future. To be eligible for the non-means tested rehousing option, a household should have been residing continuously in a 1982-surveyed squatter structure/licensed structure for at least seven years immediately preceding the date of the Government’s pre-clearance survey (“PCS”) and meet other prescribed eligibility criteria.

48. Ms Christina CHONG of the DEVB further said that besides enhancements to rehousing arrangements, there were also improvements to the cash ex-gratia allowance. She explained that under the proposed arrangements, the eligibility criteria for the Ex-Gratia Allowance for Permitted Occupiers (“EGAPO”) of licensed structures and surveyed squatters would be relaxed to cover eligible households who had been residing continuously in 1982-surveyed squatter structures for at least two years (i.e. shortened from the current minimum of 10 years to two years) and met other prescribed criteria. Moreover, the maximum amount of allowance would be raised and a relaxed calculation method would be used under the proposed arrangements. As far as a household residing in an eligible structure of at least 10 square metres was concerned, depending on the size of the eligible

- 22 -

Action structure and the length of continuous residence of the household, based on the current basic allowance rate, the EGAPO amounts payable in New Territories would be increased from the current range between about $48,000 and $600,000 to the range between about $60,000 and $1.2 million. The basic allowance rates would be updated every six months by reference to rental levels. Furthermore, the above non-means tested rehousing option and ex-gratia allowance arrangements would be relaxed to a certain extent to cover households currently residing in 1982-surveyed/licensed non-domestic structures. As this was a discretionary arrangement, the LandsD would conduct a one-off voluntary registration exercise. Households who had moved into those non-domestic structures on or before 26 May 2016 and had been residing in those non-domestic structures for at least two years must register in the one-off voluntary registration exercise and meet the relevant prescribed requirements before they might be considered eligible for the relevant ex-gratia C&R arrangements in the Government’s development clearance exercises in the future. 49. Ms Christina CHONG of the DEVB then said that under the proposed arrangements, the eligibility criteria for the Domestic Removal Allowance would also be relaxed to cover all households who had registered in the Government’s PCSs and were affected by government development clearance exercises (irrespective of whether they were households residing in 1982-surveyed squatters and whether they had been residing there for at least two years). Meanwhile, the allowance amount would be increased from the current range between $5,365 and $20,251 to the range between $9,410 and $28,840, depending on the size of households, and would be updated annually.

50. As regards business undertakings operating on brownfields or in squatters, Ms Christina CHONG of the DEVB said that as announced on 11 April 2017, the Government had proposed that in addition to the existing avenue for statutory claims, a new ex-gratia allowance be introduced for eligible outdoor/open-air business undertakings. It was currently proposed that the eligibility criteria for the new ex-gratia allowance be further relaxed by shortening the minimum continuous operational period from 10 years to seven years immediately preceding the date of the Government’s PCSs. The eligibility criteria for the ex-gratia allowance for business undertakings operating in 1982-surveyed squatter structures/licensed structures would also be relaxed. If the business undertakings had, to a limited extent, changed the registered use of the 1982-surveryed/licensed structures, they might still apply for the ex-gratia allowance for business undertakings.

- 23 -

Action 51. A Member, while glad to know the enhancement of the compensation package, said the development of Hung Shui Kiu remained a worry for villagers and temporary housing was the matter of greatest concern to them. But currently, no resite area was provided in the Government’s land resumption. He recalled that in the development of the Tuen Mun new town years before, the Government had provided extension areas to accommodate villagers of five villages (Leung Tin Village, San Hui Village, San Wai Tsai Tsuen, Wong Ka Wai and Kau Hui) and made excellent arrangements. Later in the extension of Fuk Hang Tsuen Road in 1973, the Government had also pacified villagers by granting permanent housing to them. And, previously in the development of the Nim Wan landfill and Lingnan University in Tuen Mun, the Government had also provided resite areas to accommodate villagers of Nim Wan Tsuen and Fu Tei Tsuen. He believed the LandsD had the above records too. He asked why, despite the pacification policy adopted by the Government, no consideration was given to providing resite areas this time. As Yick Yuen Tsuen would bear the brunt of the Hung Shui Kiu development, he suggested the Government consider providing a resite area in the project concerned.

52. A Member said he worried more about squatter residents than about indigenous villagers. He pointed out that there were three types of squatters: the first type was licensed squatters (e.g. squatters under the temporary permit, the Crown Land Licence, and the private land relaxation licence), the second type was squatters with yellow survey numbers in the 1970s, and the third type was squatters with red survey numbers in the 1980s. Licensed squatters had been allowed to be used for agricultural or redevelopment purposes, as exemplified by Chung Wong Toi in Tseng Tau Tsuen and San Shek Wan Phases 1 and 2 in Tsing Shan Tsuen. As far as the compensation for Band 4 structures mentioned in the discussion paper was concerned, even pig pens or chicken coops could be inhabited lawfully and granted compensation, but actually residents would hardly be benefitted if the calculation was based on the size of the structures. He said villages could be granted compensation under the previous arrangements too, adding that the compensation amounts calculated based on the size of the units in square feet were not very high and were thus less favourable than those under the previous arrangements. He therefore requested the bureau’s further consideration of the arrangements concerned.

53. A Member said compensation conditions in the proposed compensation policy were generally improved, so Members and villagers affected by clearance

- 24 -

Action were supposed to have no objection. Yet, she noticed that after Mr LIU Chun-san’s previous visit to Tuen Mun, many affected villagers had made their claims at a LegCo public hearing and expressed their dissatisfaction with the policy. She said that while the authority stressed that the compensation amount concerned would be raised to $1.2 million, she wondered how many of the 300 000 affected squatter households could be granted $1.2 million in compensation. It was understood that a household residing in a squatter of 400 square feet could receive $600,000 in compensation under the old policy, as opposed to only $400,000 under the new policy, so she wanted to know the reason. She further pointed out that with the scarcity of land in Hong Kong, the quantity of public housing was not sufficient to accommodate these squatter residents. She believed that they would find it unacceptable if the Government, while calling the policy people-oriented, rehoused them on the premise that they should not trespass on land. 54. A Member said he had earlier put questions to the DEVB at the LegCo. He said there were many government development projects in recent years, but some villagers had told him that they had not yet been rehoused even when the dates of clearance were approaching, and they were much worried since the compensation was not enough for them to find suitable places to live nearby. Besides, the Government had also made compassionate arrangements for villagers in Chuk Yuen Tsuen (which included providing new places to rehouse indigenous villagers and allowing non-indigenous villagers to build two-storey houses with an area of 500 square feet per floor on nearby private agricultural land) several years before during the construction of the boundary control point at Liantang and Heung Yuen Wai. He noted that the compensation and ex-gratia allowance arrangements announced by the Government in May 2018 were the first revisions made ever since the 1980s. While expressing support for this slight step forward represented by the revisions, he expected further revisions and suggested the Government adopt the Chuk Yuen Tsuen arrangements in rehousing affected villagers to maintain their unity and avoid disputes between the Government and the public over development projects, so that the goal of fostering social harmony could be achieved in every development project. He added that Heung Yee Kuk New Territories, the Tuen Mun Rural Committee and he would all further follow up on this.

55. A Member saw the proposed revisions as a step forward and expressed preliminary support for them. He noted that new immigrants or other people had moved into converted village houses, chicken huts and chicken coops in those years, but due to opposition from many, they had ended up receiving no compensation at

- 25 -

Action all. While improvements were seen in the new proposal, he hoped the policy concerned would keep improving. 56. A Member put questions on Hung Shui Kiu’s development to the LandsD, asking how many structures there had been in total in the household registration records at the time of the Government’s announcement of the proposed new policy in May 2018, and whether future land resumptions would be based on these records or on the current re-registration records.

57. With reference to the position paper of the Jointed Village Concern Group on Hung Shui Kiu New Development (“position paper”) distributed at the meeting, a Member said villagers would have no objection if proper arrangements were in place when the Government resumed land for housing development. But in her opinion, compensation of several hundred thousands of dollars or arrangements for rehousing in public housing units might not help provide ideal homes for villagers. She argued that given the current sky-high property prices, compensation of $1.2 million was not enough to serve its purpose, nor was it fair, so she did not accept the proposal.

58. A Member said that according to the position paper, the Government had failed to respond to the “village-for-village” proposal made by them, and Secretary for Development had earlier said in response that the proposal was unsustainable. She wondered how the Government put the “people-oriented” philosophy into action. She enquired why the Government did not consider the villagers’ proposal despite their aspiration.

59. A Member believed that the problem concerned occurred not only in the resumption of village land but would also arise in the Urban Renewal Authority’s resumption of old buildings. He said it was commonly known that land was limited in Hong Kong, but the Government was not proactive in land resumption and the conditions it offered were not favourable enough. If the conditions for resumption of property title were utterly unattractive, owners would of course not cooperate with the Government. He hoped the bureau could discuss with Chief Executive how to offer a better package for land resumption.

60. A Member reckoned that judging by living standards, the Government’s arrangements were really flawed and, surprisingly, the compensation payable to villagers under the new package was less than that under the old package. He

- 26 -

Action pointed out that under the new package, only households residing in squatters of 1 000 square feet could receive $1.2 million in compensation. Generally speaking, villagers lived in wooden huts of 400 square feet only and could just receive $480,000 in compensation, which was less than $600,000 under the old package. He suggested the compensation amount be raised and the unit size criterion for the maximum compensation be changed to 400 square feet. On the housing issue, he opined that public housing should be arranged early for affected villagers and the relevant tests should be waived. 61. A Member said the proposal to enhance compensation under the new package was supposed to be well-received, but according to the villagers’ position paper, households could receive only $480,000 in compensation under the new package, as opposed to $600,000 under the original package, so he hoped the bureau could give an account of this. And actually, the $600,000 compensation payable for a unit of 400 square feet under the old policy was still unable to cover inflation and rises in property prices, so the Member hoped that the Government would carefully deliberate on whether the original intent of the package was to help their home purchase in the district, and that there would be further consideration of the compensation amounts.

62. A Member said that as mentioned at the previous meeting with Mr LIU Chun-san, generally the new package was of course a step forward, but consideration should be given to not only compensation amounts and the arrangements for rehousing in public housing units but also the rehousing proposal offered by villagers. He was very empathetic with residents and people working in affected areas, who used to lead stable lives but became anxious due to land resumption, so he believed that if proper rehousing arrangements were in place, the Government would encounter much less resistance in future land resumption. Besides, with Tsoi Yuen Tsuen as a precedent, the Government should consider standardising the relevant compensation packages to avoid “making special arrangements for a special case” on each occasion. Furthermore, he opined that there should be consideration from the viewpoint of integration, and that in the design of new projects, the high-rise development approach should be adopted, with places reserved to rehouse indigenous villagers.

63. Mr LIU Chun-san thanked Members for supporting the new measures and gave a consolidated response to Members’ enquiries as follows:

(i) Secretary for Development had responded to the “village-for-village”

- 27 -

Action

proposal at a LegCo public hearing, remarking that it was neither practicable nor sustainable. While there might be exceptional cases down the road, the currently proposed ex-gratia C&R package would standardise future arrangements, so there would be no need to “make special arrangements for special cases” any more and all cases would be handled in a fairer way to minimise disputes;

(ii) The cases of Chuk Yuen Tsuen and Tsoi Yuen Tsuen had their special background, in which it was not the Government who had provided land to make special rehousing arrangements for the villagers; instead, it was the former Chairman of Heung Yee Kuk New Territories who had offered special assistance to them;

(iii) The Government always embraced the “people-oriented” philosophy in making rehousing arrangements for eligible people to have places to live, so the idea of arranging non-means tested rehousing in dedicated rehousing estates was proposed in the current package to rehouse more eligible affected people as far as possible;

(iv) As regards the proposal to raise the ex-gratia compensation amounts, it was hoped that Members could understand the Government having to strike a pragmatic balance between the use of public money and public housing resources on one side and the expectations of the community and affected people on the other side. A balanced package might not necessarily satisfy everyone, but abuse might arise if the same conditions of the package were applied to new occupants of squatters or households of new squatters; and

(v) Moreover, the use of public money and the concerns of affected people had to be taken into account in respect of the ex-gratia compensation amounts. The ex-gratia compensation, which some Members believed to be not enough for eligible affected households to buy properties, was applicable only to occupiers of eligible squatters but not to owners who had title to the land, and there were other compensation packages available to the latter, so direct comparison was not appropriate. Under the currently proposed ex-gratia compensation package, the ex-gratia compensation offered to occupiers of eligible squatters served to enable them to solve housing problems within a short period of time by renting houses or by meeting part of the down payment for home purchase in dedicated rehousing estates. Also, as announced earlier by Chief Executive, the purchase prices of units in dedicated rehousing estates would be pegged to

- 28 -

Action

median household incomes rather than market prices. 64. Ms Christina CHONG of the DEVB gave a consolidated response to Members’ enquiries as follows:

(i) The currently proposed improvements and relaxations were applied to the general EGAPO and its calculation method was also enhanced, so it would not be less favourable than that under the old package. Moreover, the Government had put in place special ex-gratia compensation arrangements for HSK NDA, under which the calculation of the special cash allowance was based mainly on, among others, the length of residence and the size of households rather than the size of units. Therefore, eligible households affected by HSK NDA would be allowed to choose either, and any eligible households might choose the special cash allowance if they believed the special cash allowance payable to them was better than the general EGAPO, so it was believed that the ex-gratia compensation payable to eligible households affected by HSK NDA would not be less favourable than that under the old arrangements;

(ii) One of the highlights of the enhanced general ex-gratia compensation arrangements was the means test exemption for eligible affected households applying for dedicated rehousing estates. And before the completion of dedicated rehousing estates, there would be transitional arrangements for them, under which the HA and the HKHS would provide suitable vacant units (including new or renovated units) in their rental housing estates, and the households might also choose to move into dedicated rehousing estates upon their completion; and

(iii) Subsidised sale flats were available in dedicated rehousing estates as an option, so as to provide different choices for different people.

65. Ms Lily CHIU of the LandsD said the ex-gratia C&R arrangements for squatter households were relaxed under the current enhanced package. She pointed out that previously, only households in 1982-surveyed domestic squatters had been considered for ex-gratia compensation and rehousing, but under the new measures, households residing in 1982-surveyed non-domestic squatters would also be considered for ex-gratia compensation and rehousing if they registered in the LandsD’s one-off voluntary registration exercise and met the relevant prescribed requirements. She said squatter households affected by HSK NDA had gone through a freezing survey, so they were not required to register again in the one-off

- 29 -

Action voluntary registration exercise. 66. A Member said that while Members saw the package as a step forward, she noted that under the package in earlier years, villagers could be rehoused in public housing units without having to go through an income test; subsequently, after the introduction of the test system, some villagers had lost the eligibility as their incomes had just exceeded the upper limit. Besides, rehousing in public housing units was not an option that appealed to villagers. She further said some villagers had been registered residents in Home Ownership Scheme (“HOS”) units, so they were not eligible for rehousing and thus facing problems; also, a resident who claimed to have 10% of ownership of a private property had been forced to move out of a public housing unit due to the well-off tenant policy. In view of these cases, she asked whether it was possible to relax criteria to rehouse them in public housing units. In addition, she opined that if villagers demanded a “village-for-village” package, this was the best package.

67. A Member questioned whether villagers would not be rehoused if they were not supported by local people, and how the mental distress they suffered during land resumption should be measured. She hoped the bureau would read the position paper carefully and relieve villagers’ difficulties and distress. On behalf of villagers, she reiterated her refusal to accept the package.

68. Mr LIU Chun-san said Members’ views were heard and there would be further consideration. He further said that whether the villages were supported by local people had not been a consideration in the Government’s handling of the Chuk Yuen Tsuen and Tsoi Yuen Tsuen cases, adding that in fact, the cases involved private land rather than government land and this was why the “village-for-village” arrangements had been possible in the end.

69. Ms Christina CHONG of the DEVB said that if the households concerned were not public housing residents or were registered residents in public housing at the time of the PCS, their eligibility for ex-gratia compensation would not be affected. Generally speaking, if the households were not entitled to any further welfare because they had enjoyed subsidised housing or related welfare before, the Government would consider their cases on compassionate grounds in the light of individual special circumstances (e.g. divorce, bankruptcy, sudden changes in financial status or other special reasons). In addition, the DEVB and the LandsD would continue to communicate with villagers to assist them in understanding the

- 30 -

Action details of the C&R arrangements. 70. A Member opined that the Government’s compulsory resumption of land was not fair, nor had it solved the difficulties faced by people who suffered from land resumption. She was more obliged to voice the opinions of the public if the Government believed the policies it carried out were right. She said there were causes and effects of the problem of villagers having no place to live. And she opined that it was not appropriate to use petty favour as compensation. She strongly protested against this.

71. A Member asked whether the bureau could report to the TMDC in due course on proposals to enhance this compensation package, when the Government had determined the compensation amounts before, and whether it was still reasonable if the compensation amounts were adjusted for inflation. In his view, given that affected people could receive compensation under special circumstances, the Government should consider relaxing the criteria (by, for example, exercising discretion over income upper limits).

72. Mr LIU Chun-san said the Government would keep all affected people informed if there were any updates to the implementation details.

73. As regards the complications arising from land resumption, a Member said that even if the LandsD issued temporary housing licences, there would be a lot of incidental provisions that could leave residents totally uncompensated in the end, and the Government would merely pay removal fees in land resumption. Thus, he opined that the compensation amounts proposed in the currently policy proposal were already a favour. Yet, some villagers in Yick Yuen Tsuen were not willing to leave their homes whereas Ling Liang Church was kept for community use. In view of this, he hoped the Government would not disintegrate Yick Yuen Tsuen. He said he both liked and hated these revisions, adding that policies had been in place to arrange permanent housing for Fuk Hang Tsuen years before, but there were no such arrangements this time. He believed that public grievance could be much reduced if the authority put relocation arrangements in place.

74. A Member hoped that if there were elderly people who had purchased HOS units or applied for home starter loans but, due to financial reasons, had subsequently sold their HOS units and resided in squatters, the Government could exempt them from the relevant requirements so that they were eligible for rehousing

- 31 -

Action in public housing units. 75. The Chairman thanked the bureau for its responses and said that Members, while supporting the current proposal, believed there was still room for progress and improvement in the package, so he hoped the bureau would consider Members’ views. He also hoped the bureau would strengthen its communication with relevant villagers and rural committees. As they were the group most affected by the Hung Shui Kiu development area, he hoped the Government would make even better arrangements on the existing basis.

(B) Request for Provision of Basic Living Facilities for Residents in Tsing

Shan Monastery Path Area (TMDC Paper No. 20/2018)

76. The Chairman welcomed Mr LIN Tang-tai, Senior Engineer/Planning Policy, and Mr FUNG Yuk-ming, Engineer/New Territories West (Distribution 2), of the Water Supplies Department (“WSD”) to the meeting.

77. The first proposer of the paper said the TMDC had discussed the matter concerned at the meeting on 6 January 2015 and had joined WSD staff for a site visit to Tsing Shan Tsuen after the meeting. At that time, the department had responded that a project would be initiated to carry out the works. Yet, when she had written again to the relevant department in the previous year to get an understanding of the situation, the department had responded that since there were relatively few people living in that area, no water pipes would be laid there. She was disappointed with this. She added that residents in the Tsing Shan Tsuen area had used to store stream water at storage cisterns for consumption, but due to the very hot and dry weather earlier, they were going to face water stress. While WSD staff had promptly placed temporary water tanks in Tsing Shan Tsuen, residents in Tsing Shan Tsuen lived on hillsides and elderly people might not be strong enough to go to collect water. For these reasons, she reckoned this measure was not much help and the department should provide tap water supply facilities for Tsing Shan Tsuen without delay, so that villagers there could also enjoy the right to basic living facilities. Besides, she said both Tsing Shan Monastery and Tsing Wan Kun were inhabited by abbots who were relying only on well water for use in daily lives, but well water was neither suitable for drinking nor adequate for firefighting in case of incidents. According to a reply from the Fire Services Department in 2015, they had installed fire hydrants at The Hill Grove and Tsing Shan Monastery Path respectively, but the two fire hydrants were situated on hillsides or near a road junction and might not be able

- 32 -

Action to provide timely rescue in case of a fire. She therefore hoped the department could lay water pipes in the village without delay. 78. A Member said it was impossible to live with no water supply in today’s Hong Kong society, and the Government should not refuse to install a tap water supply system in that area on the grounds of its small resident population. She hoped the Government would listen to the TMDC’s view and lay water pipes as soon as possible.

79. Mr TO Sheck-yuen declared his interests as a member of Tsing Wan Kun and an executive of Tsing Shan Monastery, and the Chairman allowed him to continue to speak. He said the Government had never made proper arrangements for fresh water supply to the Tsing Shan Monastery Path area (especially Tsing Shan Monastery and Tsing Wan Kun). He added that artesian wells had been built during the renovation of Tsing Wan Kun, but Tsing Shan Monastery currently counted only on water coming down from the hill and the water flow was blocked by weeds, and it turned out that no improvements were seen in water supply to Tsing Shan Monastery. He therefore hoped the WSD would address the needs of residents in the Tsing Shan Monastery area and improve the system for water supply to Tsing Shan Monastery and Tsing Wan Kun.

80. Mr LIN Tang-tai of the WSD said the department had always been active in following up on the arrangements for water supply to the Tsing Shan Tsuen area. He said Tsing Shan Tsuen was already within the service coverage of the department, but some places in Tsing Shan Tsuen were on high terrain but the water supply pressure was not high enough, so it was not possible to provide tap water supply for the villages concerned for the time being. The department had been actively following up on the situation. It had joined Members to visit there in June to get an in-depth understanding of the current situation and had requested further information from the Tuen Mun District Office (“TMDO”) (including the areas not yet covered by the WSD’s water supply networks and the size and distribution of the population involved) to actively explore the technical feasibility of building a water supply network system. He added that a water supply network system not only comprised a single water pipe but was also fitted with a number of additional facilities (e.g. water pumps and water tanks). The department also needed to examine what locations were more suitable for the installation of water pipelines, pump rooms and so forth. Moreover, prolonged stagnation of fresh water in water pipes could easily result in poor water quality, so if a tap water supply system was

- 33 -

Action built there in the future, he hoped Members could encourage villagers there to apply for tap water supply. He reiterated that the department would further explore the arrangements having regard to population distribution, technical feasibility and so forth. 81. A Member said a 94-year-old elderly person had told her that he had waited decades for water supply facilities and had to carry fresh water up the hill from the bottom for use since all the stream water reserves had been used up due to the hot and dry weather earlier. In view of this, she hoped the WSD could study the technical issues and routing options for basic living facilities without delay.

82. A Member said given that as stated by the WSD, Tsing Shan Tsuen was within its service coverage, the department should not use technical issues as an excuse, and he believed the department could resolve such technical issues as the installation of water pumps, pump rooms and water tanks. He added that the history-steeped Tsing Shan Monastery attracted a large number of sightseers, and toilet facilities there were also affected by the water stress. Therefore, he hoped the department could provide a works schedule and give the TMDC a promise on when fresh water could be supplied to the whole Tsing Shan Tsuen, so as to solve the problem of water stress there.

83. A Member expressed confidence in the Government’s efforts to resolve the technical issues, and therefore hoped the department could explore actively the implementation of the proposal and report on the progress of this works at the next meeting.

84. A Member said the department was supposed to have the relevant demographic data. Thus, the Member opined that it was high time the department planned how to follow up on such matters as the installation of water pipes, water tanks and water pumps, instead of studying the feasibility of the proposal.

85. Mr LIN Tang-tai of the WSD responded that the department had contacted the TMDO to obtain the relevant information for follow up and started to study the technicalities concerned. The department was glad to further communicate with Members, and it would report to the TMDC on the progress in due course.

86. The Chairman thanked the WSD’s representatives for attending the meeting. Besides, he asked the department to consider the TMDC’s views and report on the

- 34 -

Action latest progress at the next meeting. VII. Reports from Government (A) The 4th Report of Tuen Mun District Management Committee 2018

(TMDC Paper No. 21/2018)

87. Participants perused the contents of the above two reports. (B) Report by Tuen Mun Police District

(TMDC Paper No. 22/2018)

88. Participants perused the contents of the above report. 89. Mr David Christian FREMAUX, Deputy District Commander (Tuen Mun), elaborated on the report by the Tuen Mun Police District as follows:

(i) The crime figure for April to May 2018 was 518 cases, representing a decrease of 75 cases (-12.6%) on the same period of the previous year, among which 90 were violent crime cases, representing a decrease of 11 cases (-10.9%) on the same period of the previous year, and the detection rate had dropped from 41.2% to 40.3%. Cases with decreases in crime figures compared with the same period of the previous year mainly involved shop theft (-43.2%), burglary (-52.9%) and wounding and serious assault (-9.8%). Cases with increases in crime figures compared with the same period of the previous year mainly involved criminal damage (+50%), indecent assault (+85%) and missing motor vehicles (+12%). Cases with the highest crime figures for April to May 2018 involved miscellaneous thefts (23% of the total number of crime cases), criminal damage (17% of the total number of crime cases), and shop theft (16% of the total number of crime cases);

(ii) The crime figure for the first five months of 2018 was 1 225 cases, 147 cases (-10.7%) fewer compared with 1 372 cases in the same period of the previous year, among which 196 were violent crime cases, 47 cases (-19.3%) fewer compared with 243 cases in the same period of the previous year. The overall crime detection rate was 43.3% (+1.1%) compared with 42.2% in the same period of the previous year. Cases with decreases in crime figures mainly involved shop theft (-28.9%), miscellaneous thefts (-7.9%) and wounding and serious assault (-12.8%). Cases with increases in crime figures mainly involved deception (+16.6%), criminal damage (+12.8%) and indecent assault

- 35 -

Action

(+23.8%). Cases with the highest crime figures involved miscellaneous thefts (20% of the total number of crime cases), shop theft (19% of the total number of crime cases) and deception (15% of the total number of crime cases). Generally speaking, with a stable and low crime rate, the public order of Tuen Mun was good. Despite this, the Tuen Mun Police District would continue to pay attention to crime trends, especially crimes that were on the rise such as deception and criminal damage, which were of public concern;

(iii) Traffic-related complaints made up about 25% of the total number of cases reported. The Police was very much concerned about traffic problems in Tuen Mun, and it had been working hard to satisfy the public’s expectation by resource deployment. In the first five months of 2018, there had been 497 cases of traffic accidents involving damage, up 1.2% on the same period of the previous year, and 303 cases of traffic accidents involving injury, up 6% on the same period of the previous year; traffic accidents involving pedestrians and bicycles had risen by 29% and 26% respectively on the same period of the previous year;

(iv) A total of 70 000 traffic tickets for illegal parking had been issued by the Tuen Mun Police District in 2017, representing a daily average of 200 tickets, and it was expected that the number of traffic tickets issued in 2018 would grow by 10%. Most of the cases involved minor injuries. To complement the “Operation Movesky”, the Police would issue more traffic tickets to illegally parked vehicles through deployment of existing resources and the support of the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police; and

(v) To boost road users’ awareness of safe driving, the Tuen Mun Police District was carrying out the “Project DriveHome”, which involved using such technologies as digital video-recording devices to support prosecution and providing more training for policemen to expedite prosecution procedures. The Tuen Mun Police District would take enforcement action at places with rampant illegal parking (e.g. industrial areas and traffic blackspots). Moreover, the Tuen Mun Police District would join the Transport Department (“TD”) to study road improvement works, in a bid to enhance road safety.

90. A Member commended the Tuen Mun Police District for its performance that kept the district’s crime figures constantly low. He said objects thrown from a

- 36 -

Action height, mostly syringes with blood stains, were frequently seen at the entrance of his office. He had reported this to the Police for many times but the offenders were still at large. As the problem had aroused concern among residents, he hoped the Police would follow it up. 91. As regards drug problems in Tuen Mun, a Member said young people might easily be influenced by criminals or peers and come into contact with drugs as they frequented entertainment establishments during the summer holidays. She hoped the Police would step up patrol at entertainment establishments like Internet cafes to combat drug-related crimes in the district.

92. A Member thanked the Police for its efforts to maintain public order. He noted that there had been a significant rise in the number of juvenile offenders aged 10 to 15 and asked why they had been arrested.

93. Mr David Christian FREMAUX, Deputy District Commander (Tuen Mun), gave a consolidated response to Members’ enquiries as follows:

(i) Objects being thrown from a height was a matter of grave concern, especially when bloodstained syringes were involved. After receiving the Member’s complaints, the Police had assigned staff to carry out patrols and continued working closely with security guards in the area concerned to remind them to pay more attention to the matter. While the cases were quite difficult to solve, the Police would employ means, such as watching closed circuit television footages, to bring the offenders to justice;

(ii) The juvenile offenders had been arrested for miscellaneous thefts, mostly theft of bicycles. They were not aware that theft of bicycles was a criminal offence, and since bicycles could be found everywhere these days, they could take them away easily. The Police would cooperate with schools to invite dignitaries of the Tuen Mun community to schools to spread messages about the crime concerned; and

(iii) There had been a dip in drug-related crime cases this year compared with the previous year. Police in the three places, namely the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, had carried out a joint operation against drug crimes this summer to bring down the quantity of drugs available on the market, and drug prices had therefore risen significantly. The Police would continue working with such

- 37 -

Action

stakeholders as the youth, other government departments and youth organisations to curb the crimes.

94. A Member said there was a tendency for the problem of deception to worsen, with the number of the crime concerned up 16.6% in January to May 2018 compared with the same period of the previous year. He hoped the Police could step up enforcement and provide more support for the public. If the amount of money lost to fraud did not reach the HK$5 million threshold for investigation by the HKPF Commercial Crime Bureau (“CCB”), the Police would merely handle the deception cases in accordance with the established procedures, giving the public the wrong impression that the degree of police attention varied according to the amounts of money swindled. He suggested the Tuen Mun Police District should, following the approach to animal abuse cases, set up a task force on deception cases to show the public its determination to combat deception crimes.

95. A Member said there had been marked rises in the numbers of cases of criminal damage, indecent assault and missing motor vehicles in addition to deception. She enquired whether phone scam cases were counted among the deception cases. Moreover, she said blackspots of pedestrian-bike crashes were created since many cycling tracks in the district were connected with the entrances or exits of housing estates like Lung Mun Oasis and Glorious Garden. Although the TD had put up speed reducers on cycling tracks at the junctions concerned, accidents were caused as most cyclists did not slow down accordingly, nor did pedestrians look carefully at the situation of the cycling tracks before crossing them. In her view, the Police should step up efforts to spread cycling safety messages to the public, so as to bring down the traffic accident figures.

96. A Member said elderly people were prone to be the targets of fraudsters. Upon receipt of social security allowances, elderly people often received many anonymous phone calls from people who pretended to be their relatives or friends and claimed to have been kidnapped or engaged in investment, with intent to swindle them. He commended the Police for making active publicity efforts through the Police Community Relations Office or the Senior Police Call to let the public, especially the elderly, know more about different operandi modus in deception cases, such as telephone fraud and spiritual blessing scam. He hoped the Police would continue to make more efforts in relevant publicity at the district level to bring down the crime figure.

- 38 -

Action 97. Mr David Christian FREMAUX, Deputy District Commander (Tuen Mun), gave a consolidated response to Members’ enquiries as follows:

(i) In the first five months of 2018, there had been only six telephone deception cases in which the fraud targets were not confined to elderly people. In the previous two months, the Police had received only one telephone deception case, which represented a decrease of 7 cases on the same period of the previous year, and no report of street deception cases had been received;

(ii) The Police paid much attention to fraud targeting elderly people. In view of this, not only were operandi modus of scam and advice on scam prevention were communicated to the elderly through the Police Community Relations Offices and the Senior Police Call, but the Tuen Mun Police District also distributed leaflets on prevention of street and telephone deception to the public at different locations in the district almost every day. Also, advice was provided for people to remind their elderly family members about information on deception cases, so as to boost their vigilance. The Tuen Mun Police District received reports of some unsuccessful fraud from time to time, presumably because the elderly were more aware of deception cases;

(iii) The Police treated all deception cases equally with no tolerance. Only a few of the cases, which were complex and involved criminal elements, were referred to the CCB for investigation;

(iv) The Police had enough manpower to deal with all kinds of deception cases, while police officers at the Crime Squad would investigate more serious cases such as banking fraud. Therefore, the Tuen Mun Police District would not consider setting up a task force on deception cases for the time being; and

(v) Given the recent significant growth in the number of traffic accidents involving bicycles and the fact that many accidents had happened on cycling tracks near the entrances or exits of housing estates, the Police hoped to give warnings to offending cyclists under the “Project DriveHome” first and consider issuing traffic tickets to repeat offenders only. The ultimate goal of the project was to improve their safety awareness and cycling habits. Moreover, cycling became popular as the cycling system in Hong Kong gradually matured, so the Police would pay more attention to its development and the traffic accidents so caused.

- 39 -

Action 98. The Chairman thanked Mr David Christian FREMAUX, Deputy District Commander (Tuen Mun), for his responses.

(C) Signature Project Scheme in Tuen Mun District 99. DO(TM) reported to Members on the latest progress of the project “Promotion of Youth Development in Tuen Mun”, saying that in June 2018, Yan Oi Tong had held a judging meeting for the “Young Dreamcrafters - Youth Social Innovation Incubation Scheme” and selected five social innovation teams, which would work out innovative proposals in the year ahead for application in the Tuen Mun community to address community issues and needs. Moreover, the TMDO would upload the information and proposals of the social innovation teams on the TMDC’s website, and some of the teams would be invited to introduce their social innovation projects and work to the TMDC in the second half of the year. Besides, this November would mark the anniversary of the opening of Youth Space in Tseng Choi Street Government Services Complex, and at that time, the TMDC would be invited to visit Youth Space to get the latest picture of its operation.

100. DO(TM) further said all works under the project “Revitalisation of Tuen Mun River and Surrounding Areas” had started. She reported on the progress of the various works projects as follows:

(i) The works for the open space at Choi Yee Bridge were due for completion in the first quarter of 2019. The contractor was carrying out drainage, foundation, structural, and power and water supply connection works, which included the construction of the foundation of rain shelters, the laying of underground water pipes, and the erection of planters;

(ii) The beautification works to the riverside near Tuen Mun Swimming Pool and the area near Tuen Mun Riverside Park had been substantially finished and were due for completion in the third quarter of 2018. The TMDO would further strengthen the greening work at the riverside near Tuen Mun Swimming Pool under the Signature Project Scheme;

(iii) As regards the works for the installation of decorative light posts, the Highways Department (“HyD”) had issued the contractor with the works order for the second phase of the installation works and ordered materials for the installation. The works would be carried out on Tuen Mun Heung Sze Wui Road and the Castle Peak Road section between San Hui and Castle Peak Bay. As it took time for the

- 40 -

Action

contractor to order the materials to be used in the decorative light posts, the HyD expected that the installation works would be commenced in the fourth quarter of 2018;

(iv) Part of the road sections at the originally-proposed location for the third phase of the installation works (i.e. Castle Peak Road - Hoh Fuk Tong to Gold Coast) overlapped with the location for the widening works to Castle Peak Road - Castle Peak Bay, which were currently under judicial review. Therefore, the TMDO had reported earlier that it would join the HyD to explore and select other suitable road sections on Castle Peak Road for the installation of decorative light posts. In June 2018, the HyD had replied to the TMDO saying that it had no objection to the installation of decorative light posts on Castle Peak Road - San Hui. If Members had no other comments, the TMDO would continue to discuss with the HyD the exact location and details for the installation of decorative light posts on that road section, and further reports would be made to the TMDC. It was expected that the full completion of the works for decorative light posts would be postponed from the beginning of 2019 to the third quarter of 2019; and

(v) As regards artwork installation in the district, the TMDO was organising the Public Art Scheme with the Art Promotion Office of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (“LCSD”) and the Tuen Mun District Leisure Services Office. In May 2018, project managers of the scheme had invited local artists to design artworks and make plans for installation in Tuen Mun. The proposed locations for artwork installation included the open space at Choi Yee Bridge under construction, Tsing Yin Garden on Ho Pong Street, Tuen Mun Riverside Park, and Pui To Road (South) Rest Garden next to Tuen Mun West Rail Station. In the second half of the year, the LCSD Art Promotion Office and representatives of its project manager team would give the TMDC a detailed introduction on the theme of the scheme and the artworks proposed to be installed, and the TMDC’s opinions would also be sought.

101. A Member said Yan Oi Tong, the partner organisation of the project “Promotion of Youth Development in Tuen Mun”, had received funding of some $26 million to launch services for six years, which included almost $16 million to be used for operating expenses such staff recruitment and office operation and about $10 million to be used for the provision of youth services. In his opinion, the

- 41 -

Action proportion of operating expenses was too high, representing 60% of the project funding. He hoped the Government would make good use of the $2 million for the recruitment of non-civil service contract staff and put effective supervision in place to ensure proper use of public money. 102. A Member supported the works for the installation of decorative light posts, which she believed could beautify the community. However, she reckoned the needs of rural villagers should be addressed as well. She noted that there were no light posts in some remote villages and according to her experience in helping villagers to apply for the installation of light posts, the wait could be as long as seven years. She said villagers had to make an application to the TMDO first, and then the application had to be examined by the HyD, so she hoped government departments could strengthen communication and collaboration with each other and deploy resources in a flexible way so that the basic needs of villagers could be addressed as soon as possible.

103. In response, DO(TM) said the fact that Yan Oi Tong, the partner organisation, would use the funding for the above project to recruit staff (e.g. social workers) to provide services, together with the number of hours for provision of services for young people living and studying in Tuen Mun, was mentioned in the paper used to apply for funding from the LegCo Finance Committee in respect of the project “Promotion of Youth Development in Tuen Mun”. She added that part of the works for the youth activity centre in Youth Space cost about $2 million to $3 million. She expressed understanding for Members’ concern, and said Yan Oi Tong would be invited again to introduce the project (e.g. the results, service hours and financial position of Youth Space in the previous year) to the TMDC in the second half of the year to let Members know the details. In addition, she noted the view about the installation of light posts in remote villages and would relay it to relevant departments for follow up.

104. The Chairman thanked DO(TM) for her response and would like her to consider Members’ views and continue to follow up on the works projects.

VIII. Reports by TMDC Representatives 105. The TMDC representatives had nothing particular to report. IX. Members’ Enquiries to Government Departments 106. As Members had no questions for the representatives of the major

- 42 -

Action government departments, the representatives of all the major government departments except the TMDO representatives left the meeting at this point. X. In-house Matters (A) Members Joining or Resigning from Committees and Working Groups

under TMDC

107. The Secretary reported that no Members had joined or resigned from committees or working groups under the TMDC over the previous two months.

(B) Position of TMDC Funds as at 31 May 2018

(TMDC Paper No. A32/2018)

108. Participants perused the contents of the above report. (C) Applications for TMDC Funds

(TMDC Paper No. A33/2018)

109. Participants perused the contents of the above paper. 110. The Chairman said that during the discussion on the applications for TMDC Funds, if any Members found that their posts or capacity were related to any partner organisations or other district organisations of activities in the applications but had not yet been stated in the Form for Declaration of Interests in Handling TMDC Funds or the Registration of DC Member’s Interests, the Members were required to make declarations even if they did not intend to speak or vote on the matters concerned. Members should refrain from speaking on any matters in which they had interests; however, if they wished to speak or vote on the matters concerned, they should make a request beforehand. The Chairman would, in accordance with the Standing Orders, decide whether the Members might speak or vote on the matters concerned, might remain at the meeting as observers, or should withdraw from the meeting.

111. The Chairman then said the six applications for TMDC Funds set out in Paper No. A33/2018 had earlier been recommended by the Finance, Administration and Publicity Committee. As the funding amounts in the applications exceeded $100,000, the applications had to be submitted to the TMDC for final approval.

112. As Members had no comments, the Chairman announced that the applications for TMDC Funds set out in Paper No. A33/2018 were approved.

- 43 -

Action (D) Reports by Committees

(TMDC Papers No. A34/2018 to A39/2018)

113. Participants perused the above six reports. 114. As Members had no further comments on the above six reports, the Chairman announced that the TMDC endorsed the contents of the six reports.

XI. Any Other Business (A) Attendance at Meeting of Town Planning Board 115. The Chairman said the TMDC of the current term had discussed proposed amendments to the Tuen Mun Outline Zoning Plan (“OZP”) at its meetings in September and November 2017, and written to the Town Planning Board (“TPB”) to express the TMDC’s views after both meetings. The TPB currently invited him to a meeting tentatively scheduled for 2 August 2018 to make the TMDC’s representations and comments heard. As he had other official commitments on that day, he would like to authorise representatives to attend the above meeting. He further said that as specified by the TPB secretariat, the representatives for each representation would be given no more than 10 minutes to speak (regardless of the number of representatives). Due to the time limit on speaking, if more than one representative was authorised, they would have to allocate the speaking time themselves. If Members had already submitted representations themselves, they would receive the TPB’s invitations to the meeting in response to their representations. He suggested the TMDC authorise two or three Members to be the TMDC’s representatives to attend the meeting.

116. Mr YIP Man-pan, Ms LUNG Shui-hing, Mr Leo CHAN, Ms HO Hang-mui, Mr KAM Man-fung and Mr YEUNG Chi-hang indicated their interest in attending the above meeting.

117. A Member said that usually, only one representative from the invited organisation was allowed to attend and express views at a meeting of this kind. As she had earlier submitted a representation herself and had been invited by the TPB to attend the meeting, she might make available her place so that another Member who had not received the invitation could attend the above meeting as the TMDC’s representative.

118. A Member said there was a difference in nature between the capacity of a member of the public and a representative of the TMDC, so he wanted to attend the

- 44 -

Action above meeting as the TMDC’s representative despite the fact that he had already received an invitation from the TPB. 119. A Member opined that when speaking at the TPB meeting, the TMDC’s representatives should express the points and arguments agreed earlier by the TMDC instead of making personal comments, so as to avoid deviation from the viewpoints of the TMDC as a whole.

120. A Member concurred with the above Member’s view and cited the previous meeting as an example, saying that the meeting had resolved to write to the DEVB proposing amendments to the Tuen Mun OZP, but his comments had been omitted from the letter and accordingly, the DEVB had just dealt with the comments written in the letter. Thus, if no consensus on the arrangements concerned could be reached at the current meeting, the TMDC representatives might perhaps merely make their personal comments at the TPB meeting.

121. The Chairman said the Secretariat had provided the TPB with the relevant minutes, which covered the comments of all Members, and the TMDC representatives should elaborate on the TMDC’s viewpoints based on such information, so Members needed not worry too much about this.

122. A Member said there was no problem with the TMDC representatives making their personal comments at the TPB meeting, opining that the representatives could hardly express all the viewpoints as Members had different viewpoints and opinions.

123. A Member worried that after expressing the TMDC’s viewpoints, the TMDC representatives would add their personal comments themselves, rendering the speech unable to represent the TMDC’s viewpoints. He suggested the TMDC send only one representative to attend the meeting and asked whether the Vice-chairman could attend it in place of the Chairman.

124. The Vice-chairman said he could attend the TPB meeting as the TMDC’s representative and elaborate on the TMDC’s viewpoints at the meeting, whereas other invited Members might make their personal comments.

125. The Chairman thanked the Vice-chairman for representing the TMDC at the TPB meeting, adding that he, as the TMDC’s representative, could express the

- 45 -

Action TMDC’s viewpoints based on the minutes whereas other Members invited by the TPB might make representations themselves if they so wished. (B) Formation of Working Group for Outbound Study Visits 126. The Chairman said enquiries had been received from Members about outbound study visits organised by the TMDC and it had been suggested that visits to Singapore, Korea, Japan or Shanghai be organised. He suggested a non-standing working group be formed to arrange the related matters.

127. A Member said little improvement had been seen in the Tuen Mun River beautification works, which had been carried out for many years. The Member therefore suggested visits to Mainland cities be organised to learn experience in river training.

128. The Chairman said that another district council had recently made a visit to Singapore and the TMDC might refer to its experience. He asked the Secretariat to gather related information and said either Singapore or the Mainland would be selected as the place for the study visit in the future.

129. As Members had no further comments, the Chairman announced the formation of a non-standing working group for outbound study visits and invited Members’ nomination for the Convenor of the working group.

130. A number of Members nominated the Chairman to be the Convenor of the working group for outbound study visits and the nomination was seconded by other Members. The Chairman accepted the nomination and announced that he would act as the Convenor of the working group for outbound study visits.

131. There being no other business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 1:45 p.m. The next meeting would be held on 11 September 2018 (Tuesday).

Tuen Mun District Council Secretariat Date: 8 August 2018 File Ref: HAD TMDC/13/25/DC/18

- 46 -