(Translation)

Minutes of the 2nd Meeting of North (2020-2023)

Date : 14 April 2020 Time : 9:39 a.m. Venue : Conference Room

Present

Chairman: Mr LAW Ting-tak*

Vice Chairman: Mr CHAN Yuk-ming*

Members: Mr LEE Koon-hung, MH (9:39 a.m. – 11:42 a.m.) Mr LI Kwok-fung (9:39 a.m. – 11:42 a.m.) Ms LAM Tsz-king* Hon LAM Cheuk-ting* Ms LAM Shuk-ching* Mr CHOW Kam-ho (9:47 a.m. – 2:33 p.m.) Mr HAU Chi-keung (9:39 a.m. – 11:42 a.m.) Mr HAU Fuk-tat, Simon (9:39 a.m. – 11:42 a.m.) Ms CHAN Yuet-ming (9:39 a.m. – 11:42 a.m.) Mr YUEN Ho-lun* Mr CHAN, Vincent Chi-fung* Mr CHAN Wai-tat* Mr KWOK Long-fung* Mr KO Wai-kei (9:39 a.m. – 11:42 a.m.) Mr CHEUNG Ching-ho, Franco* Mr CHEUNG Chun-wai* Mr WAN Wo-tat, Warwick (9:39 a.m. – 11:42 a.m.) Ms WONG Hoi-ying* Mr CHIANG Man-ching* Mr LAU Ki-fung*

Remarks: * Members who attended the whole meeting ( ) Time of attendance of Members

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Secretary: Ms CHU Wai-lin, Francoise Senior Executive Officer (District Council), North District Office

In Attendance

Mr CHONG Wing-wun, JP District Officer (North), Home Affairs Department Ms FUNG Siu-lan District Commander (Border), Hong Kong Police Force Mr LEE Kwok-chung District Commander (Tai Po), Hong Kong Police Force Ms LAU Bo-yee, Winnie District Planning Officer/, & Yuen Long East, Planning Department Ms PANG Wai-shan, Catherine District Lands Officer/North, Lands Department Mr LU Pei-yu Senior Engineer/ 1 (North), Civil Engineering and Development Department Mr CHAN Kai-lam, Allan Chief Manager/Management (Tai Po, North & Shatin), Housing Department Mr YAM Mun-ho District Social Welfare Officer (Tai Po/North), Social Welfare Department Mr WONG Chak-kwan, Byon Chief Transport Officer/Goods Vehicle, Transport Department Mr LEUNG Chi-fai District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (North), Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Ms LO Lai-fong, Jackie Chief Leisure Manager ( North), Leisure and Cultural Services Department Mr WONG Yiu-wa Senior District Engineer/North East, Highways Department Ms KWONG Ting-lok, Maggie Assistant District Officer (North)1, Home Affairs Department Miss LAM Tsz-yan, Gloria Assistant District Officer (North)2, Home Affairs Department

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Item 12 Mr AU YEUNG Chi-wai, Wilson Assistant Principal Immigration Officer (Investigation), Immigration Department Mr LAM Hing-cheung Chief Immigration Officer (Investigation) Task Force, Immigration Department

Opening Remarks

The Chairman welcomed Members and departmental representatives to the 2nd meeting of the North District Council (“NDC”). He said that in view of the severity of the on-going epidemic, to safeguard the health of attendees and staff, he would keep track of the time spent wherever possible in the hope of finishing the meeting within four hours. He also asked all attendees to keep their speeches as concise as possible and avoid repeating their arguments. Since the majority of regular departmental representatives attended the Full Council meeting in the new term for the first time, he would introduce the departmental representatives in attendance one by one.

2. The Chairman said that the Secretariat had just received an impromptu motion on the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (“HKDSE”) Examination, which would be dealt with after finishing the discussion of the last proposal.

Item 1 - Confirmation of Minutes of the 1st Meeting and 1st Special Meeting of the NDC

3. The meeting confirmed the minutes of the 1st meeting and the 1st special meeting held on 7 and 29 January 2020 respectively.

Item 2 - Appointment of Co-opted Members for Committees under the NDC (Paragraphs 145-203 of Minutes of the 1st NDC Meeting)

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4. The Chairman said that the NDC had approved the setting up of six committees at its 1st meeting on 7 January; nonetheless, at that time, a decision had yet to made on whether co-opted members would be appointed to committees because the question of whether such co-opted members had the right to vote had remained unclarified. Under section 71(2) of the District Councils Ordinance, a District Council (“DC”) might appoint to a committee any person who was not a member; and under section 71(4) of the District Councils Ordinance, a member appointed might vote at a meeting of the committee.

5. The Chairman continued that the Secretariat had made a clarification on the applicability of the provisions concerned that a DC was empowered by the District Councils Ordinance to appoint any person who was not a member to a committee, and similarly, this category of persons was empowered to vote at meetings of the committee. In other words, it was up to a DC to decide whether non-DC members should be appointed to its committees, but once appointed, this category of persons would be entitled to vote at committee meetings. He invited Members to give their views on whether the NDC should appoint non-DC members to its committees.

6. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming suggested giving up the idea of appointing co-opted members if their appointment was inseparable from their right to vote under a bundling arrangement. He pointed out that in discharging the mandate, Members present were entitled to vote, as well as participate in the decision-making process and make recommendations for community engagement. On the contrary, co-opted members lacked an explicit mandate. If the vote cast by a co-opted member carried the same weight as that of a DC member, this would defeat the purpose of democratic elections, causing unfairness to constituents. If necessary, professionals might be invited to give advice at the meetings of the Full Council and its committees.

7. The meeting approved the arrangement that no co-opted members would be appointed to the committees under the current-term NDC.

(Mr CHOW Kam-ho joined the meeting at this juncture.)

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Item 3 - Allocation of Funds for the NDC for 2020-21 (NDC Paper No. 27/2020)

8. The Chairman introduced the allocation of NDC funds for 2020-21 as follows:

(a) As regards community involvement (“CI”) projects, the amount of funds allocated to the NDC for implementing CI projects for 2020-21 was $24,153,000, among which a dedicated allocation of $2,240,000 was for “Arts and Cultural Activities”;

(b) The NDC had convened a working meeting on the allocation of NDC funds for 2020-21 (“working meeting”) on 12 March and 18 March. The working meeting recommended that the NDC funds be allocated to the committees and working groups according to the terms of reference of committees in the current-term DC, and funding be earmarked for the publicity of the NDC and the appointment of full-time contract staff. The committees and working groups would have discussions on the detailed arrangements for their respective allocation of funds. The proposed amount of funds available for allocation to all the committees and sub-items for 2020-21 was $26,821,000, which was the same as last year;

(c) At the working meeting, a majority of Members had no objection to the proposed allocation of funds ($22,744,000 in total) to the Committee on District Facilities, Culture and Recreation (“CDFC&R”), the Committee on Community Building and Environmental Improvement (“CCB&EI”), the Committee on Social Affairs (“CSA”), the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, as well as the publicity of the NDC and the appointment of full-time contract staff. Yet, Members had not reached a consensus on the amount of funds allocated to the remaining three committees/working groups (including the Committee on Traffic and Transport (“CT&T”), the Committee on Security (“CS”) and the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries). The NDC shall make a decision on the allocation of funds to the above three committees/working groups for the implementation of related work and activities. The amount of funds available for allocation to the three committees/working groups was $4,077,000. A Member also requested that additional funds be allocated to the CSA to provide more social services to the district; and 5 Action

(d) As for district minor works (“DMW”) projects, the amount of funds allocated to the NDC for implementing DMW projects was $19,599,000, which was the same as in 2019-20. It was proposed that reference be made to the arrangements for allocation of funds in the previous year to allocate funding to the two committees responsible for DMW. The amount of funds allocated to the CDFC&R would be $11,759,400 (60%), and the allocation to the Committee on Land Development, Housing and Works would be $7,839,600 (40%), the ratios were the same as in 2019-20.

9. The Chairman invited Members to give their comments on the proposed allocation of funds.

10. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming said that, the Chairman had just mentioned that Members had generally reached a consensus on the funding for Items 1 to 7 in Annex 1 to NDC Paper No. 27/2020, and suggested a total funding of more than $4 million for Items 8 to 10. In view of the epidemic, the supply of anti-epidemic items was changing from time to time, and there was no sign of easing of the epidemic. In this regard, he suggested that the scope of discussion should not be limited to the funding for Items 8 to 10, the NDC could consider allocating part of the said funding of more than $4 million to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus.

11. The Chairman responded that, in view of the ongoing spread of the epidemic, some Members mentioned in the last working meeting that some CI projects could not be carried out as scheduled. Therefore, the allocation to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus could remain at $1 million; if there were unused funds for other projects, the funds could be re-deployed to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus.

12. Mr YUEN Ho-lun considered that arts could not be promoted by a single organisation alone, the NDC should not earmark dedicated funds for “Arts and Cultural Activities” for North District Arts Advancement Association Limited (“the Association”). He suggested making open invitations to other organisations to apply for NDC funds to organise cultural and arts activities, so as to further promote diversification of arts and cultural activities.

13. The Chairman said that, according to the paper prepared by the Secretariat, the mechanism for designated organisations was no longer available in the current-term NDC. If the Association intended to apply for NDC funds, it should submit an application to the relevant committee under the NDC.

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14. Mr LAU Ki-fung said that the amount of funds allocated to the CT&T would be used for conducting traffic surveys and launching a mobile app, through which the public were allowed to monitor and know the overall traffic condition of North District, and the relevant data were available for the NDC’s discussion. He considered traffic an important issue of North District, and suggested that at least $1 million be allocated to the CT&T. As compared with more than $20 million of allocation to the NDC for CI projects, he considered an allocation of $1 million to the CT&T appropriate.

15. The Chairman consolidated Members’ comments at the working meeting and said that it was suggested that a funding of around $2.2 million be allocated to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries in 2020-21 for promoting tourism development in North District, for instance, organising activities related to locally-based economy and conducting relevant studies. If the funding for the CT&T, the CS and the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries was $1 million, $800,000 and $2.2 million respectively, the unallocated amount could be deployed to the CSA. He asked whether Members had other views on the allocation of funds.

16. Ms LAM Tsz-king said that, in view of the severity and uncertainty of the epidemic in 2020, the NDC should not allocate such a large amount of funds to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries for promotion of tourism.

17. Mr KWOK Long-fung said that the working meeting was held in the middle of March 2020 when the epidemic was not as serious as it was at present. He considered that it was necessary to increase the funding for the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus to purchase more anti-epidemic items for distribution to the residents in North District. He hoped that Members who intended to develop the rural economy would indicate their preference at the meeting, and considered that it made no sense to allocate more funds for tourism development than for fighting the epidemic.

18. Mr Franco CHEUNG asked, if the NDC regarded epidemic prevention as the priority task, whether it should allocate all the funding for the CDFC&R and the CCB&EI to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, and whether the CT&T did not need to launch the mobile app. He considered that the NDC’s denial of the need for future development in response to the epidemic would be a retrogression that failed to keep abreast of the times. He did not think that epidemic prevention work was unnecessary, however, in view of a drop in parallel trading activities during the epidemic, he considered that the NDC

7 Action should carry out study on the locally-based economy of North District and post-recovery work at this time.

19. Mr HAU Chi-keung considered that the Government shouldered the greatest responsibility for adopting disease prevention measures. Although the NDC should attach importance to epidemic prevention work, locally-based economy was equally important. After all, various sectors would have to revitalise the economy when the epidemic ended, therefore he supported the NDC to put efforts on tasks related to locally-based economy. He also considered that the Government had already put in a vast amount of resources on epidemic prevention, it served no purpose for the NDC to earmark a large amount of funds for epidemic prevention.

20. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming considered that it was worth the development efforts in the projects on traffic and locally-based economy, but epidemic prevention was accorded the top priority this year. He put a counter-question and asked what other tasks would be more important than epidemic prevention. The NDC should accord priority to epidemic prevention and discuss other issues in the following year. He said that handrubs were the only anti-epidemic item distributed to the community by the NDC, while face masks had never been distributed to the community. Although a Member considered that the Government had put in a vast amount of resources on epidemic prevention, he was of the view that these resources did not benefit the community.

21. Mr YUEN Ho-lun said that social welfare organisations (“SWOs”) were temporarily closed during the epidemic. As he estimated that the epidemic would last for three to six months, if Members wished to purchase anti-epidemic items for residents in North District, he would suggest that part of the funding available to SWOs be deployed to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. On the other hand, despite that the mechanism for designated organisations had been cancelled by the current-term NDC, the Association was still mentioned in Item 1(e) at Annex I to NDC Paper No. 27/2020. He enquired whether the current-term NDC had earmarked funding for the Association to apply, and opined that if all district organisations could apply for the funds, there was no need to mention the Association in Annex I.

22. The Secretary responded that since the NDC had granted funding to the Association for organising arts and cultural activities before, it was set out in Annex I that arts and cultural activities could be held by the Association or other organisations. Annex I to NDC Paper No. 27/2020 did not suggest that the Association be classified as a designated organisation. The allocation of funds would mainly be discussed at this meeting. As regards which organisations

8 Action could apply for funding, the eligibility for application, the funding rules, and so on would be discussed and decided by the CDFC&R.

23. Mr YUEN Ho-lun considered that, since all organisations could apply for the funding for arts and cultural activities, Item 1(e) at Annex I only needed to set out that “arts and cultural activities can be held by district organisations”, it was not necessary to mention the Association. He opined that the Association mentioned in the sentence would create a perception that the NDC would earmark funding for the Association; in addition, it was not in line with the direction of diversity in arts to indicate the Association as a major organisation for arts and cultural activities.

24. The Chairman concurred with Mr YUEN Ho-lun’s views, and considered that if organisations other than the Association could apply for the funding for arts and cultural activities, the wording referring to the Association in the paper should be deleted. He also considered that it would play fair for the CDFC&R to discuss which organisations could apply for the funding.

25. Ms LAM Tsz-king said in response to Mr Franco CHEUNG’s views that the problem of parallel trading had not yet been solved as parallel traders would visit Hong Kong again after the novel coronavirus epidemic. Accordingly, she did not agree to allocate such a large amount of funds to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries for the time being. Besides, while Mr HAU Chi-keung said that it was the Government’s responsibility to implement epidemic prevention work and the Government had already put in many resources to tackle the issue, she considered that residents in North District were not aware of the efforts of the Government, they still could not purchase any face masks. Therefore, the NDC requested allocation of funds for epidemic prevention. Under the situation that the epidemic development in 2020 was still shrouded in uncertainty, it would not cause any harm to allocate more resources for epidemic prevention.

26. Mr HAU Chi-keung made the following comments and suggestions:

(a) The Mainland Government had suspended the Individual Visit Scheme for the time being, as a result, the number of parallel traders would decrease drastically. The problem of parallel trading was a global concern, and there was a need to revitalise the economy. There was a commercial value for each place, people would buy its products as long as the goods were offered at affordable prices and in good quality. He stated that he did not engage in relevant business;

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(b) As some Members said that members of the public were unable to purchase face masks, he could procure a large number of face masks from Canada and Turkey that had passed the tests, and could help the people in need to buy; and

(c) If Members were so concerned about the epidemic, he suggested them use part of their remuneration for purchasing anti-epidemic items to the public. He believed that this act could gain public recognition. If Members agreed with this approach, he was willing to take the lead in using his remuneration for purchasing anti-epidemic items. The Sheung Shui District Rural Committee had already distributed more than 60 000 pieces of face masks, 100 000 bottles of handrubs and a large amount of bleach to the public.

27. Mr Vincent CHAN said that many Members had pointed out that the Government should take the lead in epidemic prevention, and the uncertainty of the epidemic had brought about a great deal of influence, therefore the NDC should thoroughly discuss the allocation of funds. He considered that the amount of funds allocated to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries should depend on its planned work. He also opined that the development of locally-based economy was not limited to the development of farmers’ markets, rural areas and tourism, it could also involve multiple issues, including sustainable development, easing community problems and cultural conservation, so that the people in the entire North District could benefit. He quoted an example that “Bazaar in Ching Ho” was an economic development project in the district, and the impact of the prevailing environment on the food business was also a problem of locally-based economy, North District could create a new economy. He considered that there would be a large room for the development of locally-based economy, Members could further discuss the allocation of funds to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries.

28. Mr Franco CHEUNG made the following comments:

(a) In response to the comments of Ms LAM Tsz-king, he pointed out that the problem of parallel trading had not been resolved in North District, great efforts were required for the development of locally-based economy in order to counteract the activities generating profits from parallel trading. Due to the hefty income from parallel trading business, many residents in North District opted to become traders. Nevertheless, many local businesses could be developed in North District, such as the business of home-stay lodgings, and restaurants with flourishing development in the “yellow economic 10 Action

circle”. Therefore, it was not necessary for residents in North District to seek cross-district jobs. It would take time to explore the development of locally-based economy above. Parallel trading had been a problem in North District for years, and the crux of the problem was that residents in North District relied on parallel trading business to earn income and lacked other sources of income; and

(b) It was not reasonable to purchase anti-epidemic items with DC funds as those items should be provided by the Government. He did not think that the NDC did not need to carry out epidemic prevention work. Rather, it was right for the NDC to help elderly persons and singletons who could not purchase epidemic prevention items, but the NDC was tasked to reflect the needs of the public to the Government at the policy level, rather than simply purchasing anti-epidemic items. For instance, he pointed out that the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus had requested the Government to close boundary control points and make clarifications about the notification mechanism. Those were the matters the NDC should do. He asked, if the Government did not provide sufficient assistance to the low-income people living in public rental housing (“PRH”), whether the NDC should allocate funds to help them. He considered that it was only reasonable to use the funds in a way conducive to constitutional development.

29. Mr LEE Koon-hung made the following comments:

(a) Many Members were rather emotional and suggested using all NDC funds for epidemic prevention. Since the past two to three months, North District, Hong Kong and even the whole world were fighting the epidemic, but it did not involve the investment of money only. By looking at the neighbouring countries, the key to epidemic prevention was whether members of the public were self-disciplined; if not (e.g. crowd gatherings), it would not be effective to provide them with anti-epidemic items;

(b) He agreed with the NDC to allocate funds for developing locally-based economy, and to allocate more resources to develop potential tourist spots in North District. North District differed from other districts in its geographical environment and location, in which many unique rural areas had not been developed. As the whole world endeavoured to boost their economy after the epidemic, if North District did not prepare for the development of locally-based economy and consider a new economic concept at this time, many 11 Action

people would be unemployed after the epidemic;

(c) He agreed that the NDC should carry out epidemic prevention work, but it did not mean that all NDC funds had to be allocated for this purpose. Due to the tendering procedures of the Government, all DCs were unable to purchase face masks. This was the inherent inadequacy of DCs, rather than the adequacy of funds. The NDC was not unwilling to purchase face masks. In fact, District Officer (North) had suggested granting $1 million funding for purchasing face masks a few months ago; and

(d) He asked the NDC whether the funding for epidemic prevention was for publicity, purchase of anti-epidemic items, or setting up an anti-epidemic fund so as to provide allowances to employees and shop owners who were affected by the epidemic and suffered economic loss. The Government had set up an anti-epidemic fund of more than $100 billion so as to cater for the needs of all Hong Kong people (including the residents in North District). However, the problem lay in the eligibility of the public for application for allowances. Therefore, he considered that some $1 million funding from the NDC was sufficient for epidemic prevention, there was no need to use all NDC funds for this purpose. The funding could be used mainly for publicity and purchasing basic anti-epidemic items. If the funding was not adequate, he believed that the North District Office would strive for more resources.

30. The Chairman concluded the comments of Members by saying that Mr LAU Ki-fung hoped to allocate more resources to the CT&T; some Members from the North Link Hong Kong and the rural sector agreed to allocate more resources for the development of locally-based economy so as to prepare for economic downturn in Hong Kong after the epidemic. Some Members from the Democratic Party considered that all NDC funds should be allocated to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. He asked Members to initiate a more concrete discussion, for instance, Mr KWOK Long-fung and Ms LAM Tsz-king could suggest how much funding would be considered adequate, and the specific uses of the funding concerned.

31. Ms LAM Shuk-ching made the following comments and enquiries:

(a) She felt weird that Members did not agree to allocate NDC funds for social welfare purpose. After all, the epidemic would end one day. She considered that NDC funds should be used properly and timely. The NDC funds were public money. As the Government was unable 12 Action

to purchase face masks for the public, the NDC could do so. Some members of the public donated face masks to the offices of Members, and some others purchased face masks at their own expense, hoping to provide face masks to those in need;

(b) There was a social welfare centre in Fanling South which provided face masks to its members. She believed that the centre had not set aside funding for distribution of face masks. As the funding allocated to SWOs had been cut repeatedly, she requested the NDC not to cut the funding for SWOs any more. She also considered that the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus could identify SWOs to carry out epidemic prevention work;

(c) The allocation of NDC funds was mainly discussed at this meeting. She agreed to develop locally-based economy, but as it was a brand-new project, the NDC might require repeated studies, and get the results after a period of time. As developing locally-based economy was a long-term project of the NDC, and some projects in need were already in lack of resources, the NDC should not cut the funding for the projects concerned. She also asked Members who supported the development of locally-based economy whether they could explicitly state the time required to produce results after the NDC funds for developing locally-based economy were granted; and

(d) Members should safeguard the interests of the public. She hoped that Members could become rational and speak with caution.

32. The Chairman clarified that, according to the present proposal, the NDC did not cut the funding for the CSA, which was around $3.2 million. If the NDC had unallocated funds, they would be deployed to the CSA. As for the issue of epidemic prevention raised by Mr KWOK Long-fung, Ms LAM Tsz-king and Mr CHAN Yuk-ming, he asked relevant Members about the additional resources required for epidemic prevention.

33. Ms LAM Tsz-king made the following comments and enquiries:

(a) She supported the development of local bazaars, and stated that she did not request using all the funding of $2.2 million for the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries for epidemic prevention. Since locally-based economy was still at an early stage of development, she queried why substantial funds had to be allocated to the Working Group on Locally-based

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Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries. At the working meeting, the Chairman said that he hoped to conduct a study related to bazaars, and to organise four bazaars every year at a cost of around $200,000 for each bazaar. In view that the Chairman hoped to promote tourism development in rural areas, she had asked the Chairman about the venue provider for the activities concerned, but the Chairman did not answer the enquiry, and simply said that the activities could be held in town areas in North District. She enquired who would have vested interests in promoting tourism development in rural areas; and

(b) A Member considered that the CSA could provide long-term support for epidemic prevention, however, the Committee had an allocation of $3.2 million only for carrying out a number of projects. She enquired if the Committee had adequate funding for epidemic prevention.

34. The Chairman responded to Ms LAM Tsz-king’s comments and enquiries as follows:

(a) It was estimated that the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries would organise Flower Bird Insect and Fish Show and produce short videos for promotion of tourism in North District at an allocation of $1.7 million. The videos had been produced by the NDC in the past few terms with satisfactory quality, yet some re-elected Members had never watched the videos. As for whether the Working Group would use the funding in one go or in batches, the matter could be discussed at the Working Group’s meeting;

(b) The Wan Chai DC invited the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University to produce a guide for living in Wan Chai in 2003. The guide gave a layout of different streets in Wan Chai to connect them together, bringing cultural and artistic touch to today’s Wan Chai. With reference to relevant experience, he hoped that the NDC would allocate $500,000 to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries for carrying out similar projects;

(c) As for whether the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries should focus on studying tourism development in rural areas, he adopted an open attitude and welcomed

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Members’ proposals of conducting a study on Estate or Shek Wu Hui. He considered that every project had its merits, and the rural areas would also be attractive to Hong Kong people for a visit during holidays because of the natural resources there. Therefore, there were objective conditions for conducting a study on rural areas without favouritism or interests; and

(d) The funding of $2.2 million for the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries accounted for only 8% of the annual funding for the NDC. The NDC consisted of different aspects with their own plans in each aspect, Members needed to discuss how to strike a balance among the tasks in all aspects under resource constraints. If Members considered that the funding for the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus was inadequate, they could give specific suggestions on the amount of funds for the Working Group as well as the uses of the funds.

35. Mr CHOW Kam-ho agreed that epidemic prevention work was very important, but he considered that epidemic prevention would be incomprehensive if it was confined to the purchase of additional items. Since the Government did not respond to the request of community groups for setting up an unemployment assistance fund, he asked whether the NDC could use the funding for epidemic prevention to set up an unemployment assistance fund dedicated to North District, in order to support the residents in North District who were unemployed and affected by the epidemic. If the unemployment assistance fund could be established, he agreed to increase the funding allocated to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus.

36. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting made the following comments:

(a) This agenda item was not the focus of the meeting. There were other more important agenda items, including exchange with police representatives. He did not consider that it should take too much time to discuss the allocation of funds;

(b) Everything had a priority. Human lives, epidemic prevention and public health were most important at present, while tourism and economic developments were certainly not the most pressing and important issues. Governments across the globe were all fighting the epidemic (including closure of boundary control points) and rescue airlines, instead of developing tourism for the time being. It was clear that the world focused on relief measures in the economic

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aspect, but not revitalization of tourism;

(c) The Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries would discuss how to stimulate the economy in North District, and long-term planning was involved. The NDC’s most pressing task for this year was the allocation of funds for epidemic prevention, but the amount of funds allocated to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries was more than double the amount allocated to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. If the NDC approved the allocation of funds, the public might think that the NDC failed to prioritise their work. He opined that the amount of funds allocated to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries should be less than that to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, otherwise the public would query whether the allocation of funds was reasonable. He suggested reducing the amount of funds allocated to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries to $1.5 million, and re-deploying the funds to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus instead. In addition, the Chairman of the CS, Mr KWOK Long-fung, agreed to deploy $300,000 from the Committee to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, in order to convey the message of fighting the epidemic to the public. With the above re-deployment, the amount of funds allocated to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus would be $2 million, which could be used to purchase anti-epidemic goods for Members’ distribution to the residents in North District who were most in need. The arrangements would be more reasonable;

(d) Apart from the Government, all members of the public ought to fight the epidemic, which was not possible solely depending on the self-discipline of the public. As Ms LAM Shuk-ching had said, many members of the public had asked Members for anti-epidemic items; and

(e) If Hong Kong was democratized and North District had hundreds of millions of funds, an unemployment assistance fund might be set up in North District. Nevertheless, the actual situation was that the NDC only had a few millions for allocation, an amount which could be used to purchase some several hundreds of thousands of face masks to help the elderly and those living in sub-divided flats or in hardship. Although the face masks distributed by the NDC would not be sufficient to bring fundamental changes to them, the NDC were

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still carrying out important tasks.

37. The Chairman said that while he understood the issue of public perception referred to by Hon LAM Cheuk-ting, he considered that Members should explain to the public the uses of funds, rather than “giving an empty talk”.

38. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting hoped that the Chairman would not attack others for their comments when chairing a meeting. He requested the Chairman to withdraw his remark of “giving an empty talk”.

39. The Chairman said that, if Members suggested allocating $2 million to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, they should propose the quantity of face masks to be purchased, instead of “discussing politics in market” simply by saying that the more funding the better.

40. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting considered that the Chairman should have the breath of mind to listen to different comments but not play down others’ comments. He did not consider that the quality of the speeches made by Members was just at the level of “discussing politics in market”, he hoped that the Chairman could mind his words.

41. The Chairman asked Hon LAM Cheuk-ting about his plan for using the $2.3 million funding for the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus.

42. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting said that he had earlier suggested reducing the funds allocated to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries and the CS by $700,000 and $300,000 respectively, and re-deploying the funding to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. After the re-deployment, the amount of funds allocated to Working Group on Novel Coronavirus should be $2 million instead of $2.3 million. He suggested using the $2 million funding to purchase anti-epidemic items for Members’ distribution to the residents in North District who were most in need. As for the quantity of anti-epidemic items to be procured, it would depend on the tendering procedures, the need of the public and the adequacy of those items, which were pending discussion by the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. Currently, the supply of disinfectant was abundant, and the public mainly required face masks. He considered that the meeting should focus on discussing whether the increase in the amount of funds allocated to Working Group on Novel Coronavirus was appropriate. There was no need to discuss specific details for the time being, just as Members did not ask the Chairman about the content of the short video for tourism promotion proposed by him.

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43. Mr YUEN Ho-lun responded to the comments of Ms LAM Shuk-ching by saying that while the lump sum grant for SWOs had been reduced, the NDC’s funds for activities organised by SWOs were not. The funding for the CSA and the CDFC&R was mainly used for organising activities, but not for staff recruitment or fighting the epidemic by SWOs. However, due to the temporary closure of community centres, it was difficult for SWOs to organise activities. In view of this, he suggested deploying a quarter of the funding (three months of funding) for the CSA to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. For the sake of fairness, if other activities funded by the NDC would draw large crowds, he proposed reducing their amount of funding by a quarter accordingly. Since the Government did not encourage crowd gatherings, he considered that the NDC should not encourage organisations to apply for funding to organise activities.

44. Mr HAU Chi-keung considered that the debate among Members was a waste of time. He suggested the meeting decide on the allocation of funds by voting to finish this agenda item as soon as possible.

45. The Chairman said that voting would be conducted after completion of the current round of discussion.

46. Ms LAM Shuk-ching said that, since SWOs used their internal resources to carry out epidemic prevention work, she proposed that the NDC allocate funds to SWOs for this purpose. Moreover, although community centres were temporarily closed in the past 14 days, some community centres were still open occasionally. SWOs did not cease operation but continued to carry out epidemic prevention work. She opined that the epidemic would eventually end, by then residents would support the development of locally-based economy instead of asking for the supply of face masks. Therefore, she hoped that Members could show compassion and do the right thing at the right time.

47. Mr CHOW Kam-ho considered that some activities funded by the NDC would lead to crowd gatherings. If it was unable to be organise the activities due to the development of the epidemic, he suggested the committees concerned deploy the unused funding to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. He believed that the arrangement would be more appropriate and easier to implement.

(Some people shouted loudly outside the conference room.)

48. Mr Simon HAU said that it was very noisy outside the conference room, he could not hear Members’ speeches. He requested that the people outside the conference room should be prohibited from shouting loudly. 18 Action

49. Mr Franco CHEUNG considered that the people outside the venue had contravened the group gathering ban, he suggested making a report to the Police.

50. The Chairman suggested adjourning the meeting for five minutes for security guards to handle the disruption of order outside the conference room. The meeting would resume when silence was restored outside the conference room. Members raised no objection to the Chairman’s suggestion.

(The meeting was adjourned for five minutes.)

51. The Chairman said that as uniformed police officers had arrived to handle the disruption of order outside the conference room, the meeting would resume. In view that many Members had expressed their views and there were still other agenda items to deal with, he said that voting would be conducted after this round of discussion.

52. Mr Simon HAU said that the working meeting had discussed the withdrawal of sponsorship for “Enrich Your Life” North District Distance Running Competition. Besides, both he and Sheung Shui District Rural Committee had distributed face masks and handrubs in rural areas, but he was worried that if anti-epidemic items were distributed to the residents continuously, residents would get used to it and become dependent. Some while ago, residents were unable to buy face masks in pharmacies which, however, were selling face masks at present. Nevertheless, he supported the NDC to allocate funds for purchasing anti-epidemic items for the residents. In addition, he hoped that the NDC would continue to support the Morning Bazaar in Sheung Shui, so as to revitalise the economy.

53. Mr Franco CHEUNG made the following comments:

(a) Epidemic prevention was not limited to allocating funds for purchasing face masks. Just as what Ms LAM Shuk-ching said, to some extent, offering help to the elderly by SWOs also fell within the scope of epidemic prevention. At the last meeting of the CCB&EI, a Member requested mutual aid committees to organise anti-epidemic activities or promotion. Moreover, post-epidemic economic recovery and development was also part of epidemic prevention work, such as providing financial assistance to failing firms and the unemployed;

(b) Some Members considered that fighting the epidemic would require the allocation of funds to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. He did not believe that the Government would eliminate the epidemic 19 Action

within a few months. He opined that the allocation for the CT&T could be reduced from $1 million to $200,000. Apart from this, the allocation for the CS could be reduced from $800,000 to $500,000. Based on his rough calculation, after deploying the adjusted amounts above to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the allocation for the Working Group would reach $2.2 million. Despite so, he did not think that allocation of funds to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus was the only way for the NDC to carry out epidemic prevention work. A number of working groups under the NDC would deal with matters involving epidemic prevention, and even the development of locally-based economy (including concerns about residents’ livelihood and catering costs) was relevant to epidemic prevention; and

(c) The development of locally-based economy was not limited to developing the rural economy. He hoped to explore the feasibility of developing Choi Yuen Night Market, such as lawful operation of hawkers and provision of stalls to hawkers. He hoped that the public would re-consider whether to continue to visit the restaurants owned by big corporations after the epidemic was over, or whether they could change the consumption pattern.

54. Ms LAM Shuk-ching said that while there was adequate supply of face masks on the market, the price of one box of face masks was generally $200, which was very expensive. Despite that Mr HAU Chi-keung considered that a box of face masks at a price of $90 was cheap, it cost some $30 for 50 pieces of face masks before the epidemic. In her view, traders ought to make profits, but they should not reap huge profits. Although some inexpensive and affordable face masks began to be available in Hong Kong, the public could only purchase them through balloting. Therefore, she hoped that Members could show compassion. In addition, the quality of face masks was also essential. Some face masks were made of thin materials, and members of the public dared not use these masks after purchasing or getting them from some organisations, as they were worried about the lack of protection from face masks which would lead to infection. She had also received many complaints about face masks for their poor quality and non-compliance with the standards, and consumers could only complain to the Consumer Council and the Customs and Excise Department. She considered that the Government should step up the enforcement against substandard face masks, so as to safeguard consumer interests.

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55. The Chairman said that apart from Ms WONG Hoi-ying, Mr LI Kwok-fung and Mr HAU Chi-keung, no other Members wished to speak. He would conclude the three proposals after this round of discussion and proceed to voting.

56. Ms WONG Hoi-ying said that when discussing the allocation of funds, Members should consider what the NDC was doing now and what needed to be done in the long term. The budget for the current year should only be spent on projects to be implemented within this year, while long-term projects should not be covered by it. In view of the local and worldwide novel coronavirus outbreak, and coupled with a resurgence of confirmed cases in Singapore a few days ago, epidemic prevention work was a top priority. She shared Ms LAM Shuk-ching’s view that quality face masks were expensive, and thus there was nothing wrong with increasing the budget for epidemic prevention work under the present circumstances. Given that the epidemic was now affecting the economy of Hong Kong, and that the development of a community-based economy was a long-term target, she suggested increasing the funding for the CSA and other projects to help residents in the North District, thus, the top priority was to redeploy funds from other items to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. She disagreed with the practice of redeploying funds to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus from other items subject to the availability of unspent funds, which regarded human lives as worthless. Only when people’s lives were well protected could it be possible to promote economic sustainably, enabling the public to continue to lead a normal life and enjoy the fruits of economic development. The NDC could further explore the long-term economic development of the North District in due course.

57. Mr LI Kwok-fung said that Members had already spent a long time discussing the allocation of funds, and suggested that the Full Council should put the matter to a vote without further ado.

58. The Chairman said that he would recapitulate various options after the current round of speaking before putting them to a vote.

59. In response to Ms LAM Shuk-ching’s comments, Mr HAU Chi-keung said that he could sell quality, certified face masks to the needy at about $90 per box, and the unit cost of the face mask was under $1. He hoped that the Chairman would decide on the options for allocation of funds and proceed to voting as soon as possible. He also considered it pointless to get into an argument.

60. Mr Vincent CHAN said that Mr Franco CHEUNG had suggested reducing the funding for the CT&T just then, and hoped that this was what 21 Action

Members needed to accomplish their goals. Besides, according to internet sources, there would be a successive supply of face masks by local manufacturers starting from April. Yet, he was worried that the NDC would not be able to procure face masks upon funding approval, leaving money unspent. He enquired about the NDC’s procedures for face mask procurement.

61. The Chairman said that the Tsuen Wan DC’s practice of procuring face masks in collaboration with a non-governmental organisation was different from the Government’s tender exercise. As such, concrete details might be discussed at the meeting of the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus.

62. Mr LAU Ki-fung opined that the $1 million funding for CT&T only accounted for a small portion of the NDC funds amounting to some $20 million. Despite the usefulness of epidemic prevention work, transportation was also a matter of concern for the North District. Therefore, it struck him as odd that some Members had suggested reducing the funding for CT&T.

63. The Chairman recapitulated the three options for allocation of funds as follows:

(a) For Option 1, he himself proposed to allocate $2.2 million and $1 million to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries and the CT&T respectively. Besides, according to Hon LAM Cheuk-ting, Mr KWOK Long-fung was of the view that an allocation of $500,000 to the CS would be somehow sufficient. Given the availability of unallocated funds, it was proposed that $377,000 would be additionally allocated to the CSA for the use of SWOs;

(b) For Option 2, Hon LAM Cheuk-ting proposed to allocate $1.5 million, $1 million, $500,000 and $2 million to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CT&T, the CS and the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus respectively; and

(c) For Option 3, Mr Franco CHEUNG proposed to allocate $2.2 million, $200,000 and $500,000 to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CT&T and the CS respectively, while the remaining $2.1 million would be redeployed to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus.

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64. The Chairman asked Members if they had anything to add or that needed to be amended in respect of the three options for allocation of funds.

65. Mr CHIANG Man-ching opined that given the stark difference between the three options, he could not decide which one to support. He enquired about the possibility of striking a balance between these options, and proposed to conduct an additional round of speaking to facilitate Members’ discussion.

66. The Chairman said that this agenda item had been discussed for a long time at this meeting. He asked Mr CHIANG Man-ching whether he would like to propose the fourth option.

67. Mr CHIANG Man-ching opined that the allocation of funds involved the annual planning of the NDC and a substantial outlay of funds, and that there was a lack of consensus among Members. For instance, Hon LAM Cheuk-ting had pointed out that some proposals on allocation of funds made no sense. As such, he wished to listen to fellow Members’ views first. He also said that under Option 3, it was proposed to reduce the funding for CT&T from $1 million to $200,000. In this connection, he asked Mr LAU Ki-fung for his opinion regarding the funding requirement of CT&T.

68. The Chairman said that the Full Council would take a vote after Mr Franco CHEUNG and Hon LAM Cheuk-ting had spoken.

69. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting said that he had never heard of the option proposed by the Chairman, and questioned that the Chairman had proposed a new option which had not been mentioned by anyone else before in an attempt to complicate matters. As a matter of fact, despite her request not to reduce the funding for the CSA, Ms LAM Shuk-ching had not sought to increase funding either. He had confirmed with Ms LAM Shuk-ching that the $3 million funding for the CSA was sufficient, so there was no need to increase funding. Nevertheless, the Chairman had proposed to increase funding for a sufficiently funded item. The Chairman’s proposal was incomprehensible to him. Besides, regarding his suggestion of redeploying a portion of the funding for the CS to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, those Members from the had also agreed to increase the funding for the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. He opined that if a vote were to be taken, the Full Council would only need to put the proposals made by him and the Chairman to a vote.

70. The Chairman said that Hon LAM Cheuk-ting had been absent from the two working meetings held on 12 and 18 March respectively possibly due to his busy schedule, during which a consensus had been reached on the redeployment of funds to the CSA wherever possible after Ms LAM Shuk-ching had expressed 23 Action such a wish. As a matter of fact, by making reference to Ms LAM Shuk-ching’s view, he had recommended to wherever possible redeploy the remaining funds to the CSA for funding activities organised by SWOs. He asked Ms LAM Shuk-ching whether she had changed her stance.

71. Ms LAM Shuk-ching said that at the working meetings, she did express her wish for redeploying the remaining funds to the CSA wherever possible; nevertheless, there was a discussion on increasing the funding for the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus at this meeting. Should there be an imminent need, she agreed to redeploy the remaining funds to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. Since Mr Franco CHEUNG had suggested reducing the funding for the CSA, she had an obligation to respond in order to safeguard the interests of the social welfare sector. She stressed that given the already limited funding for the CSA, there should not be a further cut in its some $3 million funding to be shared among a number of organisations.

72. The Chairman proposed an amendment to Option 1, whereby the funding of $377,000 would be redeployed to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus instead of the CSA.

73. Mr Franco CHEUNG said that in view of some Members’ comments that epidemic prevention work should be given priority, and that as public perception was more important than actual effectiveness, the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus should be allocated the lion’s share of funds, he had suggested redeploying a portion of the funding for the CS, the CT&T and the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus. He opined that other Working Groups could also carry out epidemic prevention-related work, and that it would be more desirable if Members worked together to determine the amounts of funding cuts for the above Committees and Working Groups.

74. Mr CHIANG Man-ching hoped that Members could reach a consensus, and considered that they should draw a conclusion together instead of forcefully putting the three options for allocation of funds to a vote. He believed that Members would agree that the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus should not receive less funding than the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, and that it would not be possible for the CT&T to go ahead with its plans if its funding was reduced from $1 million to $200,000. He asked Mr LAU Ki-fung whether he would accept a reduction in funding for the CT&T to $800,000 or insist that the $1 million funding should remain unchanged. In addition, he asked those Members who supported the development of a community-based economy for their opinion regarding the minimum funding requirement of the Working Group concerned. 24 Action

75. The Chairman asked Mr LAU Ki-fung if he would like to respond to Mr CHIANG Man-ching’s recommendation.

76. Mr LAU Ki-fung reiterated that given that transportation was a matter of concern for the North District, the $1 million funding for the CT&T was barely sufficient. He disagreed with the reduction in funding for the CT&T to $200,000, and considered this amount deplorable.

77. In response to Mr CHIANG Man-ching’s comments, the Chairman expressed his wish that the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries would conduct research and produce a life guide with $1.7 million and $500,000 respectively. He asked Mr CHIANG Man-ching about the availability of a fourth option for allocation of funds.

78. Mr CHIANG Man-ching suggested allocating $2.2 million, $2 million and $1 million to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries and the CT&T respectively. He was of the view that the levels of funding for the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus and the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries should not be too far apart, and that the former should receive slightly more funding than the latter. He also shared Mr LAU Ki-fung’s view that transportation was a matter of concern, and thus suggested that the $1 million funding for the CT&T should remain unchanged.

79. The Chairman said that there was a gap between the total funding requirement proposed by Mr CHIANG Man-ching and the amount available for allocation. In this connection, he asked whether Mr CHIANG intended to cancel the funding for the CS. He asked Mr CHIANG to recapitulate his proposal on allocation of funds.

80. Mr CHIANG Man-ching said that he suggested allocating $2.2 million, $2 million and $1 million to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries and the CT&T respectively.

81. The Chairman said that according to Mr CHIANG Man-ching’s proposal, the CS would not be receiving any funds. He asked Mr CHIANG about the availability of a fourth option for allocation of funds.

82. Mr Vincent CHAN suggested using the median to determine the funding requirements of different options. He proposed to allocate $1.9 million, $1.9 25 Action million and $700,000 to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus and the CT&T respectively, whereas the $500,000 funding for the CS would remain unchanged. He believed that under the proposed arrangement, the total funding requirement would be the same as the amount available for allocation, which was a relatively fair allocation as well.

83. The Chairman asked Mr Vincent CHAN whether he intended to present his proposal as the fourth option for allocation of funds.

84. Mr Vincent CHAN responded that his proposal was the fourth option for allocation of funds.

85. Mr Franco CHEUNG suggested that the Full Council should not adopt his proposal, saying that he had made the recommendation in the hope of facilitating Members’ discussion on the amounts of funding cuts for different items.

86. The Chairman suggested putting Mr Vincent CHAN’s “middle-of-the-road proposal” to a vote first, to be followed by the proposals made by him and Hon LAM Cheuk-ting. He introduced the three options for allocation of funds as follows:

(a) For Option 1, Mr Vincent CHAN proposed to allocate $1.9 million, $1.9 million, $700,000 and $500,000 to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CT&T and the CS respectively;

(b) For Option 2, he himself proposed to allocate $1.377 million, $2.2 million, $1 million and $500,000 to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CT&T and the CS respectively; and

(c) For Option 3, Hon LAM Cheuk-ting proposed to allocate $2 million, $1.5 million, $1 million and $500,000 to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CT&T and the CS respectively.

87. Mr CHIANG Man-ching said that his proposal on allocation of funds was most similar to Mr Vincent CHAN’s. Considering the relatively tight

26 Action financial situation of the CT&T with a funding of $700,000, he suggested allocating $1.8 million, $1.8 million, $500,000 and $900,000 to the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the CS and the CT&T respectively. He also opined that the proposals made by him and Mr Vincent CHAN might be merged into one.

88. The Chairman said that the two options were independent of each other, and that it was not possible to merge different options.

89. Mr CHIANG Man-ching said that according to his proposal, a total of $200,000 would be redeployed from the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries and the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus to the CT&T. Therefore, fellow Members might regard his proposal as a brand new one.

90. The Chairman suggested putting Mr Vincent CHAN’s proposal to a vote first, and proceeded to introduce the four options as follows:

(a) For Option 1, Mr Vincent CHAN proposed to allocate $1.9 million, $1.9 million, $500,000 and $700,000 to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CS and the CT&T respectively;

(b) For Option 2, Mr CHIANG Man-ching proposed to allocate $1.8 million, $1.8 million, $500,000 and $900,000 to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CS and the CT&T respectively;

(c) For Option 3, he himself proposed to allocate $1.377 million, $2.2 million, $500,000 and $1 million to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CS and the CT&T respectively; and

(d) For Option 4, Hon LAM Cheuk-ting proposed to allocate $2 million, $1.5 million, $500,000 and $1 million to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CS and the CT&T respectively.

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91. Mr Vincent CHAN said that the total funding requirement of Option 3 was $77,000 more than the other options.

92. The Chairman asked those Members who had proposed Options 1, 2 and 4 to recommend to which item(s) the remaining $77,000 would be redeployed.

93. Mr Vincent CHAN suggested redeploying the remaining $77,000 to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus.

94. The Chairman said that according to Mr Vincent CHAN’s recommendation, the funding available to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus under Option 1 would be $1.977 million.

95. Mr CHIANG Man-ching suggested redeploying the remaining $77,000 to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus.

96. The Chairman said that according to Mr CHIANG Man-ching’s recommendation, the funding available to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus under Option 2 would be $1.777 million.

97. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting said that after listening to fellow Members’ comments, he decided to support the option proposed by Mr CHIANG Man-ching and withdraw his own option.

98. Mr Vincent CHAN withdrew his own option and supported the option proposed by Mr CHIANG Man-ching.

99. The Chairman also withdrew his own option, and asked if Members agreed to endorse the option proposed by Mr CHIANG Man-ching.

100. Mr LAU Ki-fung proposed to redeploy the remaining $77,000 to the CT&T.

101. Mr Vincent CHAN regarded a reduction in the funding for the CT&T from $1 million to $900,000 as not so significant. In view that fellow Members sought to step up epidemic prevention efforts, he suggested redeploying the remaining $77,000 to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus.

102. Mr Simon HAU criticised that it was a waste of Members’ time to make a prolonged discussion on the allocation of funds since 9:30 a.m.

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103. Mr HAU Chi-keung opined that Members should reach a consensus in a timely manner, and that there was no need to get into endless arguments and propose a number of options at the meeting. He considered that Members should take a clear stance when proposing their options instead of wasting time on pointless discourse.

104. Mr LEE Koon-hung was dissatisfied that fellow Members had now reached a consensus all of a sudden after spending the entire morning discussing the subject. He opined that Members should have reached a consensus at the working meetings, and criticised that those Members who often stressed the importance of epidemic prevention had tolerated that some 20 people participated in a long meeting. He criticised this meeting as unnecessary.

(Mr LEE Koon-hung, Mr LI Kwok-fung, Mr HAU Chi-keung, Mr Simon HAU, Ms CHAN Yuet-ming, Mr KO Wai-kei and Mr Warwick WAN left the meeting at this juncture.)

105. Mr CHIANG Man-ching said that for now, the Full Council could solve the issue after simply taking a vote on whether or not the remaining $77,000 should be redeployed to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus or the CT&T.

106. The Chairman asked Mr LAU Ki-fung whether there was any room for concessions; if so, the Full Council needed not take a vote.

107. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting was obliged to formally respond to the comments of those Members from the rural sector, saying that the NDC was a democratically elected council, and its Members could reach a consensus through discussion and were under no obligation to merely accept the original option. It was incomprehensible to him why those from the rural sector considered spending the entire morning discussing the subject a waste of time.

108. The Chairman said that not all Members had attended the working meetings, and was sceptical about whether the absentees had participated in the discussion on allocation of funds. He asked why Mr CHAN Yuk-ming and Hon LAM Cheuk-ting had been absent from the working meetings held on 12 and 18 March respectively. He opined that it was necessary for Members to communicate with each other before this meeting, and that obviously, arguments had been brought up at this meeting due to poor communication.

109. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming said that he did attend the working meeting held on 12 March.

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110. The Chairman asked Mr CHAN Yuk-ming to let Mr LAU Ki-fung to speak first.

111. In response to the comments of those from the rural sector that Members should have reached a consensus before the meeting, Mr LAU Ki-fung pointed out that although NDC Members of the previous terms did reach a consensus before the meetings that lasted for two hours only, this was not the normal practice of a DC.

112. Mr CHAN Wai-tat said that although he had not spoken during the entire morning, he highly appreciated that various Members had spoken their mind. In view of the active participation of current-term NDC Members in discussions, despite their inability to reach a consensus at the working meetings, still they managed to do so by putting their cards on the table at this meeting, enabling the public to know that Members had built consensus through deliberation, instead of adhering to the traditional practice of endorsing different motions when the NDC was controlled by major political parties, thus undermining the efforts of outspoken Members. He opined that the current-term NDC was far healthier than ever before, and that the previous discussion lasting for several hours was by no means unproductive because outspoken Members had simply expressed their stances. He did not understand why those Members from the rural sector felt unhappy.

113. The Chairman shared Mr CHAN Wai-tat’s view, and commented that Members would not have attended this meeting if deemed unnecessary.

114. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming reiterated that he did attend the working meeting held on 12 March, and asked the Chairman to acknowledge the validity of his evidence-based statement.

115. The Chairman apologised to Mr CHAN Yuk-ming and corrected his comment as “Mr CHAN Yuk-ming had attended the working meeting on 12 March”.

116. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming said that the representatives from the Democratic Party had attended the working meeting on 18 March, during which Ms LAM Tsz-king had made it clear that she wished to redeploy a portion of the funding for the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries to the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus or other Committees/Working groups. All along, Members from the Democratic Party had unanimously taken the same stance, and such a stance remained unchanged at this meeting. He questioned that the Chairman had not listened to the views expressed by the Democratic Party and Ms LAM Tsz-king. Despite the fact 30 Action that those Members from the rural sector had walked out in protest would have a negative impact on the parliamentary culture, the Chairman needed not pass the buck to someone else even if he might be upset by criticisms from those Members from the rural sector. He said that when responding to the remarks of their colleagues from the rural sector just then, several Members had pointed out that they disrespected the parliamentary culture. Nevertheless, the Chairman had no comment on this, but instead criticised some Members for being absent from the working meetings.

117. The Chairman queried that Mr CHAN Yuk-ming had not read the papers carefully, saying that he had at this meeting corrected his comment concerning the working meetings. He asked Mr CHAN Yuk-ming to read the papers carefully first. Besides, he recapitulated the proposal on allocation of funds: the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CS and the CT&T would be allocated $1.877 million, $1.8 million, $500,000 and $900,000 respectively. If there was no objection, he would declare that this option for allocation of funds was endorsed.

118. Mr CHIANG Man-ching said that just then, Mr LAU Ki-fung had expressed his wish to take a vote to decide whether or not the remaining funding of $77,000 should be redeployed to the CT&T.

119. Mr LAU Ki-fung deemed it necessary to put the option for allocation of funds proposed by Mr CHIANG Man-ching to a vote because he opined that voting was Members’ responsibility. Now that those Members from the rural sector had left the meeting, there was no reason not to vote at this meeting.

120. The Chairman said that according to the option for allocation of funds proposed by Mr CHIANG Man-ching, the Working Group on Novel Coronavirus, the Working Group on Locally-based Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries, the CS and the CT&T would be allocated $1.877 million, $1.8 million, $500,000 and $900,000 respectively. The Full Council would now proceed to voting. Subject to Order 31(1) of the NDC Standing Orders, an absolute majority of votes, i.e. more than half of the number of valid votes (excluding abstentions), was required in the passage of a motion.

121. The Chairman declared the voting result, saying that the motion was carried with 15 votes for it. The option for allocation of funds with respect to CI projects proposed by Mr CHIANG Man-ching was unanimously endorsed by Members present.

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122. The Chairman asked Members whether they had any comments on the proposed allocation of funds with respect to DMW projects. Members did not raise any comments.

123. The Chairman declared that the proposed allocation of funds with respect to DMW projects had been endorsed by the Full Council.

Item 4 - Approval Arrangements for Funding Applications and Revised Budgets of District Minor Works Projects of the NDC (NDC Paper No. 28/2020)

124. Miss Gloria LAM presented the paper.

125. The meeting endorsed the proposed arrangements as set out in NDC Paper No. 28/2020.

Item 5 - Funding Application for District Minor Works Projects of the NDC (NDC Paper No. 29/2020)

126. The meeting endorsed the funding application as set out in NDC Paper No. 29/2020.

Item 6 - Proposal: Requesting Details of Housing Arrangements for Prospective Tenants of (NDC Paper No. 30/2020)

127. Mr CHEUNG Chun-wai presented the paper. In response to the written reply from the Housing Department (“HD”), he considered that the $6,000 in ex-gratia allowance for each prospective tenant was just not adequate to cover living expenses and costs of epidemic prevention supplies. He enquired of the HD whether subsequent arrangements would be put in place. Besides, the HD anticipated that it would take about six to eight months to fully complete the reinstatement works at Fai Ming Estate. Given that many factories around the globe had suspended operation amid the epidemic, he enquired of the HD about the availability of sufficient construction materials in stock; if not, he was worried that the reinstatement works would fall behind schedule and could not

32 Action be completed on time, leaving the affected tenants with no choice but to wait time and again.

128. Mr Allan CHAN responded that apart from the granting of $6,000 in ex-gratia allowance, the HD had set aside interim housing (“IH”) flats for prospective tenants, and had already issued letters on 20 February 2020 to those who had accepted the offer of advance allocation of flats in Fai Ming Estate. Among these, 59 households had replied that they wished to move into IH flats on a temporary basis. Accordingly, the HD had made arrangement for flat allocation from around mid- to late April. On the other hand, about 120 households had expressed a preference for flats in other PRH estates over those flats in Fai Ming Estate allocated to them in advance. About 50 of them had been allocated flats so far. Notwithstanding that the supply of construction materials and workers had been affected amid the epidemic, the HD would, wherever possible, complete the reinstatement works at Fai Ming Estate within six to eight months as planned. He would review the situation with the Development and Construction Division under the HD, and give a further account to Members if necessary, with a view to minimising the impacts on prospective tenants.

129. Ms LAM Shuk-ching was delighted to know the arrangements concerned. As she did not quite catch what Mr CHAN had said just now, she enquired of the HD about the number of households which had been successfully allocated IH flats in addition to the some 100 applications for PRH transfer.

130. Mr Allan CHAN responded that 59 households had been allocated IH flats in Po Tin Estate, Tuen Mun.

131. Ms LAM Shuk-ching enquired about the number of households which had turned down the offer of advance allocation of flats in Fai Ming Estate but had been successfully allocated PRH flats.

132. Mr Allan CHAN responded that there were about 50 cases.

133. Ms LAM Shuk-ching continued to enquire about the total number of affected tenants who had been allocated a flat in advance but failed to move into Fai Ming Estate as scheduled. In view that applicants on the PRH Waiting List were still waiting their turn for selecting flats released by prospective tenants, she enquired of the HD whether a mechanism had been put in place to facilitate public access to such information as application status and time of flat intake, etc.

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134. Mr CHEUNG Chun-wai expressed his wish that the HD would promptly inform the NDC upon full completion of the reinstatement works at Fai Ming Estate, so that Members could relay the information to residents accordingly. Besides, given that Fai Ming Estate was in too close geographical proximity to other residential buildings, he requested the HD to undertake that Fai Ming Estate would never be used as a quarantine centre again.

135. Mr Allan CHAN responded that about 120 out of some 670 PRH applicants who had accepted the offer of advance flat allocation had decided to switch to other PRH estates, while 490 of them had not indicated a need to switch to either IH or other PRH estates. Besides, owing to the severe damage to Fai Ming Estate, implementation of reinstatement works would entail certain difficulties. The HD would make timely announcements on the progress of reinstatement works. Members of the public might call the District Tenancy Management Office concerned to enquire about the situation. The HD would also report to the NDC on the latest progress of the reinstatement works on a regular basis. Meanwhile, the HD aimed to restore Fai Ming Estate and lease the flats to prospective tenants. So far, there was no plan to use Fai Ming Estate for other purposes.

136. Ms LAM Shuk-ching said that the reinstatement works at Fai Ming Estate would take six to eight months to complete. However, as mentioned by Mr Cheung Chun-wai, factors such as the supply of raw materials might hinder the progress. As residents might keep on asking works progress after a lapse of seven months, she hoped that the HD could inform Members of the latest progress before the final month of the reinstatement works.

137. In response, Mr Allan CHAN was aware of the concerns of prospective tenants who wished to know when flat intake would commence. He said that if feasible, he would inform Members in a timely manner.

Item 7 - Proposal: Request for Clarification from the Police on the Demarcation of District/Division Boundaries in Rural Areas of North District (NDC Paper No. 31/2020)

138. The Chairman made further remarks on the aforesaid proposal. He opined that the demarcation of Police District boundaries in rural areas of North District highlighted three problems in the Police, namely improper management, miscommunication and indiscriminate manpower deployment. In the written response to the proposal, the Police had indicated that “Police Community 34 Action

Relations Officers (“PCROs”) of the Tai Po Police District (“TPDIST”) and the Border Police District (“BORDIST”) will liaise with village representatives in an active effort to respond to their enquiries and support frontline policing. Enquiries about the demarcation of Police District boundaries may be directed to the PCROs of respective Police Districts.” Judging from this, the Police were of the view that in case of an emergency, people should stay calm and call the village representatives or PCROs first to figure out the demarcation of Police District boundaries before filing a police report for assistance. This meant that the responsibility for clarifying the demarcation of Police District boundaries lay on members of the public rather than the Police. However, given the vague boundary demarcating the Police Districts in Queen’s Hill constituency, in some cases, villages (such as Wang Shan Keuk San Tsuen, Tai Tong Wu Village or Ma Mei Ha Tsuen) straddling a village road might be under the jurisdiction of two Police Districts. As a matter of fact, staff of his ward office had received complaints from village representatives and villagers on 11 January and 9 March 2020 respectively, stating that when they called the Police for assistance in different incidents, back office staff had been unable to tell which police stations should be responsible for the locations concerned, thus, it had taken so long for police officers to arrive at the scenes to take follow-up actions. In this connection, he enquired of the Police whether clear internal guidelines on demarcation of Police District boundaries had been put in place. He also pointed out that in case of an emergency, members of the public tended to call the 999 emergency hotline first instead of PCROs or village representatives; nevertheless, in practice, the callers making calls to the 999 emergency hotline would be asked to contact PCROs first.

139. Ms FUNG Siu-lan responded that there were five land regions in the entire territory, and each of which was sub-divided into a number of districts to ensure reasonable deployment of manpower and resources. At present, the TPDIST (comprising Sheung Shui Division and Tai Po Division) and the BORDIST (comprising Division and Division) of the New Territories North (“NTN”) Region were mainly responsible for the policing of North District. All along, PCROs of the TPDIST and the BORDIST had actively maintained liaison with village representatives, responded to enquiries and supported frontline policing. Upon receipt of the aforesaid proposal, PCROs had conducted site visits at the villages in the boundary areas between the two Police Districts and liaised with the village representatives concerned. The village representatives and villagers might specify the Police District in which the incident took place when filing a police report. If the informant was not sure in which Police District the incident took place, he/she could meet police officers at the entrance of the village and accompany them to the scene. In fact, regardless of the Police District in which an incident took place, police officers would promptly attend the incident 35 Action upon arrival at the scene. For example, even if an incident occurred in Ta Kwu Ling Division, police officers from Sheung Shui Division would promptly attend the incident upon arrival at the scene. When police officers from Ta Kwu Ling Division arrived afterwards, a decision on which Police District should be tasked to follow up on the case would be made. In case of an emergency, members of the public might dial 999, and police officers from the Emergency Unit (“EU”) would attend the incident upon arrival at the scene, regardless of which Division had jurisdiction over the case. Moreover, the Police Community Relations Office of the BORDIST had implemented a “village networking project” (鄉絡計劃 in Chinese) under which frontline sergeants were assigned to liaise with village representatives, with a view to enhancing mutual communication. The Police Community Relations Office concerned would also brief frontline police officers and the Command and Control Centre (“RCCC”) (including 999 operators) of the district on the demarcation of Police District boundaries, in order to enhance the efficiency in case handling.

140. The Chairman repeated his question of whether the Police had put in place clear guidelines on the demarcation of Police District boundaries, or else, whether members of the public had to obtain relevant information from PCROs. He also asked why the internal guidelines could not be provided to village representatives or villagers for reference.

141. Ms FUNG Siu-lan responded that PCROs of the BORDIST and the TPDIST had contacted the Access to Information Officer of the NTN Region in this regard. If necessary, members of the public could obtain a map illustrating demarcation of Police District boundaries in the NTN Region by completing the relevant application form in accordance with the requirements under the Code on Access to Information. Should the Chairman need to access to information available for public inspection, PCROs could contact his assistant. The requested information would be available after completing the form.

(Post-meeting note: The Police Community Relations Office of the BORDIST provided an application form for access to information to the assistant of the Chairman of the NDC on 16 April 2020 for his follow-up action.)

142. The Chairman cited a case in which a villager had been asked about the Police District in which the incident took place when calling the 999 emergency hotline, and criticised the Police for passing the buck. He continued to point out that it was possible that EU officers from the two Police Districts attended an incident at the same time, resulting in a waste of police resources. Given that the Police always expressed concern over inadequate staffing, they had

36 Action better properly discharge their duties with respect to management, communication and manpower deployment.

143. Ms FUNG Siu-lan responded that the “frontline police officers” that she referred to earlier were uniformed officers from the Patrol Sub-unit (“PSU”). If an incident took place in the boundary area between two Divisions, both Divisions would first dispatch PSU officers to the scene. Given that the EU involved the use of resources from the NTN Region, if both Divisions were unable to promptly dispatch officers to attend the scene of the incident, the EU would instantly dispatch officers to attend the incident if emergency action was deemed appropriate. The PSU and the EU would co-ordinate their work to avoid duplication of effort. Besides, owing to the difficulty in determining which Police District had jurisdiction over certain places, the BORDIST and the TPDIST would communicate with RCCC officers to avoid misunderstandings.

144. The Chairman expressed his wish that the Police would seriously follow up on the matter concerned and ensure that all police officers in North District has a clear understanding of the demarcation of Police District boundaries, so that they would not ask informants about the Police District in which an incident took place.

Item 8 - Proposal: Request for Review and Improvement of the Quality of the 999 Hotline Service (NDC Paper No. 32/2020)

145. The Chairman said that the Police’s emergency hotline had refused to deal with emergencies at present, and criticised police officers for their poor attitude at work and their failure to follow up, respond to and monitor the progress of cases reported by the public. A staff member of his ward office had received an assistance-seeking case from a resident at about 6:00 p.m. on 28 February 2020, in which sand and gravel had allegedly poured out from a dump truck from Fanling over the entire traffic lane by accident when passing by one of the exits (Sha Tau Kok bound) of the roundabout off Lau Shui Heung. As the scene of the incident was located at a busy road section and in motorists’ blind spots, his staff member had called the 999 emergency hotline twice requesting the Police to dispatch officers to the scene for regulating the traffic. However, in both instances, the operators had immediately hung up the phone after saying that it had not been possible to identify the location of the scene, but follow-up actions would be taken. He asked why the operators had hung up the phone, and whether it was because they had considered it a minor traffic incident or had been in a bad mood. He also asked whether it had been 37 Action specified in the practice note the circumstances under which operators answering emergency calls could hang up the phone. In the aforesaid case, eventually, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (“FEHD”) had dispatched a cleansing team and two road washing vehicles to remove the gravel on the road; nevertheless, no police officers had attended the scene to follow up on the incident. He asked why no officers had been dispatched to follow up on the case upon receipt of the 999 calls. As a case in point, on 21 July 2019, over 24 000 people had called the 999 emergency hotline for assistance in a single incident of extreme urgency, but could not receive the necessary assistance from the Police. Similarly, the residents in Queen’s Hill and Sha Ta Constituencies in North District had not received the necessary assistance from the Police on the evening of 28 February 2020. In addition, noting that it had been mentioned in the Police’s written response that “The Hong Kong Police Force (“HKPF”) will put in place internal controls to ensure compliance with the aforesaid performance standards”, he enquired of the Police about the measures adopted to monitor, review and improve their performance, as well as the progress of the internal investigation into the public order incident happened on the night of 21 July 2019.

146. Mr LEE Kwok-chung responded that upon receipt of the aforesaid proposal, the Police had attempted to retrieve the case reported by Mr LAW Ting-tak’s assistant on the evening of 28 February 2020 from the phone record, but in vain. The 999 console provided round-the-clock emergency support services. In case of an emergency, according to the performance pledge, police officers would attend the scene within nine minutes in urban areas and 15 minutes in the New Territories respectively. Normally, 999 emergency calls were answered by Police Communications Officers as civilian staff instead of police officers. When a report was received from an assistance seeker, the Police would determine the manpower requirement for the case having regard to its nature, location and urgency. For non-emergency calls, the Police might refer the cases to relevant government departments for following up. Besides, regarding the case brought up by the Chairman, if his assistant or any other persons considered that 999 operators failed to handle phone calls professionally, they might reflect their concerns to the Police under the established mechanism. Accordingly, the Police would take appropriate follow-up actions.

147. The Chairman asked whether or not the case as set out in the paper was an emergency, and whether the Police should have dispatched officers to the scene for regulating the traffic.

148. Mr LEE Kwok-chung said that of course, it was necessary to dispatch officers to attend incidents in which objects posed road safety risks and 38 Action immediate danger to road users. However, as far as the case mentioned in the paper was concerned, for the time being, he was not sure whether police officers should have been dispatched to attend the incident. He had to obtain further information before giving a reply.

149. The Chairman said that if it was established that officers should have been dispatched to attend the incident as mentioned in the paper upon investigation by the Police, this constituted a dereliction of duty.

Item 9 - Proposal: Request for Devising Training Courses on Emotion Management for Frontline Police Officers Without Delay (NDC Paper No. 33/2020)

150. The Chairman made further remarks on the aforesaid proposal, and doubted whether the Police deliberately ignored the emotional problems of police officers owing to the need to take advantage of hysterical police officers to scare people off. Some previous incidents had called into question the Police’s use of force and intimidation in a deliberate attempt to bring the social situation under control. Issuing firearms and batons to police officers was possible only when there was public empowerment, therefore, the Police should balance public interest instead of engaging in intimidating behaviours in public. However, since June 2020, the Police’s reckless acts of connivance and lack of action had caused panic among the public. Even though the Police had all along been complacent about their outstanding performance, some police officers had pushed and laid siege to passers-by during operations, giving the impression that they had no intention to maintain order, and their representatives had failed to attend meetings of the CS under the NDC to answer relevant questions either, thus eroding public trust in the Police. He cited a complaint about Queen’s Hill area as an example. A resident had criticised the police officer for mishandling a dispute between residents without looking into the details, who had shown favour to one party, and even be rude to the informant during an emotion outburst. Eventually, the complainant in his 60s had told him that it was incomprehensible to him why he had been blamed for filing a report. According to the popularity figures of disciplinary forces released by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute in December 2019, the HKPF received the lowest rating with 35.3 marks. He enquired of the Police whether they realised the problems arising from police officers’ use of verbal intimidation and mishandling of cases, etc., whether they would conduct a 39 Action

review on the procedure for case handling and publish the outcome, and why they had refused to make a public apology.

151. The Chairman continued that it had been indicated in the Police’s written response to the aforesaid proposal that “Since June 2019, protests of different scales have been held in various districts in Hong Kong, during which police officers were verbally abused in one way or another. In particular, frontline officers who were working outside the office day and night were under unprecedented and enormous pressure in an environment imbued with malicious provocations.” He opined that as frontline police officers were under unprecedented pressure, the Police were supposed to take good care of each and every one of them, and organise emotion management training courses for them. In this connection, he enquired of the Police whether emotion management training courses had been organised for frontline police officers, and whether they had been instructed to refrain from using bad or abusive language.

152. Ms FUNG Siu-lan responded that routine police work was stressful. Since June, the recent events opposing the proposed legislative amendments had even intensified the pressure on the Police, while the public had rising expectations in policing services. All along, the Police’s management team was concerned about whether police officers would be vulnerable to emotional distress in a high-pressure work environment, and therefore, the Police had adopted a multi-prong approach to assist police officers in building stress tolerance and enhancing emotional resilience, thereby maintaining effective and professional law enforcement. The Police had set up a team comprising 12 clinical psychologists and 21 Force Welfare Officers for providing round-the-clock support to police officers. The clinical psychologists would organise mental health talks regularly, and visit police stations to communicate with police officers direct for identifying the sources of pressure and providing professional advice. On training, each police officer was required to take part in a development course once every few years, in which talks with the topic on emotional awareness had been included. In April this year, the Hong Kong Police College had designed a kit for use on the training day, which aimed to explore the phenomenon of social polarisation across different sectors in the community amidst social movements in recent years from the perspective of psychology, so as to help police officers understand the causes of social polarisation, which would in turn facilitate effective law enforcement. Also, a module had been incorporated into the training day kit to instruct police officers

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how to effectively manage their emotions themselves when under pressure, so as to enhance their ability to cope with a challenging work environment. Each frontline police officer would receive the necessary training on the training day. In the future, the Police would continue to pay close attention to the emotional state of frontline police officers, so as to ensure that they would deal with each and every case in a professional manner when discharging their duties.

153. Mr LAU Ki-fung agreed that emotion management was a priority for the Police, and requested the Police to give an account of the operation in which Lung Fung Garden in Sheung Shui was under siege. As a district councillor, he had come to the front of the line in the hope of understanding police deployment and advising residents to control their emotions at the same time. In the incident, he and the Police had their own role to play. However, as soon as he had finished speaking a few words, a frontline police officer held a pepper spray canister in front of his face saying “Stop yelling, or I will pepper-spray you”. With red and bloodshot eyes, the police officer concerned had been unable to get his emotion under control. He said that even though the Police had been putting efforts in emotion management for police officers, still he had witnessed officers losing self-control at the scene or on television, and seemingly, they could not resist the urge to use force against the public anyway. As this situation struck him as odd, he enquired of the Police how to deal with the problem concerned. It was imperative for the Police to conduct a review in this regard.

154. Mr CHOW Kam-ho said that in the “Fai Ming Estate incident”, residents at the scene had merely wished to express their aspiration that a quarantine centre would not be set up near their own residences. Before the Police mounted the operation all of a sudden, the place was quiet and free from disturbance; nevertheless, when the Police started to disperse the crowd on that night, police officers at the scene had incessantly cursed and intimidated the residents who had not taken any action. Some of them had merely expressed their dissatisfaction with the Police’s handling of the situation, but they had been pepper-sprayed by the police officers. Even though the Police had organised talks for police officers regularly, and professionals came into contact with frontline police officers, in view of the emotional outbursts shown by the police officers concerned, he doubted the effectiveness of the Police’s counselling activities and emotional support measures for frontline police officers.

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Moreover, it could raise serious doubts among residents whether police officers could uphold professionalism during law enforcement operations.

155. Mr YUEN Ho-lun said that he had a similar experience as Mr LAU Ki-fung. He had been hit by a police officer of the Special Tactical Contingent twice when he was advising residents to leave the scene. Because of this, he had a feeling that the police officer concerned had lost self-control. In another case involving criminal damage to a resident’s property happened last week, after he filed a report with the Police together with the resident, the police officers on the scene had dealt with the case in a perfunctory manner, saying that the behaviour did not constitute a criminal damage offence but a harassment. However, when he sought legal advice on the case concerned, the lawyer had opined that it was a criminal damage offence. He said that police officers who were emotionally vulnerable were likely to display an antagonistic attitude towards the public or an unwillingness to serve the public when performing their routine duties. He would like to take this opportunity to reflect to the Police that the Police’s performance and service quality would definitely be affected by police officers’ emotions. Besides, he enquired about the respective numbers of police officers who had participated in health talks organised by the Police and who had received services offered by the 24-hour counselling hotline.

156. Ms FUNG Siu-lan responded that she did not have the information on the cases mentioned by Members at hand, and that each incident was an isolated case. Maybe she would arrange scenario discussion for police officers on the cases mentioned by the three Members on the training day for sharing views on how to handle the situation on the spot. Any persons dissatisfied with police officers’ law enforcement practices might reflect their views to PCROs of the Police directly, or lodge a complaint with the Complaints Against Police Office (“CAPO”). The Police would deal with the cases in a fair and impartial manner. In addition, regarding Mr YUEN’s enquiry about the 24-hour counselling hotline, she did not have the requested information at hand, and HKPF would make a report as soon as it became available.

(Post-meeting note: The Police Psychological Services Group has organised 94 psychological support talks between June 2019 and March 2020, but did not keep a record of the respective numbers of talk participants and users of the counselling hotline. The PCRO of the BORDIST has provided the aforesaid information to Mr YUEN Ho-lun on 15 May 2020.)

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157. Mr Franco CHEUNG said that Members did not intend to take this opportunity to discuss how to tell right from wrong, file complaints or express dissatisfaction, but were concerned about police officers’ emotional health in a high-pressure work environment, as well as seek to explore their susceptibility to emotional problems. Members had managed to maintain a good working relationship with the Police Community Relations Office out of mutual respect. Police-community relations could be improved only if this kind of mutual respect could be applied to other contexts. As a child, he recalled, police officers would not overreact even if they were insulted. On the one hand, he hoped that the Police would strengthen emotional support service, with a view to improving public perception of the Police. On the other hand, he pointed out that even if the Police injected an enormous amount of resources, still some officers might not be able to realise their own problems, just as mental patients might not be willing to seek medical advice. Because of this, they had not proactively sought assistance. He opined that emotional intelligence training should be provided on a compulsory basis to improve police officers’ emotion management skills.

158. Mr CHIANG Man-ching believed that all Members in the Council had been treated by police officers in a disrespectful way, and even more than half of them had experienced different levels of violence. Therefore, he did not think that each incident was an isolated case. He stressed that as a district councillor, he played the role of a middleman between the Police and the public; nevertheless, he had often been treated unfairly by the Police. When Members showed their DC membership cards and expressed their wish to act as a mediator, police officers had asked them to put away their cards on suspicion of being ridiculed for failing to wear their warrant cards. He clarified that it had not been his intention to do so. Even if Members really intended to make the police force an object of ridicule, it did not mean that police officers could use force against them or refuse to acknowledge their district councillor status. He opined that it was necessary for the Police to extend an olive branch to the Council to improve communication and co-operation on a reciprocal basis. Besides, he was of the view that if clinical psychologists recognised or even praised police officers’ practice in the counselling session, it would only defeat the purpose.

159. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting made the following comments and enquiries:

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(a) Over the past six months or so, the public saw clearly that the police force had been the focus of social disputes. Even though social and political factors were at play, abuse of authority or excessive use of force did exist within the police force which never admitted their wrongdoings. He enquired of the Police whether they had apologised for anything over the past six months or so;

(b) In the 721 incident, the Police had connived with a triad gang to assault members of the public, which was obviously a wrongdoing. On that day, several hundreds of armed triad members had congregated in Yuen Long and breached the public peace. They had even assaulted passengers after storming into MTR Yuen Long Station. The Police had claimed that police officers had arrived at the scene 39 minutes after receiving initial reports. He pointed out that actually, the Police had received intelligence reports beforehand and dispatched plainclothes police officers to keep watch over the area for the whole day. Of course, it was useless for the Police to dispatch only two police officers to attend the scene initially. Thereafter, an Anti-riot Squad had entered Yuen Long Station but left the scene after being chided by passengers, then another attack had been launched against reporters and passengers in the station. Even though armed suspects were spotted in Nam Pin Wai Village, police officers had failed to take arrest actions on that night. Subsequently, several dozens of suspects had been arrested by the Police, but only seven of them were prosecuted, and none of them was the ringleader. Moreover, the Police had appointed Mr YAU Nai-keung, former Assistant District Commander (Crime) (Yuen Long), who was under investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption for misconduct in public office, to head the Crime New Territories North Headquarters responsible for probing into the 721 incident. In view of the existence of potential conflict of interest under this arrangement, he queried whether the Police would really launch an investigation into the 721 incident which was a major cause for the rupture in the relation between the Police and the public. Despite that the Chief Secretary for Administration had made an apology for the 721 incident, the Chairman of the Junior Police Officers’ Association of the Hong Kong Police Force had expressed dissatisfaction with this;

(c) Police officers had been seen striking people across the head with batons at MTR Tai Po Station. This was a fatal violence incident. 44 Action

The incident was not an isolated case as police officers had targeted the subject’s head every time. He refuted the claim made by Mr TANG Ping-keung, Commissioner of Police (“C of P”), that police officers had accidentally struck protesters on the head because they moved their arms to the head position. He pointed out that police officers were supposed to strike across the arm and the large muscle group at the front of the thigh with batons; nevertheless, striking the subject’s head could be fatal. He questioned why the Police had responded with such a level of force. When using pepper spray, police officers were supposed to clearly identify the targets who maliciously resisted arrest or obstructed any law enforcement officer, instead of spraying the canister horizontally over all people (including reporters and councillors) at the scene;

(d) Even if judges had raised doubts about the prosecutability of some cases owing to insufficient evidence, the Police still insisted on instituting prosecutions. In another case, a police officer had been captured on video spreading his arms like a bird when riding his police motorcycle. However, the Police had responded in the Legislative Council (“LegCo”) that there was nothing wrong with his behaviour because he had spread his arms to give a traffic signal only;

(e) Earlier on, a drunken man in his 60s had quarrelled with another man who sustained injury to his mouth after getting into a scuffle. Police officers had allegedly beaten up the assailant detained in North District Hospital where he was tied to a bed. When a complaint was filed with the CAPO, the duty officer had refused to truthfully record the existence of surveillance cameras in North District Hospital in the police statement. Presumably, the Police would have to apply for the release of the video footage concerned if relevant information was contained in the police statement. Subsequently, the victim had sought assistance from Mr KWOK Long-fung. He himself and Mr KWOK had spent two months to obtain the video footage concerned to uncover the truth. He opined that given that police officers had violently treated the victim concerned, one could well imagine the situation of other detainees in police stations;

(f) Mr LEE Kwok-chung and Ms FUNG Siu-lan should clearly communicated with police officers that Members, reporters and members of the public were not the enemies of the Police; nonetheless, police officers had to come under scrutiny from Members and reporters as the society needed checks and balances. If the Police were given unfettered power, police officers might 45 Action

commit wrongful acts because they thought that their colleagues were the only ones around and there was no surveillance camera. As a case in point, seven police officers convicted of the assault of an arrested activist had even been imprisoned. As law enforcers, police officers were not above the people and the law. He asked the police force to look into the causes of a negative movement in public opinion towards policing because the attitude change could not have been simply the outcome of smear campaigns. As perception was reality, the public would make a judgement based on the message received; and

(g) It was impossible for the police force of over 30 000 people to be free of wrongdoings. Thus, the Police should apologise and admit their apparently wrongful acts instead of categorically denying the allegations. This simply could not help boost the Police’s credibility. The Police’s mere response that they would launch fair and impartial investigations into any complaints lodged by dissatisfied persons would only backfire, thus eroding public trust in the police force to such a low level.

160. Mr CHENG Chun-wai said that all along, the Police had failed to address the growing fallout from the “Occupy Central incident” and the case in which seven police officers had been convicted of the assault of an arrested activist. Consequently, a full-blown crisis had erupted in June last year. He pointed out that many rallies with Letters of No Objection issued were peaceful, but the Police had fired tear gas canisters five minutes after the rallies started. He asked whether the Police had given an account the operations concerned. If the Police claimed that frontline officers were under enormous pressure, more professionals should have been recruited for providing counselling service. However, he heard just now that there were only about 30 counsellors serving over 30 000 police officers. He considered the ratio excessively low. He pointed out that the LegCo would definitely approve the Police’s funding application for the recruitment of the counsellors concerned, but the Police had preferred procuring weapons and upgrading equipment with available funds. Besides, he enquired of the Police why the “No-gathering Order” had not been enforced against those people gathered outside the conference room earlier on, and whether police officers had specifically targeted at some food establishments and adopted different standards in measuring the distance between tables in different food establishments. He drew the Police’s attention to the fact that the relevant requirement aimed to prevent the spread of the infectious disease, instead of targeting at individual shops and bringing even more troubles to the public.

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161. Ms FUNG Siu-lan responded that the 24-hour counselling hotline was just one of the Police’s support measures for police officers, and the Police still had other resources for police training and the like. In addition, from the onset of the events opposing the proposed legislative amendments since June last year, the Police had grave concern over whether police officers’ emotions would be influenced when they were under enormous pressure. After collecting Members’ views, she would discuss relevant scenarios with participants on the training day. In response to Hon LAM Cheuk-ting’s allegation of abuse of authority by some police officers, she was not prepared to comment on individual incidents. If any members of the public wished to make such an allegation, for the sake of fairness, he/she should make a complaint under the existing redress mechanism, and the Police would look into each case on its own merits. Besides, the police force would conduct a review on major public events. Meanwhile, the approach to handling such events was under review.

162. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming said that some representatives of the Police had been prone to anger outbursts at previous meetings, but Ms FUNG Siu-lan remained calm throughout the meeting, without losing her temper. She also agreed that it was undesirable for police officers on duty to lose control over their emotions, as well as use bad and abusive language. He understood that factors such as workload might cause emotional problems, but this should not be used as an excuse for the unprofessional conduct of police officers because the police force enjoyed a remuneration package much better than other disciplinary forces. Supposedly, with professional training, the police force should have mastered the essential skills to cope with work pressure. In addition, as fully armed police officers carried firearms, the public would be horrified at their emotional outbursts. As a profession, the police force did not tolerate misconduct with the excuse of emotional outburst. He did not intend to discuss the work of the entire police force here. As their representatives present were unable to promise anything about the entire police force, he merely hoped that the departmental representatives would clearly explain to police officers stationed in North District that members of the public and Members were not the enemies of the police force. Apart from some political issues, the NDC was also concerned about law and order issues. Failure of the Police to send representatives to the previous meeting of CS dedicated to discussion of the law and order situation of North District had really disappointed Members. This had also given an impression that the Police had adopted an overly tough attitude. The NDC had simply invited the Police to explore policing matters and the law and order situation of the district, but seemingly, the Police regarded the NDC as its enemy, which would not do any good. As Hon LAM Cheuk-ting had said, the Police should refrain from adopting an overly high profile approach or an overly tough attitude towards the NDC.

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163. Mr KWOK Long-fung said the NDC had set up the CS with an aim to discuss the law and order issues, such as illegal parallel trading, prostitution and gambling, in North District. As the Chairman of the CS, he and other Committee Members were very disappointed at the failure of the Police to send representatives to the previous CS meeting. He said that the Police should refrain from thinking that they had already secured the support of Members from the pro-establishment camp and the rural sector in the Full Council as the seven Members had already left the meeting at the moment. After all, the CS would deal with district affairs as well as law and order issues in North District in a pragmatic manner. He enquired of the Police as a standing department of the CS whether representatives would be sent to future CS meetings.

164. The Chairman said that the Full Council should finish discussing the aforesaid proposal before proceeding to deliberate matters relating to the CS.

165. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting said that he himself and Mr KWOK Long-fung had managed to obtain the video footage of police officers beating up a detainee in North District Hospital at the request of Ms FUNG Siu-lan, who demanded Members to produce evidence of abuse of authority by police officers, otherwise the Police might not take follow-up action. However, it was very difficult to obtain video footage of thousands of police brutality cases as proof of use of excessive force. He believed that Ms FUNG had watched the video footage of police officers beating up a detainee who was tied to a bed in North District Hospital. As a matter of fact, the incident had tarnished the reputation of the police force. Maybe the Police could claim that there was a black sheep in every flock. As a case in point, in the 831 incident, police officers had stormed into train compartments at MTR Prince Edward Station, and used force against protesters without identifying law breakers at the scene seemingly. They had indiscriminately beaten up and pepper sprayed passengers there until they saw people taking photos/videos. The real reason behind the Police’s closure of the entire Prince Edward Station was to block access to information. As a result, rumours had spread like wildfire, and the Police could hardly clarify the incident. He opined that police officers had an obligation to arrest anyone who broke the law, but should have allowed reporters or councillors to enter the station to monitor the situation, so that they could act as a witness as to whether police officers had abused their authority. This was called “checks and balances”. He considered that the key reasons for police officers’ inability to control their emotions were mask wearing and the substitution of operational identification numbers (“OI numbers”) for unique identification numbers. Even so, police officers had failed to show their OI numbers occasionally. Even if there were OI numbers, the 10-digit code (comprising alphabets, numerals and symbols) was printed on a potentially reflective plastic film, and multiple police officers might wear the same operational call sign. If violently 48 Action treated by police officers, members of the public might find it hard to verify the identities of masked police officers or discern their OI numbers. Even if members of the public managed to jot down the OI numbers, the Police might query that they misread the OI numbers at the chaotic scene, making it difficult for them to file complaints. Police officers needed not worry that they would be held accountable after their identities had been verified, and they were even supported by the C of P and the Chief Executive. If given unfettered power, police officers with firearms, pepper spray and batons tended to abuse their authority during operations. Besides, the public did not believe that making a complaint to the CAPO was useful because the procedure for the investigation of a complaint against a police officer was an internal matter. In the past, several democrats serving on the Independent Police Complaints Council could somewhat provide checks and balances, but all of them had ceased to be members currently. He pointed out that Hong Kong was now under an autocratic regime that shielded powerful people. He shared Mr CHAN Yuk-ming’s view that police officers with firearms should even be constrained because abuse of authority could have catastrophic consequences. He would like to admonish the Police to avoid a recurrence of similar cases, but instead, they should subdue suspects with the lowest level of force in accordance with the law, rather than abusing their authority and making indiscriminate arrests.

166. The Chairman asked the representatives of the Police whether they had anything to add regarding the proposal. Ms FUNG Siu-lan said that she had nothing further to add.

Item 10 - Proposal: Expressing Concerns about the Deployment of Police Manpower for North District (NDC Paper No. 34/2020) Item 11 - Proposal: Request for Explanation from the Police about the Existing Deployment of Manpower for North District (NDC Paper No. 35/2020) Item 12 - Proposal: Requesting the Police to Seriously Follow up the Law and Order Issues in North District (NDC Paper No. 36/2020)

167. The Chairman said that agenda items 10 to 12 were related to matters concerning the Police’s execution of duties and enforcement actions, he suggested that the three proposals be discussed together.

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168. Mr Franco CHEUNG presented NDC Paper No. 34/2020. He continued that from time to time, he had received complaints from residents about law and order issues, including illegal parking, burglary and jumping over turnstiles at MTR stations. He held that the crux of the issues lay in the distrust in the Police from members of the public, so he was concerned about the deployment of police manpower. When members of the public failed to seek assistance from the Police, they would turn to councillors for help, but the councillors did not know how to handle the issues. He understood that the Police had been dedicated to fulfilling their duties, restoring order and protecting the lives and properties of people. However, people lost their faith because of the current situation. He pointed out that police officers did not show up in the 721 incident in Yuen Long, but 20-odd anti-riot police officers were deployed to deal with the turnstile-jumping incident in Fanling. A few days ago, when his friend LUI Chi-hang, Hendrick was assaulted, no anti-riot police officers were deployed. He said that he did not understand the criteria for deploying police manpower. While a large number of anti-riot police officers were deployed to address minor issues, manpower was not deployed correspondingly to address major safety issues. The problem of illegal parking seemed to be straightforward, but it was indeed not the case. Illegally parked vehicles might obstruct the sightlines of drivers, thus undermining road safety and even posing threats to people’s lives and safety. He quoted the HKPF’s written response that resources and manpower had to be flexibly deployed and therefore more time would be required to handle non-emergency requests for assistance from members of the public. He held that all cases were emergent in the eyes of the public and violent confrontations broke out in other districts due to mishandling by the police commanders of those districts. Therefore, police manpower of North District should not be redeployed to handle the confrontations. In his view, the problems of illegal parking, unlicensed hawking and illegal gambling were more important than the so-called “riots” occurred in other districts. After all, the “riots” were just processions in nature. The police manpower of North District should be reserved for the district to address the local issues.

169. The Chairman presented NDC Paper No. 35/2020. He continued that instead of facing the problem of insufficient police manpower, Hong Kong lacked the competence in the administration of the Police. He quoted the HKPF’s written response that “the Police was fully capable of upholding the rule of law and maintaining law and order”. He was curious to know why the Police failed to handle the routine cases of illegal parking and why there was insufficient manpower. In the past, the streets in the vicinity of Shek Wu Hui in Sheung Shui were obstructed by parallel goods day after day. He enquired why the Police did not deploy manpower to take enforcement actions and whether there was insufficient manpower, and asked the whereabouts of police officers on duty. He further cited the HKPF’s written response that “when 50 Action criminal acts such as violent confrontations broke out in different places at the same time, the Police would deploy manpower in order of priority and would first handle emergency cases that posed serious threats to lives and properties”. He continued that Mr CHOW Kam-ho, Mr CHAN Yuk-ming and he himself were at the scene when the turnstile-jumping incident happened at Fanling MTR Station in the evening on 19 January 2020. The Police deployed some 30 to 40 anti-riot police officers to the scene. It was also mentioned in the written response that additional manpower was deployed to provide assistance at the scene as the incident involved “wounding” and attracted bystanders. Given that hundreds of people would assess Fanling Station in an hour, he pointed out that it was not a surprise to see bystanders and considered that they would not pose significant threats. According to the Police’s guiding principles in this incident, he asked whether the Police would disperse crowds in betting centres, wet markets and supermarkets whenever a report was made to the Police. Even though the Police deployed a few dozens of anti-riot police officers to deal with the incident at the scene, it still claimed that there was insufficient manpower. He doubted whether the issue of insufficient manpower was attributed to the problems with the Police’s administration and mechanism of manpower deployment. He continued to ask why the turnstile-jumping incident in the evening on 19 January 2020 was handled by anti-riot police officers rather than uniformed police officers of North District. He quoted Mr TSE Chun-chung, John, District Commander of Kwai Tsing District as saying in a meeting of the Kwai Tsing DC that “anti-riot police officers should not be deployed if there were no riots in the district”. He asked whether riots had taken place in Fanling or all bystanders living in North District were rioters in the eyes of police officers. He hoped that the representative of the HKPF could respond later.

170. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting presented NDC Paper No. 36/2020. He continued by appealing to the HKPF to carefully consider whether representatives would not be sent to attend the meetings of the CS in future. There were many law and order issues in North District, which necessitated discussions with the Police. People would not hold the same views on every matter in the world. It is natural to have disagreements. Although people held divergent views, they could hold discussions at meetings. He held that the Police’s practice of boycotting DC meetings was very unsatisfactory. Given that district councillors were representatives of public opinion, the Police was boycotting the people of Hong Kong when it boycotted DC meetings. As civil servants, police officers were obliged to serve the people. Residents of North District were very concerned about the law and order issues in the district. The first issue was the problem of illegal parking, which caused serious traffic congestion. The second issue was the problem of illegal gambling outside Shek Wu Hui Market. Moreover, the problems of illegal prostitution activities 51 Action and drug abuse were becoming increasingly serious. He learnt that the Police had taken relevant actions over the past month or more, but relevant work was suspended for a prolonged period of time and had not resumed even when social movements died down. He hoped that the Police would bear in mind its success in fostering police-community relations. Otherwise, people who supported the work of police officers would no longer understand the Police, which might lead to serious consequences. He continued that the Police was becoming more isolated. The Police could keep on deceiving itself into thinking that it had secured the support of the general public, but the preference of the voters could not be falsified. The voting results showed that most of the people supported the camp that opposed police brutality. Therefore, the HKPF must address the issues of district policing, rather than refusing to attend DC meetings. Both the Immigration Department (“ImmD”) and the Customs and Excise Department sent representatives to attend the meetings. It was unreasonable for the HKPF to refuse to do so. He had already liaised with the FEHD and hoped to seek funding as soon as possible to retrofit surveillance cameras outside Shek Wu Hui Market, with a view to facilitating the Police’s enforcement actions. He hoped that the department concerned could consider the suggestion and make coordinated efforts with Members in case of any problems. He continued that the Police had given an impression that it discharged its duties in a perfunctory manner and adopted double standards. He considered that the Police should treat everyone equally in its enforcement actions, instead of simply suppressing a particular camp or turning a blind eye to the illegal acts of another camp, which he considered very unsatisfactory.

171. The Chairman said that the HKPF had provided written responses with regard to the above three proposals and its representatives could supplement the content of the written responses later. He continued by pointing out that, for item 12, apart from the standing representatives of the HKPF and the FEHD, the ImmD sent two representatives to attend the meeting to answer Members’ enquiries. The two representatives were Mr AU YEUNG Chi-wai, Wilson, Assistant Principal Immigration Officer (Investigation) and Mr LAM Hing-cheung, Chief Immigration Officer (Investigation) Task Force. He asked the representative of the HKPF to answer Members’ enquiries, followed by the representatives of the ImmD.

172. Mr LEE Kwok-chung gave a consolidated response as follows:

(a) The written responses of the HKPF summarised the enforcement actions taken in the first quarter of 2020. During this period of time, the HKPF had arrested 53 persons in nine anti-gambling operations, six of which targeted at the gambling blackspots in the vicinity of Shek Wu Hui Market. Besides, the HKPF also conducted six 52 Action

enforcement actions against drugs, which involved the blackspots in the vicinity of Shek Wu Hui, and arrested seven persons. In this period, the HKPF conducted four anti-vice operations at prioritised locations including tenement buildings and arrested 11 persons in the vicinity of Shek Wu Hui. Regarding the law and order issues of concern to Members, including vice activities, drug problems and illegal gambling, the HKPF shared the same concerns and conducted relevant arrest operations, with a view to improving the situation;

(b) As regards traffic enforcement actions, the HKPF had already addressed the problems under the Selected Traffic Enforcement Priorities and stepped up traffic enforcement operations conducted by the Tai Po District Traffic Enforcement Team in March 2020. The Enforcement Team was formed in October 2018 and achieved satisfactory results in traffic enforcement actions. The HKPF would explain the traffic improvements to the stakeholders of the district such as district councillors, village representatives and residents upon the completion of every enforcement operation. He hoped that additional manpower would be deployed in traffic enforcement work in future. The HKPF carried out 15 prosecution operations at the blackspots of illegal parking in Sheung Shui Division in the first quarter of 2020. Officers including traffic police, traffic wardens and patrolling officers participated in the operations and vehicles causing serious obstruction were towed away. He believed that gradual improvements would be made to traffic congestion;

(c) With regard to the turnstile-jumping incident in Fanling Station, generally speaking, users of the MTR who did not pay the fare when entering the paid area would be prosecuted by the staff of the MTR Corporation Limited (“MTRCL”) under the MTR By-laws. The Police would not be involved in the course of prosecution. There were police officers at the scene of the turnstile-jumping incident on 19 January 2020 because wounding was reported to be involved in the incident. It was reported that the incident was caused by people trying to stop those who jumped the turnstiles. A fight was then sparked and resulted in injuries. Therefore, the Police found it necessary to deploy police officers to conduct investigation at the scene and carry out arrest operation. However, the details of the incident as described in the report to the Police were different from the big picture of the incident as revealed upon post-incident analysis. He reiterated that, generally speaking, the Police would not deploy police officers to deal with turnstile-jumping incidents. Staff of the

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MTRCL should be responsible for attending to those incidents. Police officers would only be deployed to the scene if the incidents involved other cases such as wounding; and

(d) As far as the local law and order issues were concerned, the sergeant who was responsible for liaison work had been maintaining close communication with Members. The HKPF would like to gauge the views from members of the public through different channels and means and it would swiftly follow up on the views. If Members had other comments in the course of communication, the HKPF was more than willing to cooperate and would provide the necessary information to Members as far as possible, provided that the progress of investigation into the cases would not be affected.

173. Mr CHOW Kam-ho said that the number of fixed penalty tickets for illegal parking issued by the New Territories North Regional Headquarters over the past five years increased from 289 900 in 2015 to 374 500 in 2018, and drastically dropped to 249 800 in 2019. Although the figures showed a sudden decline in 2019, residents felt that the problem of illegal parking had been worsening. He would like to know why there was a decline in the figure. He continued that Mr LEE Kwok-chung did not respond whether the HKPF would send representatives to attend the meetings of the CS in future. He hoped that Mr LEE Kwok-chung could give a response in this regard later. Remarking that the elected members of DCs represented residents of different districts, he pointed out that the Police had to directly respond to the local issues such as illegal parking, noise and street obstruction. Since the representative of the HKPF was absent from the last meeting of the CS, a number of proposals concerning law and order had to be discussed at this NDC meeting.

174. Mr CHAN Wai-tat said that he had been practically addressing district problems concerning the Police. He had proposed in the last-term NDC that an independent commission of inquiry should be established to vindicate the Police. However, the Government refused to establish an independent commission of inquiry and eventually the Police faced a lot of challenges when addressing district problems. He said that in the HKPF’s written response to the CS, the number of fixed penalty tickets in North District decreased from 80 353 in 2018 to 40 319 in 2019, indicating that the HKPF had not issued any fixed penalty tickets since June 2019. He would like to know the number of tickets issued between January and March 2020 and whether it had restored to the level of 2018. He continued that the Police was responsible for taking enforcement actions against noise from domestic premises under the Noise Control Ordinance. However, when members of the public requested assistance from the Police regarding the problem of noise from domestic 54 Action premises at night, the Police did not deploy manpower to deal with the cases on the grounds of non-emergency cases. He enquired whether the police manpower had returned to normal and whether it had the capacity to attend to the related problems. He said that in the past the metered parking spaces at Wo Hop Shek Village, Wa Mei Shan Village and Fung Ying Seen Koon were suspended during Ching Ming Festival and parking of private cars were prohibited. These measures originally aimed to encourage grave sweepers to use public transport as far as possible to prevent traffic congestion. He noticed that the situation was different this year. Upon the suspension of the metered parking spaces, many grave sweepers parked their private cars along Wah Ming Road, indicating that the Police only deployed manpower to implement the arrangements for suspending the metered parking spaces but did not deploy manpower for prosecution against illegal parking. The situation was unsatisfactory. He said that the situation had not happened before and the worst scenario was that private cars entering the car park had to queue up. He doubted whether many police officers were currently on leave and would be deployed only when there were special duties, and whether the district problems which should be addressed by the Police were left unattended.

175. Mr KWOK Long-fung would like the representatives of the HKPF to give a response to the enquiries he had made just now.

176. Mr LEE Kwok-chung gave a consolidated response as follows:

(a) Regarding the non-attendance of the HKPF’s representatives at the last meeting of the CS, he was aware that the Chairman of the CS had already written to the C of P to request an explanation. The HKPF was following up on the matter and undertaking liaison work. As for the future arrangements and its attitude towards the matter, a written response would be provided to the Chairman of the CS before the next committee meeting;

(b) As for traffic enforcement actions, he hoped that Members could understand that police manpower was tight in 2019. Although there was a decline in the traffic enforcement and prosecution figures, the HKPF was determined in addressing the problem of illegal parking. The relevant work carried out in North District was comparable to that conducted in other police districts. The Police would accord top priority to the problems of concern to members of the public. As for the traffic enforcement figures for the first quarter of 2020, he did not have relevant data at hand and would provide supplementary HKPF information later;

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(c) As regards the problem of noise from domestic premises, in case the 999 emergency hotline received a number of calls at the same time and the Police had to deal with more serious cases such as robbery and wounding, it might not be able to address the problem of noise from domestic premises immediately. The Police would accord priority to requests for emergency assistance that involved loss of lives or properties and would follow up on other cases where manpower resources allowed; and

(d) As for the traffic arrangements during Ching Ming Festival, the Police would, as always, implement road closure on particular dates and such measures would be implemented until 19 April this year. Members of the public could drive to Wo Hop Shek Cemetery directly afterwards. During the implementation of road closure, the Police would assist grave sweepers as far as possible. In the event of serious traffic congestion caused by illegal parking, the HKPF would arrange towing vehicles to address the problem. To his understanding, towing vehicles were not deployed yet as the traffic condition was not serious over the last weekend. He held that the problem of illegal parking along Wah Ming Road as mentioned by Mr CHAN Wai-tat was serious and he would deploy staff who was responsible for the matter to conduct follow-up work and find out the root of the problem. He appealed to Members that if there were similar cases in future, they could directly relay the cases to the sergeant who was responsible for undertaking district liaison work, with a view to following up the matter immediately.

177. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming said that he was disappointed about the Police’s response that it was still considering whether it would appoint staff to be the standing representative of the CS. He appealed to the representative of the HKPF to relay the comments to his supervisors and not to dodge the problem. He would continue to submit proposals to the NDC meetings for discussion unless the HKPF said that it would have no contact with the NDC. The HKPF should not try to belittle the NDC as this meant that it neither respect residents of North District nor the so-called professionalism it had been upholding. He continued that a number of spotlights were installed at Sheung Shui Police Station. They were directed towards the units on the lower floors of Cheung Wah Estate and were still turned on at night time. He would like to know whether the situation would persist.

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178. Ms LAM Shuk-ching said that she had recently received the HKPF’s report on traffic enforcement actions and considered it commendable. However, as mentioned by Mr CHAN Wai-tat, the Police had not taken enforcement actions against illegal parking since June 2019, ending up that drivers were getting used to parking their vehicles illegally. She had seen a commercial vehicle parking before the traffic lights for the whole day and a goods vehicle parking on Wai Ming Street to unload goods to the supermarket, and she had made complaints about the matter. She was also aware that warning signs were erected at fire gates, but to no avail, there were even cases of double parking. She also witnessed the day before that a driver parked his goods vehicle on the refuge island before the traffic lights to load and unload goods, and the goods vehicle behind could not wait any longer and drove in an opposite direction of the traffic. Luckily, there were no oncoming vehicles. Later, a motorcycle approached the refuge island. It drove in an opposite direction suddenly while a pedestrian on the refuge island was about to cross the road. She immediately warned the pedestrian in a loud voice and successfully prevented an accident from happening. The situation was frightening. She considered that the incident was very serious and hoped that the Police could deploy more manpower to conduct inspections of the traffic blackspots and maintain close liaison with Members. She continued that there were members of the public telling her that heavy goods vehicles always parked in the vicinity of Wah Ming Road at Court. As the heavy goods vehicles would obstruct the sightlines and easily cause traffic accidents, she would also have to cross the road cautiously. She held that the Police should pay greater attention to the said traffic problems.

179. Mr Franco CHEUNG said that he was pleased to hear that the Police would pay more attention to the matters of public concern. Pointing out that the Police deployed a large number of anti-riot police officers to deal with the turnstile-jumping incident on 19 January 2020, he doubted whether the mistake made in the case report had caused the Police to misjudge the situation. He worried that the Police would misjudge the situation again in case there was a shortage of manpower in future. He held that the Police should made improvements to avoid mismatch of manpower. He continued that the problem of manpower shortage should not exist as the police officers of North District should focus on addressing the problems of North District rather than working in other districts. Large-scale processions should be handled by the police manpower of the relevant districts. If the police manpower of North District was deployed to other districts, the problem of illegal parking could not be resolved even if the Police claimed that it was determined in addressing the problem. He said that it was meaningless to compare the traffic enforcement figures across police districts. In his view, the Police should think of ways to strengthen the effectiveness of the enforcement actions. For instance, the 57 Action

Police should record the particulars of persons who had repeatedly committed illegal parking offences, and consider towing their vehicles instead of issuing penalty tickets. As a driver, he understood that drivers were tempted to park their vehicles illegally as the penalty was lower than the cost of renting a parking space if they were fined less than ten times in a month. Therefore, he held that issuing penalty tickets alone was not the best solution to the problem of illegal parking. The Police should increase the penalty to deter illegal parking. Given that social protests and movements would persist, he hoped that the Police could address the problem of manpower deployment to fill the vacuum created by the shortage of police manpower in North District.

180. Mr KWOK Long-fung said that the response of the HKPF’s representative just now implied that prior instructions had to be sought from the C of P to decide whether to attend the meetings of the CS in future. He advised the Police not to use unorthodox means to try to evade the monitoring of the NDC and escape from answering the enquiries of the representatives of public opinion. He held that the representatives of the HKPF could give responses in the Committee rather than wasting the time of 10-odd departmental representatives at the full Council meeting. He was very disappointed with the attitude of the Police. He continued that more than 20 white-clad people hit civilians with extendable batons on 14 November 2019 outside North District Town Hall. They even abducted a young girl. He doubted whether the Police would not take enforcement actions when triad members wounded others and whether “blue-ribbon supporters” who wounded others wound not have to bear the criminal liability. He asked if such practice was what the Police claimed as impartial enforcement of the laws.

181. Mr LAU Ki-fung said that as mentioned in Mr LEE Kwok-chung’s reply, the HKPF was following up on the matter relating to the non-attendance of the Police’s representatives at the last meeting of the CS. He would like to know whether the headquarters of the HKPF had given instructions not to send representatives to attend the meetings of the Committee, and Mr LEE Kwok-chung was only waiting for instructions. He held that the HKPF had the responsibility to send representatives to attend the meetings of the Committee, instead of choosing whether it could attend the meetings or not. He noted that a lot of proposals concerning law and order were discussed at the meeting, and these proposals would have been discussed at the meetings of the Committee as they were not related to other departmental representatives in attendance. He also expressed dissatisfaction that the HKPF only provided written responses, and emphasised that the HKPF had the responsibility to send representatives to attend the meetings of the Committee and answer the enquiries of the committee members. Besides, he was aware that the Police had deployed traffic enforcement teams for enforcement, but he would like to know whether towing 58 Action vehicles would be deployed to tow the illegally parked vehicles away in North District as he learnt that relevant measures were implemented in other districts. He considered that the deterrent effect would be inadequate if no towing vehicles were deployed. Besides, the problem of road racing was long-standing in North District and the noise produced during late hours made residents difficult to sleep well. To his understanding, the Police mainly conducted relevant enforcement actions in Yuen Long and Tai Po. He would like to know the details of the relevant enforcement actions taken in North District by the Police.

182. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting said that there were fewer Mainlanders coming to Hong Kong during the epidemic, but he would like to know whether there were cases of unlawful remaining in North District before the outbreak of the epidemic and whether the ImmD had conducted joint enforcement operations with the HKPF to combat illegal prostitution. Noting that there were two-way exit permit holders engaging in such kind of activities in North District, he would like to know whether there was an increase in the related figures. As regards the attendance of police representatives at the meetings of the Committee in Mr LEE Kwok-chung’s reply, to his understanding, the headquarters of the HKPF did not allow police representatives to attend the meetings of the Committee. He would like Mr LEE Kwok-chung to relay the comments to his supervisors. If the HKPF did not send representatives to attend the meetings of the Committee, the Committee would submit all the proposals to the NDC meetings for discussion. The HKPF would bring trouble to other departmental representatives. Even if Members could not relay their comments to the representatives of the HKPF at the meetings of the Committee, they would use all means to express their views, such as writing letters or publishing comments online. This would not be good news for the HKPF. He showed respect to the C of P for the courage to attend the meeting of the Central & Western DC. Although he did not agree with the specious arguments of the C of P, he held that at least the C of P had the courage to express his views. He considered that if the Police was serving Hong Kong with honour, duty and loyalty, taking enforcement actions impartially, upholding the rule of law and living up to the expectations of the members of the public, it should attend the meetings of the Committee. He did not understand what the fear of the Police was. He interpreted that the Police had acknowledged that it was in the wrong as it did a lot of dirty work. The Police’s attitude would make the police-community relations even worse. Prior to the DC election, the Police believed that the “silent majority” was in support of the Police and the findings of public opinion surveys were fabricated, but this was not true. The Police should ponder over the matter.

183. Mr LEE Kwok-chung gave a consolidated response as follows: 59 Action

(a) With regard to the lighting outside Sheung Shui Police Station, the HKPF also received complaints from residents of Cheung Wah Estate, saying that the lighting system outside Sheung Shui Police Station emitted strong lights at night and directed towards their flats. Within a few days upon receiving the complaints, the HKPF had solved the problem by asking the staff of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department to adjust the angle of the spotlights. The HKPF had also explained to the complainants one by one and had gained their understanding;

(b) With regard to the problem of illegal parking, he held that the situation mentioned by Ms LAM Shuk-ching was very serious and unacceptable as it might involve serious criminal offences such as careless driving. He hoped that Ms LAM Shuk-ching could provide more details to the Investigation Division of the Traffic New Territories North Headquarters later to facilitate the HKPF’s enforcement actions. He would also deploy more manpower to step up enforcement at relevant locations to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents in future;

(c) As regards the non-attendance of the HKPF’s representatives at the meeting of the CS, he had received comments from Members and did not have anything to add. The HKPF maintained close liaison with the District Fight Crime Committee (North District) and would continue to discuss how to improve the law and order situation in the community with stakeholders through the regular mechanism;

(d) Regarding the traffic enforcement actions in different districts of the New Territories, the Police uncovered drug offences on highways in NTN during the long holiday just passed. Given that the traffic network of NTN was extremely complex, it was impossible to divide the network into sections of North District, Yuen Long, Tai Po and Tuen Mun. If serious traffic incidents occurred on the highways, the officers of the Traffic New Territories North Headquarters would be deployed to the scene immediately; and

(e) He clarified that the Police would never tolerate triad members, neither would enforcement approaches be affected by the political background of the subjects of investigation.

184. Mr Wilson AU YEUNG responded that the ImmD had participated in 21 HKPF-led joint operations to combat prostitution activities and arrested 115 60 Action

Mainland women who were suspected of engaging in prostitution activities in 2019. According to the observation of the ImmD, there was no notable upward trend in such activities. Related figures had even declined due to the epidemic and the measures of closing boundary control points. The ImmD would pay close attention to the situation and continue to conduct joint operations with the HKPF if necessary to combat prostitution.

185. Mr CHOW Kam-ho said that the response of Mr LEE Kwok-chung concerning the attendance at committee meetings showed that he could not make commitments on the spot. Therefore, he would not ask follow-up questions. He continued that the noise problems in Luen Wo Hui during late hours recently, including those from road racing and large crowds, had caused nuisances to the residents. He hoped that the HKPF could follow up on the matter.

186. Mr YUEN Ho-lun quoted the representative of the HKPF as saying that a large number of anti-riot police officers were deployed to the scene of the turnstile-jumping incident on 19 January as the incident involved wounding. As for the incident in which LUI Chi-hang, Hendrick and WONG Ka-ho were attacked when they were setting up street counters at Fanling Station on 22 March, related video clips suggested that the level of attack was more serious than wounding during the turnstile-jumping incident. However, to his understanding, only a few police officers were deployed to the scene for the assault incident on that day. He held that the manpower was not proportional to the seriousness of the case and would like to know the underlying reasons. If it was attributable to political reasons, he considered that the police enforcement was not fair and impartial. Besides, the noise problem of Ching Ho Estate had been persistent since early December. He had repeatedly brought up the problem at the meetings. Residents even called the Police twice from 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. last Sunday to seek assistance with regard to the noise problem but it was not properly addressed. He would like to know how the Police would address the noise problem of North District.

187. Mr LEE Kwok-chung responded that noises could come from different sources such as crowds and vehicles. The Police would use different methods to deal with various noise problems. It was hard to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. As regards the follow-up work of individual cases, he asked Members to communicate with the sergeant who was responsible for undertaking liaison work of the district. As for the case of assault and criminal damage on 22 March 2020, an easy-mount frame was pushed over at a street counter of an organisation in the afternoon on that day, which turned into confrontations. Three persons dissuaded the people from participating in the confrontations and filmed the incident but were attacked by other people. The 61 Action mobile phone of one of the victims was destroyed. Unlike what Mr YUEN Ho-lun knew, the Police was very concerned about the case and had arranged the District Crime Squad of Tai Po District to take over the investigation. Upon reviewing the footage of the closed-circuit televisions in the vicinity, the suspects were identified. Four males, aged between 31 and 43 years old, were arrested on 24 and 25 March and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage. The likelihood of further arrests was not excluded. He thanked Members for giving him the opportunity to make clarification and pointed out that very often, members of the public might not be able to get a complete picture through online or hearsay information. It was normal for them to have misunderstanding without a good grasp of the matter. He hoped to strengthen communication with Members. He had also advised that if similar cases of public concern happened again, the sergeants who were responsible for liaison work in various districts should provide more information to district councillors as long as the investigation of cases would not be prejudiced. By doing so, Members would have a better understanding on how proactive the police officers of Tai Po District were in case handling. He emphasised that the Police was determined to deal with serious cases.

188. Noting that the Police deployed 30 to 40 anti-riot police officers for the wounding case on 19 January, the Chairman asked why police officers of a similar number were not deployed for the assault incident on 22 March and whether it indicated that there was impropriety in deploying the police manpower of North District.

189. Mr LEE Kwok-chung responded that it was impossible to arrest the offenders if the Police did not deploy manpower to deal with the assault incident on 22 March. He urged all informants to cooperate with the Police and clearly provide all information known to them to the Police in order to enhance the efficiency of enforcement work. He continued that the Police had encountered difficulties in the investigation of the case, which led to a time gap. However, he emphasised that the Police had absolutely deployed manpower to the scene to deal with the case. As to whether or not anti-riot police officers would be deployed, it depended on the manpower arrangement of the headquarters. Anti-riot police officers had to deal with emergencies across the entire New Territories North Headquarters and the Police had to maintain the flexibility in deploying its manpower. It was difficult to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach.

Impromptu motions

190. The Chairman said that he had received two impromptu motions for discussion at the meeting. The Secretariat had just distributed the motion 62 Action papers to Members for perusal. As stipulated in Order 13(2) of the Standing Orders, the Chairman might approve the inclusion of impromptu motions in the agenda subject to the consent of more than half of the members of the Council present at the meeting. Therefore, he asked the meeting to approve the inclusion of the two impromptu motions in the agenda if there were no comments or objections from Members.

191. The meeting approved the inclusion of the two impromptu motions in the agenda.

Impromptu Motion No.1: Urging the Education Bureau and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority to Formally Consult All DSE Candidates and Formulate Policies on the Basis of Their Preferences

192. The Chairman said that impromptu motion No.1 was moved by Mr CHIANG Man-ching and seconded by Mr Franco CHEUNG and him.

193. Mr CHIANG Man-ching presented impromptu motion No.1 which was at Annex I. He sought the Chairman’s permission to continue to speak.

194. The Chairman granted Mr CHIANG Man-ching the permission to do so.

195. Mr CHIANG Man-ching considered that Mr YEUNG Yun-hung, Kevin, the Secretary for Education had been ambiguous on the issue. While Mr YEUNG said that the DSE would very likely commence as scheduled, he mentioned that the examination would be postponed in an unsafe situation. In this regard, he had communicated with a number of student organisations in North District and over the territory. They had divergent views. He opined that the Education Bureau and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (“HKEAA”) should conduct consultation as soon as possible. As the HKEAA had already obtained information on all the DSE candidates, it could collect the views of the candidates via email and short message. He also believed that the candidates could make swift responses and express their views upon receiving the message. Therefore, he hoped that Members could support his motion.

196. The Chairman said that a vote would be taken on impromptu motion No.1. Pursuant to Order 31(1) of the Standing Orders, the motion would be passed if it was supported by an absolute majority of votes. An absolute majority of votes meant more than half of the valid votes cast excluding abstentions.

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197. The voting result on impromptu motion No.1 was: 15 affirmative votes (Mr LAW Ting-tak, Mr CHAN Yuk-ming, Ms LAM Tsz-king, Hon LAM Cheuk-ting, Ms LAM Shuk-ching, Mr CHOW Kam-ho, Mr YUEN Ho-lun, Mr Vincent CHAN, Mr CHAN Wai-tat, Mr KWOK Long-fung, Mr Franco CHEUNG, Mr CHEUNG Chun-wai, Ms WONG Hoi-ying, Mr CHIANG Man-ching and Mr LAU Ki-fung), 0 negative vote and 0 abstention vote. The impromptu motion was supported by an absolute majority of votes and was passed.

Impromptu Motion No. 2: Request for Prompt Disclosure of Information about Confinees under Mandatory Home Quarantine and the Confirmed Cases

198. The Chairman said that impromptu motion No.2 was moved by Mr CHOW Kam-ho and seconded by Mr Franco CHEUNG and Mr CHIANG Man-ching.

199. Mr CHOW Kam-ho presented impromptu motion No.2 which was at Annex II.

200. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming said that he was a victim of the notification mechanism as there were unfortunately three confirmed cases in his constituency. If the confirmed cases did not take the initiative to inform him about their addresses, the orientation of their flats and other particulars, no one would know that there were confirmed cases on the relevant floors. He pointed out that the information (“599C List of buildings”) disclosed by the Government was too brief, as it only included the names but not the floor numbers of the buildings in which the confirmed cases had resided, making people at a loss as to what to do with the situation and cleaning. He cited an example that a domestic block might have 30-odd floors and six lifts. Without knowledge of the floors on which the confirmed cases were residing, it was assumed that there were confirmed cases on each floor and it would often cost $100,000 to $200,000 to do the cleaning. Moreover, the Government announced the number of confirmed cases at around 11:00 p.m. or midnight for many consecutive days already, making the residents feel frustrated and suffer from sleepless nights. Residents of the buildings in which the confirmed cases had resided could only wait until the morning of the following day to seek assistance from district councillors, who would contact the Department of Health and the FEHD to follow up on the matter. He hoped that the Government could improve the time of notification. He understood that it was not likely that the Government would disclose the full addresses of the confirmed cases. There was no need for the Government to inform the public about the actual addresses of the confirmed cases, but it should at least allow the public to know which lifts 64 Action were taken or which floors were accessed by the confirmed cases. Relevant departments should also be informed about the priority sites where cleaning was required and the Department of Health should cooperate with the FEHD or other departments to conduct the cleaning work. By doing so, the Government could ease the minds of the residents. Therefore, he supported the motion.

201. Mr YUEN Ho-lun said that there was a confirmed case at Ching Ho Estate. However, relevant departments only informed the management office but not Members. He could only make speculations based on the news circulating online and was later informed of the confirmed case by the staff of the management office. He opined that it was such an indirect way as the management office would not remind the residents to stay vigilant. He did not understand why the Government could not inform the district councillors of the constituency beforehand so that the councillors could ask the residents to take relevant protective measures. Therefore, he supported the motion.

202. Mr CHOW Kam-ho said that an earlier confirmed case at the Shek Wu Hui Jockey Club Clinic was found to have worked part-time at a restaurant in his constituency. He was very worried about the slow flow of information. He once asked the relevant departments but they said that they did not know whether the confirmed case had worked part-time at the restaurant. They learnt about it eventually after the restaurant communicated with the management staff of the shopping centre. However, they were unclear about the exact working hours and the area of movement of the confirmed case. He pointed out that residents would not know that the confirmed case identified at Shek Wu Hui Jockey Club Clinic had worked part-time at the restaurant if they only received information from the Government. This would increase the risk of infection in the community. Therefore, he hoped that other Members could support the motion and request the Government to expedite the flow of information as soon as possible, so that residents of North District would no longer have to live in fear at all times.

203. The Chairman said that a vote would be taken on impromptu motion No.2. Pursuant to Order 31(1) of the Standing Orders, the motion would be passed if it was supported by an absolute majority of votes. An absolute majority of votes meant more than half of the valid votes cast excluding abstentions.

204. The voting result on impromptu motion No.2 was: 15 affirmative votes (Mr LAW Ting-tak, Mr CHOW Kam-ho, Mr YUEN Ho-lun, Mr Vincent CHAN, Mr Franco CHEUNG, Mr CHEUNG Chun-wai, Mr CHIANG Man-ching, Mr CHAN Yuk-ming, Ms LAM Tsz-king, Hon LAM Cheuk-ting, Mr KWOK Long-fung, Ms WONG Hoi-ying, Ms LAM Shuk-ching, Mr CHAN 65 Action

Wai-tat and Mr LAU Ki-fung), 0 negative vote and 0 abstention vote. The impromptu motion was supported by an absolute majority of votes and was passed.

Item 13 - District Lands Office/North: Returns on Small House Applications and Redevelopment of New Territories Exempted House Applications in North District (NDC Paper No. 37/2020)

205. The meeting noted NDC Paper No. 37/2020.

Item 14 - Any Other Business

(a) Nomination of Members to Serve as “Sports Ambassadors” (NDC Paper No. 38/2020)

206. The Chairman said that the NDC had received a letter from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (“the LCSD”) inviting the NDC to nominate not less than two Members to represent North District as “Sports Ambassadors” for the coming term (2020-2021) to assist in sport promotion in the local community. He invited Members to recommend at least two Members (or up to a maximum of four) or volunteer themselves to serve as “Sports Ambassadors” of North District for the coming term.

207. Mr Franco CHEUNG suggested that Mr CHIANG Man-ching and Ms LAM Tsz-king, Chairman and Vice-chairman of the CDFC&R, to serve as ambassadors.

208. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming had served as a “Sports Ambassador” in the past, so he gave a brief introduction. He recalled that he had attended a promotion day held by the LCSD and delivered a speech. He considered that the workload was not substantial, Members who were new to the Council could gain some experience.

209. Mr CHIANG Man-ching and Ms LAM Tsz-king were willing to accept the nomination. No other Members were nominated or self-nominated to serve as “Sports Ambassadors”.

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210. The meeting endorsed the appointment of Mr CHIANG Man-ching and Ms LAM Tsz-king as “Sports Ambassadors” of the NDC for the coming term.

(b) Nomination of a Representative for Appointment as a Member of the 8th Hong Kong Games Organising Committee

211. The Chairman said that the Secretariat had received a letter from the 8th Hong Kong Games (“HKG”) Organising Committee (“OC”), saying that the 8th HKG would be held in 2020 and 2021. The HKGOC invited the NDC to nominate a Member as a representative to the OC, asked for the authorisation from the NDC to display the NDC logo in related publicity campaigns and materials of the OC, as well as sought the consent on establishing a hyperlink on the NDC’s website to the thematic website of the 8th HKG, so as to allow more members of the public to browse information of the HKG. The Secretariat had distributed the invitation letter to Members by email on 9 April 2020. He invited Members to nominate a Member as the representative of the NDC to the OC.

212. Mr LAU Ki-fung and Mr CHAN Yuk-ming nominated Mr CHAN Wai-tat as a representative to the OC.

213. Mr CHAN Wai-tat was willing to serve as a representative to the OC.

214. The meeting endorsed the nomination of Mr CHAN Wai-tat as the representative of the NDC to the OC, the authorisation of the OC to display the NDC logo in related publicity campaigns and materials, and establishment of a hyperlink on the website of the NDC to the thematic website of the 8th HKG.

(c) Nomination of a Representative for Appointment as a Member of the Selection Panel (Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme and Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme) of the Transport and Housing Bureau

215. The Chairman said that the NDC had received a letter from the Building Authority inviting the NDC to nominate a Member to join the Selection Panel (Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme and Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme) set up by the Independent Checking Unit under the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Transport and Housing (Housing) for a term of office from 1 June 2020 to the end of the current term of DC. The Secretariat had 67 Action distributed the invitation letter to Members by email on 9 April 2020. He invited Members to propose a candidate as a member of the Selection Panel.

216. Mr CHAN Wai-tat proposed to nominate Mr CHAN Yuk-ming as a member of the aforesaid panel.

217. Mr CHAN Yuk-ming was willing to serve as a member of the panel.

218. The meeting endorsed the nomination of Mr CHAN Yuk-ming as a member of the aforesaid Selection Panel.

(d) Street Obstruction and Noise Nuisance of Vegetable Stall in Luen Wo Hui

219. Mr CHOW Kam-ho said that he had recently received many complaints from members of the public that a new vegetable stall located in Luen Wo Hui frequently caused street obstruction and noise nuisance. The piling up of its goods and trash boxes on the roadside caused obstruction and seriously affected the lives of Luen Wo Hui residents. He had reflected the situation to the Hawker Control Team on the spot, and they had issued several penalty tickets to the stall, yet the situation had not improved. Therefore, he asked the FEHD’s Superintendent Mr LEUNG whether more vigorous law enforcement or further actions would be taken to improve the situation.

220. Mr LEUNG Chi-fai said that the stall had obstructed the street and illegally dumped sundry items probably because it did a roaring trade with a large volume of goods. Enforcement efforts would be enhanced after he talked FEHD to the responsible colleagues to get information on the location and situation of the new stall.

Item 15 - Date of Next Meeting

221. The Chairman announced that the next meeting would be held at 9:30 a.m. on 9 June 2020 (Tuesday) in the NDC Conference Room.

222. Mr Franco CHEUNG said that as Members had to attend an important commemoration on 9 June, he asked Members if the date of meeting could be postponed to the next day.

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223. The Chairman proposed to advance the meeting by one day (i.e. 8 June).

224. The Chairman asked whether Hon LAM Cheuk-ting could attend the rescheduled meeting.

225. Hon LAM Cheuk-ting said that he was fine with it.

226. The meeting approved that the meeting would be rescheduled for 9:30 a.m. on 8 June 2020 (Monday) in the NDC Conference Room.

227. The meeting was adjourned at 2:33 p.m.

North District Council Secretariat June 2020

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