Minutes of the 4th Meeting of the Tuen Mun District Council

Date: 3 May 2016 (Tuesday) Time: 9:30 a.m. Venue: Tuen Mun District Council (TMDC) Conference Room

Present : Time of Arrival Time of Departure Mr LEUNG Kin-man, BBS, MH, JP (Chairman) 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr LEE Hung-sham, Lothar, MH (Vice-chairman) 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr SO Shiu-shing 9:33 a.m. End of meeting Mr KWU Hon-keung 9:30 a.m. 12:28 p.m. Mr TO Sheck-yuen, MH 9:33 a.m. End of meeting Mr CHU Yiu-wah 9:33 a.m. End of meeting Ms KONG Fung-yi 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr CHAN Yau-hoi, MH, JP 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms WONG Lai-sheung, Catherine 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr AU Chi-yuen 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms HO Hang-mui 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr LAM Chung-hoi 9:30 a.m. 1:30 p.m. Mr TSUI Fan 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms CHING Chi-hung 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms LUNG Shui-hing 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr CHAN Man-wah, MH 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr CHAN Manwell, Leo 10:57 a.m. 1:32 p.m. Mr CHEUNG Hang-fai 9:33 a.m. End of meeting Mr HO Kwan-yiu 9:37 a.m. 12:39 p.m. Ms CHU Shun-nga, Beatrice 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr TSANG Hin-hong 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Ms SO Ka-man 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr KAM Man-fung 9:31 a.m. End of meeting Mr MO Shing-fung 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr YIP Man-pan 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr YEUNG Chi-hang 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr YAN Siu-nam 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr TAM Chun-yin 9:30 a.m. End of meeting Mr LAU Chun-fai, Lawrence Senior Executive Officer (District Council), Tuen Mun District Office, (Secretary) Home Affairs Department

Absent with Apologies : Mr NG Koon-hung

In Invitation : Mrs Marion LAI Permanent Secretary for Education, Education Bureau Mr LEUNG Cheuk-fai Senior School Development Officer (Tuen Mun)1, Education Bureau Mrs Bernadette COOK Regional Officer/New Territories West, Independent Commission Against Corruption Mr Vincent CHEUNG Senior Community Relations Officer, Independent Commission Against Corruption Mr Simon TU General Manager - Car park, Link Asset Management Ltd Mr CHIU Kwan-suen Senior Community Relationship Manager, Link Asset Management Limited Mr William CHOI Community Relationship Manager, Link Asset Management Limited

In Attendance : Ms Aubrey FUNG District Officer (Tuen Mun), Home Affairs Department Mr LO Chun-hang, Simpson Assistant District Officer (Tuen Mun)1, Home Affairs Department Mr LEUNG Wai-shing, Assistant District Officer (Tuen Mun)2, Home Affairs Department William Mr CHAU Ka-nin, Eric Senior Liaison Officer (2), Tuen Mun District Office, Home Affairs Department Mr Tony CHEUNG Chief Engineer/New Territories West 3 (New Territories West), Civil Engineering and Development Department Ms TONG Lai-fong, Emilie Chief School Development Officer (Tuen Mun), Education Bureau Mr TSE Lai-chi District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Tuen Mun) Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Mr Rupert DOVER District Commander (Tuen Mun), Hong Kong Police Force Ms CHOI Sau-kuen Police Community Relations Officer (Tuen Mun District), Hong Kong Police Force Mr Stephen WONG Chief Manager/Management (Tuen Mun & Yuen Long), Housing Department Mr LAI Kai-tai, John District Lands Officer/Tuen Mun, Lands Department Mr MOK Hing-cheung Administrative Assistant/Lands (District Lands Office, Tuen Mun), Lands Department Mr WONG Shu-yan, Francis Chief Leisure Manager (New Territories North), Leisure and Cultural Services Department Mr WONG Ying-ming District Leisure Manager (Tuen Mun), Leisure and Cultural Services Department

Mr LAM Chi-man, David District Planning Officer/Tuen Mun & Yuen Long West, Planning Department Mr TAN Tick-yee District Social Welfare Officer (Tuen Mun), Social Welfare Department Ms LEUNG Pui-yin, Wendy Chief Transport Officer/New Territories North West, Transport Department Ms HO Ka-man, Carmen Executive Officer I (District Council)1, Tuen Mun District Office, (Assistant Secretary) Home Affairs Department

Action I. Opening Remarks The Chairman welcomed all to the 4th meeting of the Tuen Mun District Council (“TMDC”). In particular, he welcomed Mrs Marion LAI, Permanent Secretary for Education of the Education Bureau (“EDB”), to the TMDC to meet with Members. He also welcomed Mr Rupert DOVER, District Commander (Tuen Mun), and Ms CHOI Sau-kuen, Police Community Relations Officer (Tuen Mun District) of the Hong Kong Police Force (“HKPF”); Mr TSE Lai-chi, District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Tuen Mun) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (“FEHD”); and Mr Tony CHEUNG, Chief Engineer/New Territories West 3 (New Territories West) of the Civil Engineering and Development Department (“CEDD”), who attended a TMDC meeting for the first time. Besides, he took this opportunity to thank Mr Iain Fraser McNICOL, the former District Commander (Tuen Mun), and Mr Choy Chun-wah, the former Police Community Relations Officer (Tuen Mun District) of the HKPF; Mr TSANG Siu-cheung, the former District Environmental Hygiene Superintendent (Tuen Mun) of the FEHD; and Mr LAM Lap-tak, Daniel, Chief Engineer/New Territories West 2 (New Territories West) of the CEDD, for their contributions to the Tuen Mun District in the past.

2. The Chairman further said that any Member who was aware of a personal interest in a discussion item should declare the interest before the discussion. He would, in accordance with Order 39(11) of the Tuen Mun District Council Standing Orders (“Standing Orders”), decide whether the Member who had declared an interest might speak or vote on the matter, might remain in the meeting as an observer, or should withdraw from the meeting. All cases of declaration of interests would be recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

II. Absence from Meetings 3. The Secretary said that the Secretariat had received an application for leave from Mr NG Koon-hung, who was unable to attend this meeting due to sickness. According to the Standing Orders, if a Member who failed to attend a TMDC meeting due to sickness submitted a medical certificate within a specified period of time, the TMDC might approve the Member’s application for leave.

[Post-meeting note: Mr NG Koon-hung submitted a medical certificate within the specified period of time and his application for leave of absence was thus approved by the TMDC.]

III. Meeting between Permanent Secretary for Education and TMDC Members (TMDC Paper No. 11/2016) 4. The Chairman welcomed Mrs Marion LAI, Permanent Secretary for Education, and Mr LEUNG Cheuk-fai, Senior School Development Officer (Tuen Mun)1 of the EDB to this meeting to give Members an introduction to the EDB’s work and listen to Members’ views on issues of concern to the district.

5. Mrs Marion LAI gave Members a brief introduction to the EDB’s work in the areas of “the Government’s emphasis on and commitment to education”, “kindergarten education”, “primary and secondary education”, “post-secondary and vocational education”, “outlook for education” and so forth. After that, a number of Members put forward their comments and enquiries on this discussion item.

6. A Member put forward a number of comments and suggestions to the EDB as follows: (i) teaching contents relating to moral education should be boosted; (ii) it was

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Action difficult for teachers and parents to adapt to the too-frequent education reforms in Hong Kong; (iii) the EDB should not focus its resources on exchanges only; (iv) the EDB was requested to promptly deal with the vacant school premises in the district; (v) it was requested that the Primary 3 Territory-wide System Assessment (“TSA”) should be fully abolished; (vi) Putonghua should not be used as a teaching medium; (vii) the Member was dissatisfied with the Government’s launch of the $1 billion “Belt and Road” Scholarship for students in “Belt and Road” countries to study in Hong Kong, opining that the Government should instead use the money to provide financial assistance for local students in need; and (viii) an enquiry was made about the development of two special schools in the district.

7. A Member remarked that though large in amount, the education resources invested by the Government went to areas that could not produce effective results. Besides, she welcomed the EDB’s plan to implement a policy on free quality kindergarten education, and hoped that the EDB could extend the plan to whole-day kindergarten education and consider providing free kindergarten education as soon as possible.

8. A Member pointed out that despite the robust technological development in Hong Kong, little headway had been made in the use of e-books in teaching. Using e-books could not only reduce the weight of students’ school bags but even alleviate parents’ financial burden in book purchase. Therefore, the Member hoped the EDB could actively promote the use of e-books. In addition, he opined that moral education and Chinese history should be emphasised in the contents of textbooks to help students reflect on and recognise their Chinese identity.

9. A Member said that the Government devoted considerable resources to education, as evidenced by the fact that almost 20% (about $84 billion) of the total expenditure in the government budget for 2016-17 would be spent on education, but there were flaws in the Government’s overall education planning. Taking an example, he said that the acute shortage of kindergarten places two years before had turned into an acute shortage of primary school places at present and, predictably, would end up as an acute shortage of secondary school places in the future. However, the Government only focused on some under-enrolled schools and planned to close them. Citing Shi Hui Wen Secondary School, which would be closed 1.5 years later, as an example, he criticised the Government for considering closing some schools merely on the ground of their current under-enrolment. In his view, the EDB should explore measures to temporarily retain these schools while making early preparations for the future demand for secondary school places. Separately, with regard to the EDB’s recent plan to relocate a school for social development from Lantau to Tuen Mun, he hoped the EDB could consider another site for the relocation as the consultation on the plan was far from adequate and the principal of Yan Oi Tong Chan Wong Suk Fong Memorial Secondary School, which was near the new site, had expressed discontent with the plan.

10. A Member indicated that parents nowadays had been worrying about their children’s study and development paths since their birth. Starting from their children’s kindergarten education years, the parents had to be busy finding suitable schools for them. He suggested the EDB consider building networks of “through-train” schools, so that students could complete their study in the kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools of the same education organisations while parents needed not look for schools at every education stage of their children. Furthermore, as there would be only two schools, instead of 10 as originally planned, in Area 54 of Tuen Mun, he hoped the EDB would follow up on this issue and provide a schedule for building the schools.

11. A Member reckoned that while the Government put considerable resources into

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Action education to nurture talents for Hong Kong, it did not get commensurate returns. In view of this, he would like to ask the EDB about the actual amount of money invested in each local university student and associate degree student for comparison with the amount of financial assistance to each overseas exchange student. Besides, while the Government provided large amounts of subsidies for scientific research, the partner business organisations usually use the outcomes of successful research to develop their own products, and this was tantamount to using public money to subsidise the businesses of profit-making organisations. He hoped the Government could take a full look at this matter.

12. A Member indicated that students in Hong Kong were heavily burdened with homework and vulnerable to emotional problems, and there had been students committing suicide for this reason earlier. At present, while school social workers could directly assist students in coping with their emotional problems, their services might not be comprehensive enough as they usually had to serve all students in a school. Therefore, she suggested the Government provide more resources and manpower to support frontline social workers. Moreover, only about 10% of schools were required to conduct the Primary 3 TSA and the EDB had made adjustments to TSA questions accordingly; but as the TSA would be fully resumed in the next year, schools would keep on drilling their students and increase their homework load, adding much more pressure to them. In view of this, she reckoned that the EDB should put a halt to the re-launch of the Primary 3 TSA and review afresh the TAS-related work. In addition, she raised objection to the arrangements made for primary students to learn simplified Chinese at a too early stage. She opined that to avoid confusion, students should build a sound foundation in traditional Chinese before learning simplified Chinese.

13. A Member indicated that traffic congestion had occurred in the areas along Castle Peak Road since the establishment of Harrow International School Hong Kong in Tuen Mun four years before, and snarl-ups were exceptionally serious on the first school days. She had sought assistance from the Transport Department (“TD”) in this connection but it felt like the TD was subject to certain constraints in requesting the school to make facilitating arrangements. As the EDB and the school had entered into a service agreement and the school was currently applying to the EDB for expansion, she opined that the EDB should take this opportunity to voice its opinions to the school and request it to take mitigation and contingency measures, so as to prevent congestion from occurring again on the first school day in 2016 and minimise its impacts on residents nearby. Moreover, she knew that when entering into the service agreement, the school had promised to provide at least 1 200 places. In this regard, she enquired of the EDB whether the school had mentioned any cap on admissions in the agreement.

14. A Member noted that it was the EDB’s hope to further encourage and help schools to refine their policies, so that students could unleash their potential for whole person development, learn successfully and apply what they had learnt. Still, he would like to know how the EDB would implement the policies. Besides, to let young children spend more time with their parents and on playing, the EDB offered a basic subsidy specifically to eligible non-profit-making local kindergartens, so that the kindergartens could provide a three-year quality half-day service for eligible children. He opined that in addition to kindergarten students, primary students also needed to spend more time with their parents and on playing. Furthermore, he noted that one of the initial objectives of the EDB’s move to change primary schools from a half-day to a whole-day mode of operation was to reduce the homework load of students. However, todays’ primary students usually had as many as 7 to 10 homework assignments per day on average, with the record high being 23 assignments. In view of this, he hoped the EDB would review and follow up on this to ensure that students could really have whole person development.

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15. A Member criticised the EDB’s practice of non-professionals leading professionals, and hoped it could give serious consideration to the full abolition of the TSA. The Member was also concerned about small class teaching, school closure and uneven class structure. She requested the Government to expedite the implementation of a 15-year free education programme. On the education voucher scheme, she noted that the landlords of some kindergarten premises raised rental immediately after the kindergartens received voucher subsidies, which added financial burden to the kindergartens. She therefore considered that the education voucher scheme was of little real benefit.

16. A Member asked whether the EDB would plan the expansion of a kindergarten and increase the supply of its school places based on birth rates. As society had earlier discussed subsidies for whole-day and long whole-day kindergartens, he would like to know if this was relevant to EDB’s idea to subsidise half-day kindergartens under the free quality kindergarten education policy. Besides, as the EDB had indicated that schools might flexibly decide whether to turn the Career and Life Planning Grant into regular teaching posts, he worried that some schools might use their existing teaching posts to carry out the education work concerned and devote the said resources to other development projects. He therefore hoped the EDB could monitor the schools. Furthermore, he requested the EDB to conduct a new review on the matter concerning textbook separation.

17. A Member welcomed the EDB’s efforts to further enhance the School-Based Educational Psychology Service in public primary and secondary schools. He hoped the EDB could continue providing hardware support for the relevant schools in this regard. In addition, he was concerned that the existing standards for special schools were inferior to those for ordinary schools in terms of campus space and facilities. He hoped the EDB would pay more attention to this and follow up on the expansion of Hong Chi Morninghill School.

18. A Member was concerned about education issues such as small class teaching and school closure. Moreover, noting the sub-standard qualifications and competence of some teachers, he reckoned that the Government had been persistently investing considerable resources in education but overlooked returns in terms of quality, and this would only waste the resources. Besides, he suggested the EDB consider launching some pilot schemes, such as arranging for some students in need of special education to study in ordinary schools.

19. Mrs Marion LAI thanked Members for their comments and gave a consolidated response as follows: (i) As different subjects had different requirements, the annual amount of government subsidy for each undergraduate student was different. At present, the average cost of a publicly-funded undergraduate place was about $230,000 per year; (ii) Contents relating to the “Belt and Road” were already among the priority themes of the Quality Education Fund for 2016/17. Besides, the Government had suggested injecting $1 billion into the HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund, using the investment income so generated to increase in phases the number of offers for students under the “Belt and Road” Scholarship in the current Targeted Scholarship Scheme to 100; (iii) The current-term Government placed high importance on providing opportunities for local students to further their study. In the 2015-16 school year, some 46% of young people in the relevant age cohort had access to degree-level education, and about 26% of students in the relevant age cohort were admitted to publicly-funded

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Action undergraduate programmes; (iv) At present, the EDB provided subsidies for local elite students to further their study overseas through the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme; (v) Under the current government policies, admission of non-local students up to 20% of the student numbers approved by the University Grants Committee (“UGC”) was allowed for all UGC-funded associate degree, undergraduate and taught postgraduate programmes. From the 2016/17 school year onwards, all non-local students would be considered for admission through a mechanism for enrolment beyond the approved student number targets. In other words, the EDB would process non-local students’ and local students’ applications for admission separately; (vi) On the matter concerning the premises of Hong Chi Morninghill School, Tuen Mun, the EDB was currently applying for the allocation of a site in Area 31 of Tuen Mun (i.e. a government land lot next to a basketball court and spectator stand at the junction of Yeung Tsing Road and San Shek Wan North Road) for expansion works and, subject to the progress of the vetting and approval procedures, would make a funding application in due course for the implementation of the works. As the above site was currently leased to Hong Chi Association on short-term tenancy only, the association would discuss the tenancy agreement for the land with the Lands Department. The schedule of the works would depend on a number of factors (e.g. technical feasibility study, availability of funding for planning works), but the EDB would keep in touch with Hong Chi Association during the course. The EDB had released the project description in March 2016, and the Architectural Services Department was currently conducting a technical feasibility study, which was expected to be completed in July; (vii) Under the service agreement between the EDB and the sponsoring body of Harrow International School Hong Kong, at least 1 200 school places should be provided in the premises and the places should be equally split between primary and secondary schools. Moreover, boarding facilities in the school should be available for use by at least half of its secondary students. In the 2015/16 school year, the school had provided 1 032 primary and secondary school places. The service agreement between the EDB and the school did not provide that the school should introduce a compulsory requirement for students to take school buses. Despite this, given the present congestion around the school, the EDB and the relevant government departments had been discussing and following up on the problem with the school. After discussion, the school had planned to introduce a compulsory requirement for newly admitted students to take school buses starting from the 2017/18 school year. Meanwhile, the school was exploring some short-term measures (e.g. actively promoting its school bus service and encouraging parents to share vehicles for student transport) to reduce the flow of private cars carrying students to the school. The school had also promised to further discuss with parents measures to reduce the flow of private cars, while the EDB and the relevant government departments would continue to follow up with the school on the effectiveness and implementation of the traffic measures to ensure that the school would promptly drive down the flow of private cars it caused; (viii) The EDB had a mechanism in place to deal with vacant school premises. Whenever there were vacated or to-be-vacated school premises, the EDB would assess whether the premises were still suitable for education use based on a number of factors, such as their size, locations and building conditions, or consider whether it was necessary to reallocate the premises for school or other educational uses. If there was no need for the EDB to allocate the premises for school or other educational uses, the EDB would inform the Planning Department (“PlanD”) and

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Action other relevant departments through a central clearing house mechanism in order for the PlanD to consider using the vacant school premises for other suitable long-term uses. According to the EDB’s records as of April 2016, there had been about 11 vacant school premises in Tuen Mun. One of these school premises, which was located in Tai Hing Estate Phase 1, had been put to education-related use and was thus no longer vacant. For other nine school premises, as there was no need for the EDB to allocate them for school or other educational uses, the EDB had informed the PlanD and other relevant departments through the said central clearing house mechanism in order for the PlanD to consider using the vacant school premises for other suitable long-term uses. For the remaining premises of a former school in Sam Shing Estate, which had ceased to operate in September 2010, the EDB had reserved the premises for school or other educational uses. Besides, the EDB would continue to issue a list of vacant school premises suitable for short-term uses to the relevant policy bureaux and government departments on a biannual basis, so that vacant school premises pending redeployment for designated uses could be identified for suitable short-term purposes and land resources could thus be put to good use; (ix) The TSA was designed to gauge students’ attainment of the basic competence at three key learning stages (Primary 3, Primary 6 and Secondary 3). Education studies revealed that as student diversity started to widen at the ages of seven to eight, objective assessments could help the EDB and schools to grasp students’ attainment and to timely identify areas that required appropriate support measures and better teaching strategies. Besides, in view of the fact that some schools drilled their students for the TSA, the EDB had implemented relevant enhancement measures (e.g. the TSA would be removed from the focus questions of the Performance Indicators for Schools starting from the 2016/17 school year). Meanwhile, the EDB had announced in late October 2015 that the Coordinating Committee on Basic Competency Assessment and Assessment Literacy set up by the EDB in 2014 would conduct a full review of the TSA operation and the different implementation arrangements for the TSA, and would make recommendations on the design of TSA papers and questions, the format of report, support measures and so forth. The EDB would put the relevant adjustments into practice in the 2016 Tryout Study (Primary 3) (“Tryout Study”) on a pilot basis. The assessment arrangements for 2017 would, as appropriate, adopt the results of the Tryout Study and would be adjusted for enhancement. (x) On homework policies, the EDB agreed that students should be allowed reasonable time and room for whole person development. In principle, the EDB hoped schools would make good use of the whole-day lesson time, so that students could complete some schoolwork that required writing and teacher guidance at school and then finish homework, such as pre-lesson preparation and reading, after school. Some schools had told the EDB that due to intensive curriculum content, they could hardly fully satisfy the said guideline, but the EDB would still encourage them to assign a teacher to coordinate and suitably adjust the amounts of homework in different subjects for each class, ensuring as far as possible that the daily homework load of each class was more suitable and reasonable. At present there were some 500 or more primary schools in Hong Kong. They might have different homework policies, and hence different focuses and amounts of homework. Therefore, the EDB advised schools to consult parents on their homework policies and disclose the policies on their websites for parents to have a clear knowledge; (xi) The EDB paid much attention to the development of e-textbooks and hoped that wherever possible, more technologies could be introduced for higher learning effectiveness and better teaching and learning quality. The EDB had launched

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Action Phases 1 and 2 of the E-Textbook Market Development Scheme in 2012 and 2013 respectively. To date, there were 38 sets of e-textbooks on the Recommended E-textbook List to be used by schools in the 2016/17 school year, covering primary education subjects including Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics, Putonghua, General Studies and Physical Education, and junior secondary education subjects including Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics, Geography, History, Computer Education, and Life and Society. The EDB would continue to promote e-learning and encourage schools to make good use of e-textbooks. Some schools might adopt e-textbooks at different paces for various school-specific reasons, but the EDB expected that more and more schools would use e-textbooks as teachers had more understanding of e-learning and the use of electronic resources, schools’ IT infrastructure advanced, and more choices of e-textbooks were available; (xii) On separate pricing of textbooks, the EDB had put the policy of “de-bundling textbooks and teaching/learning materials for pricing” into full implementation starting from the 2014/15 school year, under which textbook publishers were required to separate textbooks, teaching materials and learning materials for pricing, and were allowed neither to bundle textbooks with teaching materials/learning materials for sale, nor to offer gifts or pass costs to parents or schools. The EDB would keep in view and boost the effectiveness of the policy; (xiii) Under the free quality kindergarten education policy, the Government provided basic subsidies for the half-day services of local non-profit-making kindergartens. In addition, the EDB would provide additional subsidies for eligible whole-day and long whole-day kindergartens. Based on the principle of joint contribution by parents and the Government, the additional subsidy for each whole-day place was set at 30% of the half-day unit subsidy and the additional subsidy for each long whole-day place was set at 60% of half-day unit subsidy; (xiv) The relevant committee under the TMDC had discussed at length the issue of the school for social development. The school’s current site in Lantau was small in size and thus not fit for redevelopment, so it was suggested that the school be re-sited in Tuen Mun. The EDB knew that most of Members supported the suggestion of siting the school for social development in Tuen Mun and would like to express gratitude for this. It had also consulted the local community on the plan. As most of the students admitted to the school would board, there would not be great impacts on the traffic nearby. Besides, the school for social development could have more communication and cooperation with the neighbouring schools for facilitating arrangements during their opening, closing and lunch hours; (xv) The EDB placed great importance on moral education and history education. While these were already covered in current curriculums, the EDB would on and on review and refine curriculum development to ensure students’ full development in the moral, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic aspects; (xvi) The Government had put considerable resources in education and got commensurate returns. Hong Kong students had achieved excellent results in various international tests (e.g. the Program for International Student Assessment, PISA), and this represented the culmination of years of efforts by fellow education workers. Despite this, the EDB believed that the education sector of Hong Kong would not be complacent about this and would keep up their efforts. In addition, though Hong Kong was a tiny place, a number of universities among the eight existing post-secondary institutions in Hong Kong were ranked among the top 100 in the world; and (xvii) To ensure the quality of schools, the EDB would assess schools in Hong Kong through the External School Review, which covered management and organisation,

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Action learning and teaching, support for students and school ethos, and students’ performance. After the assessment, the EDB would provide advice for the schools, or render support to them having regard to individual circumstances.

20. Ms Emilie TONG of the EDB gave a supplementary response as follows:

(i) The Government had earlier reserved eight sites proposed for building of schools in Area 54 of Tuen Mun. Subsequently, the EDB had reduced in phases the number of the reserved sites to two in light of the requirements of the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines, the changes in the school-age populations for primary and secondary schools, and the reduction in the number of classes in the district. The EDB would reserve these two sites in view of the actual situation of the district. It would also pay attention to the district’s demand for school places and in due course review the reserved sites for school use as a whole. In case of any shortage of school places, the EDB would forthwith invoke the school building procedures; (ii) At present, all primary schools in the district operated “small classes” of standard size with 25 students per class, except four primary schools maintaining classes of 30 students at maximum for specific reasons. Two places for cross-boundary students were provided in each Primary 1 class of all the schools; (iii) The EDB would make good use of vacant classrooms in the district and explore with schools the feasibility of converting other rooms in the schools into classrooms, so that more classes could be operated to meet the school place demand arising from the temporary growth in the school-age population; and (iv) The EDB had no consolidation policy (i.e. no so-called “school closure” policy) for secondary schools. Starting from the 2013/14 school year, the EDB had implemented an array of targeted relief measures (“three-fold preservation policy”) to facilitate the sustained development of schools, stabilise the teaching force and maintain education quality. Among the measures was the extension of the retention period for surplus teachers, which meant that if there were any surplus permanent teachers in aided secondary schools and caput schools in the three school years from 2013/14 to 2015/16 as a result of the reduction of Secondary 1 classes necessitated by the shrinkage of the Secondary 1 student population, the EDB would extend the retention period for the eligible surplus teachers from one year to three years. Besides, it had been announced in the 2016 Policy Address that if necessary, schools that had cut Secondary 1 classes in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 school years might apply for extending the retention period for the surplus teachers concerned until the 2017/18 school year, with a view to further stabilising the teaching force and catering for students’ learning interests.

21. After listening to the EDB’s responses, a number of Members spoke in the second round of comments and enquiries.

22. A Member said that in a questionnaire survey he had earlier conducted on the use of the premises of the former Salvation Army Sam Shing Chuen Lau Ng Ying School, about 89% of the responses in the 300 questionnaires opposed the establishment of the special school, while 11% supported it. Besides, he had earlier expressed concerns to the EDB over the issue earlier, pointing out that parking spaces and car parks were not adequate in that place, and that the school premises would occupy an existing basketball court and its construction, which would take six years, would even affect two kindergartens nearby. Therefore, he suggested the Government should not only consult the local residents and listen to their opinions, but reconsider the plans to build a school or a kindergarten there and

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Action identify another more suitable place in Tuen Mun for the special school.

23. A Member welcomed the EDB’s plan to increase the School-Based Educational Psychology Service, but opined that it should expedite the implementation of the service to cover some 80 primary and secondary schools before the 2017/18 school year. He also hoped the EDB would provide stronger support in student psychological services by increasing and deepening social workers services in schools. Moreover, he knew that at present there were some 15 000 non-local university students in Hong Kong and the EDB had set a ratio of 1:4 between non-local and local university students. In his view, it was most desirable that the ratio be adjusted to 1:9 to provide more opportunities for local students to pursue further study. Separately, many schools were facing the risk of closure due to under-enrolment. While the 2016 Policy Address had stated that if necessary, aided secondary schools might apply for the extension of the retention period for their surplus teachers to the 2017/18 school year, he still worried about the careers of surplus teachers beyond the 2017/18 school year and enquired whether the retention period could be further extended. Lastly, he hoped the EDB would seriously consider the abolition of the Primary 3 TSA.

24. A Member said the TMDC agreed that education was for all. He acknowledged that the school for social development needed to be built in Tuen Mun. According to the EDB’s Mode of Service Provision for Students with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties - A Conceptual Framework, only those students with moderate to severe emotional and behavioural problems needed to study in a school for social development. As some education workers or stakeholders strongly opposed the siting of the school for social development in Tuen Mun, what the EDB should do was to understand and review the issue. Furthermore, as the EDB considered that it was no longer necessary to reserve so many sites for building schools in Area 54 of Tuen Mun, it might consider building the school for social development in a spare site. As the Panel on Education of the Legislative Council (“LegCo”) would discuss the construction works of the school for social development on 9 May 2016, he hoped the EDB would pay heed to public sentiment, carefully consider the above factors, and give an account to all the relevant stakeholders.

25. With regard to the EDB’s plan to impose the compulsory requirement that students newly admitted to Harrow International School Hong Kong had to take school buses starting from the 2017-18 school year, a Member reckoned that this measure was too distant to solve the pressing problem. The accumulated numbers of students admitted to the schools over the past few years had already brought a flow of at least 400 private vehicles to Castle Peak Road each day. The problem would not be mitigated immediately simply because students admitted to the school in the 2017-18 school year took school buses. She opined that the EDB should explore with the school expeditious measures to solve the problem. She also suggested temporary pick-up/drop-off points be set up in the district for students taking private cars to change to school buses, so as to alleviate congestion on Castle Peak Road. In addition, she hoped the EDB would clarify whether the school had set any cap on admissions.

26. In view of the EDB’s remarks that only two sites in Area 54 of Tuen Mun were reserved and the school building procedures would only be invoked when necessary, a Member asked how the EDB would use the two vacant sites if the enrolment rate of the district remained low in the future.

27. A Member indicated that the EDB should make good use of the sites in Area 54 of Tuen Mun and consider devising a “through-train” education policy under which a series of

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Action kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools were established in the area to meet the needs of residents.

28. A Member said that both the EDB and the Tuen Mun District Office (“TMDO”) had the responsibility to consult the local community about the siting of the school for social development in Tuen Mun. Any principals of individual schools who were against the plan should specify the reasons for their objection. In addition, she hoped the EDB could promptly build a school for social development in the district to take care of the disadvantaged in Hong Kong.

29. A Member indicated that the principals who opposed the siting of the school for social development in Tuen Mun would attend the meeting of the LegCo Panel on Education on 9 May 2016 to express their views. He added that as the elected Member of the constituency concerned, he was obligated to relay the opposing views raised by the relevant stakeholders to the relevant policy bureau. On the whole, the relevant stakeholders were not against the building of the school for social development, but they would like to express their views on the siting. Besides, he raised objection again to the closure of Shi Hui Wen Secondary School 1.5 years later and urged the EDB to promptly plan for the future secondary school places in Tuen Mun.

30. A Member worried that students living in Area 54 of Tuen Mun would have to travel long distances to attend schools in the future, because the completion time of schools in Area 54 of Tuen Mun would not synchronise with the time for residential occupation. In view of this, she requested the EDB to confirm the building of schools in Area 54 of Tuen Mun without delay. In addition, she opined that it was fine to build the school for social development in Tuen Mun and the school could bring convenience to Tuen Mun students with such a need. She believed it was inadequate communication that made the principals of neighbouring schools stand against the siting of the school for social development in Tuen Mun. Therefore, she hoped the EDB could strength its communication efforts and consult the neighbouring schools more. Besides, at present most cross-boundary students were kindergarten and primary school children and they would grow into secondary school students, so the EDB should make early preparations for the potential increase in the demand for secondary school places.

31. A Member said that one of the main objectives for the EDB’s move to change half-day primary schooling to whole-day primary schooling back then was to improve homework policies. At present, students in whole-day primary schools had to do a lot of homework after school, which defeated the objective of improving homework policies. The Member requested the EDB to reflect on this.

32. A Member opined that the EDB had invested considerable resources in local education and changed its policies frequently, but it turned out to be a plight in which most parents complained about education policies, many schools worried about closure, no remarkable improvement was seen in the overall results of students, and problems occurred in various aspects such as homework policies and the Primary 3 TSA. He hoped the EDB would reflect on this.

33. Mrs Marion LAI gave a consolidated response to the above comments: (i) The decline in the secondary student population was beyond dispute, and the present number of secondary students was not much different from that in early years when the EDB and the sector discussed the launch of the “three-fold

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Action preservation policy”. In the 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 school years when the Secondary 1 student population of Hong Kong recorded the greatest decline, only a total of 12, 18 and 10 Secondary 1 classes were cut respectively. The EDB estimated that the number of students participating in the Secondary School Places Allocation in the 2016/17 school year would be similar to that in the 2015/16 school year, and the overall number of Secondary 1 students would rebound steadily in the 2017/18 and subsequent school years; (ii) Following the traditional practice, any surplus teachers arising in a school due to the reduction of Secondary 1 classes in the 2016/17 school year could be retained until the end of the school year; and (iii) A total of seven Secondary 1 classes were cut in secondary schools in Tuen Mun from the 2013/14 to 2015/16 school years, with 12 of the schools still maintaining three or fewer Secondary 1 classes at present. As the EDB projected an increase in the number of students in the few years to come, measures had been taken accordingly to maintain stable numbers of classes and teachers as far as possible.

[Post-meeting note: 1. In her brief, Mrs Marion LAI mentioned that starting from the 2016/17 school year, not only would the School-based Educational Psychology Service cover all public primary and secondary schools, but the Government would further enhance the service by progressively improving the ratio of educational psychologists to 1:4 for public primary and secondary schools with a large number of students in need of the service. The enhanced service would cover some 80 primary and secondary schools in the 2017/18 school year. 2. The EDB always encouraged and supported primary and secondary schools in forming “through-train” schools, which could enable primary and secondary schools sharing the same education philosophy to step up cooperation, improve curriculum cohesion, enhance the schools’ understanding about and support for students, provide students with coherent learning experiences and alleviate primary students’ adaptation problems upon their promotion to the secondary schools. To form a “through train” was a school-based decision made by the primary and secondary schools concerned. In the 2015/16 school year, there were 21 through-train aided schools in Hong Kong. The “through-train” mode was not applicable to kindergartens, as they had full discretion in admitting pupils and their mode of financing was different from that of the aided and government primary and secondary schools.]

34. Ms Emilie TONG of the EDB gave a supplementary response as follows: (i) On cross-boundary students, as the “zero delivery quota” policy for non-local pregnant women giving birth in Hong Kong was implemented from early 2013 onwards, the EDB estimated that cross-boundary children’s demand for Primary 1 school places would peak in 2018 and gradually decline thereafter; (ii) At present the EDB had no plan to build schools in Area 54 of Tuen Mun in order not to affect the existing secondary and primary schools; and (iii) The “three-fold preservation policy” had taken effect in school years with larger decreases in the numbers of Secondary 1 students. The EDB reiterated that there was no consolidation policy (i.e. no so-called “school closure” policy) for secondary schools. As for the matter concerning Shi Hui Wen Secondary School’s cessation of Secondary 1 student admission, the school had informed the EDB in January 2012 about the cessation from the 2012/13 school year onwards. She hoped Members could understand the cause of the matter.

35. A Member said a representative of the EDB had indicated at a meeting of the Working Group on the Development and Complementary Facilities in Area 54 that currently

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Action there were adequate schools in Tuen Mun to meet the district’s demand for school places. However, he was of the view that after the completion of the works at construction sites in Area 54 of Tuen Mun, there would be a large additional population of up to 45 000 joining the district and by then, the school-age children would have to attend schools in Po Tin Estate and Siu Hong Court, which was extremely inconvenient.

36. A Member said he believed that Ms Emilie TONG had heard about Members’ views for many times, so he hoped that while listening to Members’ views, Mrs Marion LAI could also get a clear understanding of the education problems in the district and offer the TMDC some ways to mitigate the problems.

37. Mrs Marion LAI responded that to prepare for this meeting, she had spent much time and effort in understanding the education scene in the district. In her responses to Members’ enquiries, she had also given clear explanations about the boarding places and the traffic of the school for social development, the Secondary 1 student population and the reduction of classes in the district, the traffic improvement measures of Harrow International School Hong Kong and so forth. Besides, it had been 14 years since the completion of the development study on Area 54 of Tuen Mun in 1999. The number of sites reserved for building schools had been cut from the original eight to six (including two secondary schools and four primary schools) in accordance with the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines. After that, there had been quite a number of changes in the primary and secondary student populations in Hong Kong. For example, the decline of the birth rate in 2003 had led to significant shrinkage of the school-age population starting from 2005, and schools in Tuen Mun had thus needed to reduce classes or even close down. In view of the above changes, the EDB had reduced the number of reserved school sites to six in 2005, and subsequently two in phases. Given the actual situation in the district, the EDB held that only two school sites were needed to be reserved in Area 54 of Tuen Mun at present. Yet, the EDB would keep in view the supply of school places in the district and regularly review the policies on reserving school sites in Tuen Mun as a whole (including places other than Area 54 of Tuen Mun). If necessary, it would apply to the relevant government department for allocation of land.

38. The Chairman hoped the EDB could further follow up on the matters concerning the school for social development and the arrangements on schools in Area 54 of Tuen Mun after the meeting and have more communication with the relevant persons.

39. A Member hoped the EDB could explain why more than 10 sites were reserved for building schools in the new development area in Yick Yuen. Moreover, he said that the EDB’s failure to return premises of closed schools to the PlanD had led to waste of government land resources.

40. Mrs Marion LAI said she understood Members’ concern over sites in the district and it was the EDB’s hope to make the best use of the sites. The EDB would closely liaise with the relevant government departments in respect of the long and short term uses of different sites. Nevertheless, planning took time and the actual circumstances might change with various factors, with changes in the student population being one of the most critical factors. It was therefore possible that some reserved sites were not arranged to be used for development for a period of time. Despite this, she would relay Members’ views to the EDB and study them with the PlanD.

41. A Member was very disappointed that the EDB representatives present not only failed to help the TMDC to solve the education problems in the district, but even showed

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Action little goodwill for communication with the principals who opposed building the school for social development in the district. Moreover, the EDB indicated that the secondary student population in Hong Kong would increase in the next two or three years on one hand, but some schools (e.g. Shi Hui Wen Secondary School) were facing the risk of closure on the other hand. Therefore, the Member worried that the current secondary school places could hardly meet the demand in the next two or three years. Government resources and public money would be wasted if such a problem and hence the need to build schools were realised only by then. Therefore, the Member asked the EDB to take a serious look at the work on the overall school development in Hong Kong.

42. A Member did not agree that building new schools in Area 54 of Tuen Mun would affect other schools in the area and worried that primary students living in Area 54 of Tuen Mun would have to travel long distances to attend schools with heavy school bags in the future. Therefore, the Member asked the EDB to consider building primary schools in the area as soon as possible.

43. A Member reiterated that the EDB-proposed requirement for the students admitted to Harrow International School Hong Kong in the 2017-18 school year to take school buses would not be effective in relieving the congestion on Castle Peak Road. She requested that the EDB should put the problem into perspective, giving urgent consideration to providing temporary pick-up/drop-off points in Tuen Mun for students to change from private cars to school buses, so that congestion on Castle Peak Road could be alleviated. Separately, as the 2016 school year was about to begin, she hoped the EDB could promptly work out temporary measures with the school to prevent serious congestion from recurring on So Kwun Wat Road on the first school day.

44. A Member requested the EDB again to promptly build the school for social development in Tuen Mun, abolish the Primary 3 TSA and help Shi Hui Wen Secondary School to ward off the risk of closure.

45. In response to the above comments, Mrs Marion LAI gave a consolidated response as follows: (i) Noting that Members and local community members held a different view on the school for social development, the EDB would continue to communicate with the relevant stakeholders; (ii) On the matters concerning the traffic around Harrow International School Hong Kong, the EDB had been maintaining close communication with the HKPF and the TD for studying the feasibility and safety of the enhanced school bus service and other traffic measures; and (iii) The EDB had discussed with Shi Hui Wen Secondary School various options that were conducive to the school’s development (e.g. merging with other schools) in a bid to save it from closure. But at last, the school still decided to close down as scheduled.

46. A Member enquired of the EDB again about the use of the vacant premises of the former Salvation Army Sam Shing Chuen Lau Ng Ying School.

47. Mrs Marion LAI responded that based on the progress of addition works for special schools in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long, the EDB anticipated that the supply of school places for children with special educational needs would rise in the two districts. Accordingly, the plan to use the vacant premises of the former Salvation Army Sam Shing Chuen Lau Ng Ying School as a new special school might be subject to adjustments.

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Action

48. The Chairman thanked Mrs Marion LAI and other EDB representatives for attending the meeting. He would like them to consider the views of the TMDC.

IV. Confirmation of Minutes of the 3rd Meeting Held on 1 March 2016 49. The Chairman said that on 25 April 2016, the Secretariat had sent the draft of the above minutes to all the participants of the meeting. As no proposed amendment had been received thereafter and no amendment was proposed by Members at this meeting, the above minutes were confirmed.

V. Discussion Items (A) TMDO Annual District Plan 2016-17 (TMDC Paper No. 12/2016) 50. District Officer (Tuen Mun) (“DO(TM)”) briefly introduced the contents of the above paper to Members and provided supplementary information on several major tasks of the TMDO in 2016-17.

(i) Community Building 51. DO(TM) said that the paper gave an introduction on the work of the Tuen Mun District Fight Crime Committee, the Tuen Mun District Fire Safety Committee, the Tuen Mun District Civic Education Committee and the Tuen Mun District Youth Programme Committee over the past year. In the year 2016-17, the TMDO would continue to organise activities under the scope of work of the respective committees.

(ii) District Environment Improvement 52. DO(TM) said the TMDC received a total allocation of $20,447,000 for district minor works in the year 2015-16. As in the past, the District Facilities Management Committee (“DFMC”) under the TMDC would gather the opinions of local community members and put forward plans for the works, while the TMDO and other relevant government departments would assist in implementing the plans.

53. Moreover, funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and the Hong Kong Housing Society, the footbridge over Tuen Mun River was expected to be completed in 2016, and the proposed Tuen Mun Heritage Trail would start from the said footbridge, with eight displaying panels to be put up at a total of eight locations in the district. The draft narratives for the heritage trail and the proposed locations had been endorsed by the Working Group on Facilities and Works under the DFMC in May 2015.

(iii) District Administration 54. DO(TM) indicated that the TMDO would remain active in providing the TMDC with necessary support, which included: (a) rendering administrative support to the TMDC; (b) serving as a bridge between the TMDC and government departments; and (c) assisting the TMDC in organising activities, etc.

55. On the implementation of the Signature Project Scheme, the TMDC had decided at its meeting in September 2013 to make “improving the environment of Tuen Mun River and the town centre” and “promoting youth development” the themes of the signature projects of Tuen Mun. The Home Affairs Department (“HAD”) had consulted and gained support from the Panel on Home Affairs of the LegCo on the two projects in May 2015. The proposals on the two signature projects of Tuen Mun had been endorsed by the Public

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Action Works Subcommittee of the LegCo on 20 April 2016. If everything went smoothly, it would be possible for the projects to secure funding before the expiry of the current LegCo term and then start as early as possible.

56. In addition, the activities of the area committees for the year 2015-16 had been completed, and the village representative election and the District Council (“DC”) election for Tuen Mun had also been held smoothly last year.

(iv) Future 57. DO(TM) said that the election of the LegCo of the new term would be held on 4 September 2016, and the TMDO would actively assist in coordinating the 2016 voter registration exercise and the 2016 LegCo election to ensure a fair, open and clean election. The TMDO would also continue to assist the TMDC in taking forward various major work, which included promoting youth development, supporting new arrivals and carrying out district works and community activities, working on multiple fronts to further develop Tuen Mun into a harmonious, constantly modernising community that was suitable for living and work.

58. A Member remarked that District Offices were an important channel for communication between the Government and the public. The Member would like to take this opportunity to put forward four suggestions for enhancing the related work: (a) stepping up cooperation with the TMDC and communicating more with every Member; (b) extensively collecting district information; (c) actively identifying local talents and recognising their contribution; and (d) coordinating partnership between the Government, the business sector and the public while keeping in touch with local leaders proactively.

59. A Member noted that the Tin Hau Temple Plaza beautification works under the Tuen Mun River beautification scheme had been completed and the plaza had already been opened, and the footbridge over Tuen Mun River would be completed soon. In view of this, he hoped the relevant departments and organisations could report to Members on the progress of the works concerned, giving them a better understanding of the appearance and decorations of the footbridge. He further pointed out that the village representative election for Tuen Mun had been held last year, but as Dr the Hon LAU Wong-fat had resigned as the Chairman of the Tuen Mun Rural Committee on 22 February 2016, the TMDO should provide more information about the by-election arrangements.

60. A Member said the TMDO had achieved remarkable results over years of work in Tuen Mun, but he hoped the TMDO could further step up its support in the formation and management of owners’ corporations (“OCs”) in the district. He noted that perhaps due to limited expertise in the related areas, some Liaison Officers assisting in OC work could hardly offer helpful immediate advice at OC meetings. In case of disputes at meetings, OCs could only resort to seeking legal advice on the issues concerned; but with inadequate resources, some single-block buildings could neither pursue issues through legal means, nor engage management companies or the management staff to handle the issues. In view of this, he hoped DO(TM) could consider helping minority owners in the district to pursue arbitration, and suggested the relevant Liaison Officers have more communication with minority owners and give them more information.

61. A Member said that it was very important to strengthen government-public communication and coordination, but he understood that District Offices were subject to some constraints when handling issues and the assistance from other government departments might be limited. In addition, he hoped the TMDO could help new arrivals to

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Action promptly integrate into the community, adapt to local lifestyles, and even make contribution to Hong Kong. He also hoped the TMDO would consider setting up relevant committees for follow-ups.

62. DO(TM) thanked Members for their comments and enquiries. She gave a consolidated response as follows: (i) All staff of the TMDO, including DO(TM), the two Assistant District Officers (Tuen Mun) and the many Executive Officers and Liaison Officers, would play their respective roles and keep in close touch with the TMDC in order to do their jobs better; (ii) The TMDO would continue to strengthen efforts in collecting district information, maintain close contact with TMDC Members and local community members, and keep the relevant government departments informed about local situations; (iii) The TMDO noted and would consider and follow up on Members’ comments on identification of local talents and partnership between the Government, the business sector and the public; (iv) The works for the footbridge over Tuen Mun River would be completed soon, and the TMDO would ask the Hong Kong Housing Society to report on the latest progress of the works for Members’ comment on the appearance and decorations of the footbridge; (v) As the office of Indigenous Inhabitant Representative of Lung Kwu Tan and Resident Representative of Tsing Chuen Wai was vacant, arrangements had been made to hold the by-elections on 29 May 2016. The relevant nomination period began on 20 April and ended on 3 May 2016. After the by-elections, the TMDO would arrange the election of Chairman of the Tuen Mun Rural Committee; (vi) All Liaison Officers of the TMDO would remain diligent in performing and enhancing building management work, while the HAD had made corresponding resource redeployment and was striving to promote mediation on building management issues; and (vii) While the TMDO had not set up any committee for assistance to new arrivals, such assistance was covered by its daily work and the HAD had allocated manpower and resources for the relevant services. The TMDO would relay Members’ views to the HAD for follow-ups.

63. The Chairman thanked DO(TM) for giving a brief introduction on the paper and responding to Members’ enquiries.

(B) Work Plan of ICAC Regional Office (New Territories North West) for 2016/17 (TMDC Paper No. 13/2016) 64. The Chairman welcomed Mrs Bernadette COOK, Regional Officer/New Territories West, and Mr Vincent CHEUNG, Senior Community Relations Officer of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (“ICAC”), to this meeting.

65. Mrs Bernadette COOK gave Members a computer-aided presentation on the work plan of the ICAC Regional Office (New Territories North West) for 2016-2017 and an introduction to the six major areas of the ICAC’s work, which included: (i) a territory-wide programme on integrity promotion; (ii) integrity education for the youth; (iii) reinforcement of the clean election culture; (iv) probity in building management; (v) strengthening of anti-corruption education; and (vi) good use of media publicity.

66. Mrs Bernadette COOK further said that to widely disseminate integrity and probity

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Action messages in Tuen Mun, the ICAC would like to invite the TMDC and the TMDO to jointly organise and suitable organisations (e.g. the fight crime committee, the civic education committee, the area committees and the associations of school heads) in the district to co-organise an array of district activities on integrity promotion with the theme of “All for Integrity”. Proposed activities included: parent-child moral education activities in kindergartens, online activities and short video projects for primary students, the iTeen Leadership Programme for senior secondary students and the “All for Integrity” probity promotion activities for the district. Moreover, the ICAC would continue to invite organisations in the district to join the Community Involvement Programme, under which the ICAC would provide resources and support for them to organise integrity promotion activities by themselves. Besides, she thanked the TMDO for agreeing to be a joint organiser and said that the ICAC would select a place with local features in Tuen Mun for holding a group activity and shooting a short video, which would be played at a large-scale event on 9 December 2016 together with the edited short videos of the other 17 districts.

67. A Member said that some members of the public would report cases to the ICAC in an open manner. He would like to know whether it was appropriate to do so. Besides, in the previous DC election, candidates would provide information on their election expenses for the Registration and Electoral Office (“REO”), and upon receipt of a complaint about suspected corruption, the REO would pass the information to the ICAC for follow-ups. Whether the case was substantiated or not, the ICAC would first issue strict written warnings to the person being complained. He considered it inappropriate to do this and suggested the matters be handled by the REO directly. In addition, he asked whether the ICAC would pursue the matters against any complainants who were found to make ungrounded reports to the ICAC merely for setting the complainees up.

68. A Member pointed out that many OCs engaged consultancy firms at relatively low prices to undertake tender exercises for works in a bid to streamline procedures and save costs. However, problems relating to bid-rigging often stemmed from consultancy firms and contractors. In view of this, he reckoned that the ICAC should not only continue with its anti-corruption efforts for OCs and building management organisations, but also promote messages about corruption-free building management to consultancy firms and contractors.

69. Mrs Bernadette COOK of the ICAC thanked Members for their comments and enquiries. She gave a consolidated response as follows: (i) While encouraging the public to make reports about cases of suspected corruption, the ICAC had no control over how they made reports. Moreover, the ICAC always treated the information of reports in confidence and would only disclose the details of investigations and reports as permitted by the law. The ICAC would also remind informers about the relevant statutory requirements; (ii) Election candidates were required to furnish the REO with true reports on their election expenses. If the details of a complaint case about election expenses fell within the scope of the ICAC’s enforcement, the REO would pass the relevant information to the ICAC for follow-ups. Furthermore, after each major election event, the ICAC would conduct a review and refer the problems it identified and relay the related views to the REO/the Electoral Affairs Commission for consideration. There had been complaint cases involving minor amounts of election expenses referred to the ICAC, but the relevant legislation had been amended recently. At present, cases not involving amounts exceeding the statutory ceiling or intentional deception by the complainees might be processed through other legal procedures in light of their circumstances; (iii) The ICAC would, in accordance with Section 13B (False reports to officers) of the

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Action ICAC Ordinance, prosecute any person who made a false report to the ICAC for accusation against another person. Upon conviction, the person would be liable to a fine and imprisonment. There had been persons prosecuted for contravention of this section; (iv) The ICAC’s education on corruption-free building management was targeted not only at OCs and property management companies, but also at contractors, professional consultants (e.g. architects and surveyors) and property owners. The ICAC had also prepared the Building Maintenance Toolkit to remind them of various measures to prevent bid-rigging, which included: (i) appointing project consultants of good repute; (ii) conducting open tender exercises; and (iii) introducing probity and anti-bid-rigging clauses in tender documents and contracts, etc. The above information had been uploaded to the ICAC website, which had recorded 380 000 visits in 2015. Moreover, OCs coming across problems against corruption-free building management might seek assistance from the ICAC direct. The ICAC had handled about 860 related enquiries in 2015. Besides, the ICAC educated different people about corruption-free building management through seminars, talks, visits and so forth. Last year, these activities had been participated by up to 8 600 persons, reaching out to some 800 OCs; and (v) In general, bid-rigging meant tenderers had prior agreement on tender contents in order to attain a certain tender result. The Competition Ordinance stated that bid-rigging violated the fair competition principle and was considered to be serious anti-competitive conduct, against which the Competition Commission might institute legal proceedings. Any cases involving corruption would certainly followed up by the ICAC in accordance with the law, but the ICAC had no right to handle complaints involving no corruption. The ICAC and the Competition Commission had coordinated the arrangements on mutual referral of complaint cases. Members of the public who found any building management case suspicious should promptly make a report to bring the lawbreakers to justice. For buildings going to have maintenance works, prior arrangements could be made with the ICAC for organising anti-corruption talks on points-to-note for the OCs, so as to reduce the chance of problems.

70. A Member indicated that the ICAC’s education efforts on anti-corruption publicity were satisfactory and effective in encouraging the public to make reports in case of suspected corruption; but when members of the public reported to the ICAC any suspected corrupt conduct by OCs and building management companies, the ICAC would request them to produce evidence before considering whether to set up case files for follow-ups. As the informants usually could not produce relevant evidence, they would not pursue the matters further and the ICAC would not set up case files for follow-ups. The rights and benefits of minority owners were thus not protected. Besides, some OCs had told her that they had invited the ICAC to send representatives to attend OC meetings but the ICAC had failed to do so. She hoped the ICAC would look at this and make improvement.

71. A Member said that the ICAC had previously issued warning letters with strong wording to the complainees of cases involving minor amounts of election expenses and furthermore, indicated in the letters that it would consider referring the cases to the Department of Justice for consideration of prosecution. In his opinion, doing this would cause panic.

72. Mrs Bernadette COOK of the ICAC gave a consolidated response to the above comments and enquiries as follows: (i) Upon receipt of a report from the public, the ICAC would first study the matter

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Action concerned and consider whether to set up a case file in accordance with the established procedures and standards, in order to ensure fairness to all parties concerned. There was no burden of proof on a complainant; however, if the complainant failed to provide adequate basic information about the complaint, the ICAC might not be able to set up a case file as there was no sufficient ground; (ii) If an OC invited ICAC representatives to give an anti-corruption talk at an OC meeting, the ICAC usually would accept unless the invitation was short notice. But if the ICAC representatives were invited to an OC meeting to act as the OC’s arbitrators or to mediate in the internal affairs of the OC, it would not be appropriate for the ICAC to attend the meeting; (iii) Under the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance, the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and the ICAC Ordinance, the ICAC had the statutory responsibility to follow up on cases concerning these ordinances. Moreover, the Government had amended the relevant provisions in the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance to the effect that exemption would be granted if the amount involved did not exceed the statutory ceiling and the complainee did not practice intentional deception. Besides, Section 13B (False reports to officers) of the ICAC Ordinance provided that no person should make a false report to an ICAC officer. If the accusation made by a complainant was confirmed to be false, the complainant would be liable to a fine and imprisonment.

73. The Chairman said paragraph 6 of the paper stated that to widely disseminate integrity and probity messages in Tuen Mun, the ICAC planned to invite the TMDC and the TMDO to jointly organise and suitable organisations in the district to co-organise an array of district activities on integrity promotion with the theme of “All for Integrity” in 2016-17. He knew that the TMDO had accepted the invitation. The TMDC had jointly organised integrity promotion activities of this kind with the ICAC in the past several years. As in the past, the ICAC would like to report to Members on the progress of the programme and gauge their views on the programme through the Social Services Committee (“SSC”). The Chairman consulted Members on this matter. The TMDC agreed with the said arrangements.

74. The Chairman further said that as the ICAC might need to use the logo of the TMDC in its publicity for the activities concerned, he would also like to consult Members about this. The TMDC agreed with this arrangement.

75. The Chairman thanked the ICAC representatives for attending the meeting.

(C) Objection to Drastic Increase in Car Park Rental by Link (TMDC Paper No. 14/2016) 76. The Chairman said that the Commerce, Industry and Housing Committee (“CIHC”) under the TMDC had discussed a paper titled “Objection to the Drastic Increase in Car Park Rental by Link” at its meeting held on 11 April 2016. After the meeting, the CIHC had written to Link Asset Management Limited (“Link”) expressing its Members’ opinions. The CIHC had received a written reply from Link on 15 April 2016. Yet, Link had not fully responded to Members’ enquiries and views, so the Chairman of the CIHC passed this issue to the full council of the TMDC for further discussion as proposed by the CIHC. The TMDC Chairman had granted approval to this.

77. The Chairman welcomed Mr Simon TU, General Manager - Car Park; Mr CHIU Kwan-suen, Senior Community Relationship Manager; and Mr William CHOI, Community

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Action Relationship Manager of Link to this meeting.

78. The Chairman of the CIHC indicated that Link had recently changed fixed monthly parking spaces in a number of car parks to floating ones, causing much inconvenience to residents. She added that there had even been conflicts arising from the failure of the car parks concerned to arrange parking spaces immediately for car owners who rented floating monthly parking spaces. To prevent such conflicts from happening again, she requested Link to maintain a certain number of fixed monthly parking spaces in its car parks to serve residents’ need. Moreover, she hoped Link would not focus only on boosting profits but ignore residents’ opinions, and requested it to consider putting a brake on its plan to increase car park rental. Besides, she hoped the TMDC would not have to follow the LegCo members and residents in occupying the headquarters of Link, and requested Link to be more active in sending representatives to attend TMDC meetings for communication.

79. The Member who was also the Convenor of the Working Group on Monitoring of Link (“Working Group”) concurred with the above views, saying that many car owners were dissatisfied with Link’s move to change fixed monthly parking spaces in a number of car parks to floating ones. Due to the lack of fixed parking spaces, car owners who had paid monthly rental often had to look for parking spaces by themselves. There might even be unnecessary conflicts and disputes arising when these car owners failed to secure parking spaces as the car parks were full. Moreover, in the previous term of the TMDC, Link had sent representatives to attend the Working Group’s meetings to listen to the views of the Working Group’s Members and to report on the progress of alteration works in Link’s properties. But in the present term, Link did not accept invitations and send no representative to the relevant meetings of the Working Group. Therefore, the Working Group could only write to Link expressing its views and Link would give written responses to the views. She was disappointed and dissatisfied with Link’s failure to send representatives to the meetings of the Working Group. Considering the existing communication method not ideal, she hoped Link could seriously consider sending representatives to the meetings of the Working Group in future to foster mutual understanding.

80. The Vice-chairman pointed out that the existing car parks of Link were mostly located in public housing estates and Home Ownership Scheme (“HOS”) courts, and the car owners using these car parks were mostly ordinary members of the public living in these places, so he believed that any drastic increase in rental would have certain impacts on their lives. He also reckoned that Link should have a social conscience while seeking higher profits, and it should consider freezing its plan to increase rental. Besides, Link’s move to change fixed monthly parking spaces in a number of car parks to floating ones had caused inconvenience to many car owners, and occasionally there had even been disputes arising because car owners could not secure parking spaces after paying monthly rental, which were difficult for the car park management staff to handle. In view of this, he hoped Link could disclose the amount of the additional profits potentially derived from the new operation model in which fixed monthly parking spaces were changed to floating monthly parking spaces. He also urged Link to put equal weight on profits and the people’s lives. Besides, he requested Link to clarify whether the proportions between the fixed and floating monthly parking spaces in all its car parks were consistent and, if not, explain the reasons for the differences.

81. A Member remarked that after listing, Link only cared about shareholders’ interests with no regard to public opinions and little social conscience. As the car owners renting Link’s car parking spaces were mostly residents of public housing estates and HOS courts,

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Action the drastic increase in rental would have certain impacts on their lives. She therefore opined that Link should be more empathetic for the public and engage more in efforts supportive to people’s livelihood. Besides, she wanted to take this opportunity to request Link to promptly follow up on Lui Cheung Kwong Lutheran College’s application for provision of lifts.

82. A Member indicated that Link had recently held a ballot for its parking spaces in Tai Hing Estate, but some of the car owners concerned had said they had not known this arrangement and worried that they would thus lose their parking spaces. He hoped Link would give an account of this. Moreover, he hoped the Housing Department and the Lands Department could explain whether Link had violated the requirements of the deeds of mutual covenant by changing fixed monthly parking spaces to floating monthly parking spaces. Furthermore, Link had fallen short of the public’s expectation in terms of its routine management of car parks and arrangements on public facilities (e.g. reducing the use of electric light in common areas). He hoped the Chairman could lead Members in following up on the issue.

83. A Member requested Link to review its move to change fixed monthly parking spaces in a number of car parks to floating ones, which had aroused dissatisfaction among many residents. Moreover, he had received residents’ complaints about the arrangements on the drawing for park spaces in Tai Hing Shopping Centre. As the new arrangements were implemented with effect from 1 May 2016, which fell within several days of public holiday, Link had not given immediate responses to the complaints and enquiries of some car owners and a lot of disputes had arisen as a result. In view of this, he hoped Link could make better arrangements on this issue.

84. A Member opposed Link’s move to change fixed monthly parking spaces to floating monthly parking spaces, opining that as car parks might be full during holidays and typhoons, there might be no parking spaces available for allocation to car owners renting floating monthly parking spaces and this might cause unnecessary disputes. Besides, it was learnt that Link had sold its car parks in Siu Lun Court, Siu On Court and Po Tin Estate. Residents in San Wai Court were very worried that Link would sell its car parks in San Wai too and they would have to pay more expensive rental. In this connection, she hoped Link would clarify whether they intended to sell other car parks in Tuen Mun and disclose the relevant schedules.

85. Mr Simon TU of Link thanked the above Members for their comments and enquiries. He gave a consolidated response as follows: (i) At present, Link owned about 75 000 parking spaces in some 165 car parks in Hong Kong. Apart from daily operation, Link carried out renovation, maintenance and improvement works to its car parks from time to time; (ii) Link had digitalised the management of its car parks since 2009 to enable a clear and quick grasp of data. The related upgrading and improvement works cost as high as about $300 million. At present, as general car owners could enter or exit car parks and make payments very swiftly and conveniently with their Octopus cards, there was no need for them to go to the shroff offices of car parks to pay parking fees and no paper was used. In addition, with the digitalised system, Link could get a clear picture of the usage of its car parks in different periods of time; (iii) In recent years, Link had been constantly carrying out renovations to its car parks in Tuen Mun (including the car park in Butterfly Plaza and the H.A.N.D.S car parks in Yau Oi Estate and On Ting Estate), which cost as high as $200 million. Moreover, Link had not only improved the lighting facilities in many car parks but

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Action installed close circuit televisions with coverage of over 90%. What was more, Link intended to further invest $300 million in other maintenance and renovation works; (iv) Over the past three years, Link had made arrangements to curb vehicle theft, and had successfully installed related systems in most of its car parks to avoid vehicles being removed from car parks without registration; (v) The hourly rental of car parks in Tuen Mun had recently risen by about $1 or $2 only to some $12 per hour, and their monthly rental had increased by about 4% to 9% (or approximately $100 to $120) to some $1,200 to $1,900 at present, which were still about 25% to 100% lower than other car parks in the district; (vi) It was not Link which had initiated the idea to change fixed monthly parking spaces in a number of car parks to floating ones. Instead, Link had paid attention to the usage data of individual car parks and started to change the proportions between fixed and floating monthly parking spaces only after some visitors had complained about being unable to use the car parks. A certain number of parking spaces remained fixed in the 13 car parks in Tuen Mun at present, while the number of fixed parking spaces in each car park was different; (vii) As required by the deeds of mutual covenant, Link would let residents and genuine visitors use the car parks and would as far as possible serve car owners renting monthly parking spaces first. In addition, the experienced management staff would reserve parking spaces for these car owners. The operation had all along been smooth. Besides, the new operation model in which fixed monthly parking spaces were changed to floating ones did not generate extra profits for Link, and the rental of floating monthly parking spaces was actually lower than their fixed counterparts; and (viii) Link could not provide information on sale of car parks at the moment.

86. A Member said he understood that as a listed company or a business entity, Link was accountable to its shareholders for its performance in terms of profits and returns. He added that it was not unreasonable for Link to introduce measures to make good use of vacant parking spaces during day time, boost incomes and save costs. But in his view, Link should also respect the views of the TMDC while listening to and considering Members’ suggestions. He believed that if Link could have cooperation and coordination with the TMDC, it could better tap public opinion for effective administration and harmonious relationship with the public.

87. On behalf of car owners using the car park of Siu Hei Court, a Member opposed changing fixed monthly parking spaces in the car park to floating ones. Furthermore, he requested Link to put a brake on the plan to increase rental without delay. In addition, he opined that Link had the responsibility to serve residents of the districts concerned and consult residents living there on its plans to change its services.

88. The Chairman of the CIHC pointed out that there had been numerous cases in which car owners renting monthly parking spaces in the car park of Leung King Commercial Complex were not allocated parking spaces because it was fully occupied by hourly-parked vehicles. Therefore, no matter how experienced the management staff were, Link might still have to come across disputes arising from its failure to provide parking spaces for car owners who paid monthly rental.

89. The Member who was also the Convenor of the Working Group agreed with the above views, opining that Link was obligated to solve the problems arising because no parking spaces could be allocated to owners renting monthly parking spaces after the car

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Action parks were fully occupied by hourly-parked vehicles. Besides, she hoped the representatives of Link could give a response to the enquiry on whether they would attend the meetings of the Working Group.

90. The Vice-chairman indicated that although the representative of Link said a certain number of fixed parking spaces were retained in its 13 car parks in district, it was heard that these parking spaces were for persons with disabilities only.

91. A Member worried that no parking spaces would be allocated to car owners renting monthly parking spaces at night when they returned home as all spaces had been occupied by hourly-parked vehicles. Therefore, the Member hoped Link could seriously explore solutions, and urged Link not to further increase rental, given that the current monthly rental of some car parks of Link was close to $2,000.

92. The CIHC Chairman pointed out that while a certain number of fixed parking spaces were provided in the car park of Leung King Commercial Complex, these fixed parking spaces, which were located on the first and second floors, were for goods vehicles rather than private cars.

93. Mr Simon TU of Link gave a consolidated response to Members’ comments and enquires as follows: (i) Except for the car park in San Wai, the general occupation rate of all car parks in Tuen Mun was just about 80%. Despite this, the management staff would not rent parking spaces to car owners for hourly parking at dusk, so it was very unlikely that no parking spaces were available for allocation to car owners renting monthly parking spaces; (ii) The measure of changing fixed monthly parking spaces to floating ones were currently implemented in only eight out of the 13 car parks in Tuen Mun; (iii) The current hourly and monthly rental of motorcycle parking spaces of Link was only $20 to $30 and $400 to $500 respectively; (iv) Due to rising operating costs (caused by the minimum wage policy in particular) and the expenditures on various improvement and renovation works, it was necessary for Link to adjust the rental in a limited manner. Among the existing 13 car parks of Link in Tuen Mun, the car park in San Wai was the only one charging monthly rental of nearly $2,000. The statistics below showed that the rental of Link’s car parks was still lower than that of other car parks in the same regions even after the rental increase came into effect:

Car Parks of Monthly Other Car Monthly Differenc Link Rental ($) Parks in Same Rental ($) e Region H.A.N.D.S Tuen Mun Town Nearly 1,200 – 1,300 About 2,100 (Yau Oi/ On Ting) Plaza Phase I 60%

Nearly Butterfly Plaza 1,230 – 1,370 Glorious Garden About 2,000 40% Sam Shing Nearly Commercial 1,370 – 1,490 Hanford Garden About 2,200 50%

Centre

(v) Link would listen to Members’ opinions with an open mind and endeavour to

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Action attend the relevant meetings if necessary.

94. The Chairman requested Link to consider the TMDC’s views on the arrangements for and the rental increase of monthly parking spaces in its car parks, and to send representatives to attend the meetings of the Working Group.

95. The CIHC Chairman requested again the representatives of Link to explain how Link would deal with the problem concerning its failure to allocate parking spaces to car owners renting monthly parking spaces.

96. The Chairman said he believed that Link controlled the usage of hourly parking spaces mainly based on the data of its digitalised system and through the coordinating arrangements of the staff of the car park management companies, so as to minimise the possibility that no spaces were available for car owners renting monthly parking spaces.

97. Mr Simon TU of Link responded that it was very unlikely that no parking spaces were available for allocation to car owners renting monthly parking spaces, because the car park of each housing estate had its own usage pattern, and the management staff who were familiar with the operation of the car park could know clearly about its usage in specific periods from the data of the system and would thus reserve a certain number of parking spaces for car owners paying monthly rental.

98. The CIHC Chairman pointed out that there had been a number of occasions last year on which disputes arose at the car park in Leung King Plaza due to the failure to allocate parking spaces to car owners renting monthly parking spaces and the Police were even called in for assistance. She therefore would like to take this opportunity to request the representatives of Link to refer the situation to the relevant contractors for improvement.

99. The Chairman thanked the representatives of Link for attending this meeting. He would like them to consider the TMDC’s views and pay serious attention to the issue.

(D) Strong and Repeated Request for Expeditious Construction of Tuen Mun Western Bypass (TMDC Paper No. 15/2016 and Written Response of the Highways Department) 100. The Chairman said that with respect to the above paper, the Secretariat had written to the Transport and Housing Bureau (“THB”), the TD and the Highways Department (“HyD”) inviting them to send relevant representatives to attend a TMDC meeting. After that, the Secretariat had received a consolidated written response from the THB and the HyD, which had been sent to all Members for reference before this meeting.

101. The first proposer of the paper said that the TMDC had discussed this issue for more than a decade. He noted that a representative of the HyD had promised in July 2015 that the latest proposal on the construction of the Tuen Mun Western Bypass (“TMWB”) could be submitted to the TMDC in early 2016, but no confirmed information was available thus far. He had recently learned that the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities Island of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge had “drifted”. He worried that in view of this, the Government would postpone the plan for the construction of the TMWB. He suggested the TMDC press the HyD to provide the schedule of the works and a non-standing working group be set up to follow up on this issue.

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Action 102. A Member indicated that the TMDC was not against the construction of the TMWB although it had raised objection to the Government’s proposal on the alignment of the TMWB. If the TMWB construction was not completed in time, there might be serious traffic congestion in Tuen Mun when the Tuen Mun - Chek Lap Kok Link came into operation. Therefore, the Government should work out the schedule for the construction of the TMWB as soon as possible and consult the TMDC on the latest alignment proposal.

103. A Member condemned the HyD for sending no representative to this meeting but merely giving a written response. In addition, she said that the alignment of the TMWB should not concentrate at the area of Tsing Tin Road and the HyD should consider facilitating vehicle flow by diversion. Separately, the Advisory Council on the Environment had recently set up an air quality monitoring station near Marina Garden in Tuen Mun in respect of a natural gas project of the CLP Power Hong Kong Limited. The samples taken showed that the air quality there was sub-standard. In view of this, she reckoned that the Government should no longer consider siting the entrances or exits of the TMWB on Tsing Tin Road near Marina Garden in Tuen Mun.

104. A Member concurred with the views of the above Members and was dissatisfied with the HyD’s failure to give an account of the work in the past year in its written response. Moreover, although the widening of Castle Peak Road and Tuen Mun Road had been completed, Tuen Mun Road would be congested whenever there were traffic accidents or vehicle breakdowns. The Member therefore opined that the Government should be mindful of measures for diverting vehicle flow. Furthermore, the terminus of the West Rail Line had been relocated from Tuen Mun Ferry Pier to Tuen Mun Town Centre due to problems in land resumption, and the Light Rail Transit and the bus route no. 506, which provided feeder service, would also add pressure to roads in Tuen Mun; therefore, the Government should pay more attention to the traffic. Besides, Route 10 Northern Section, though completed, did not cover the section between Lam Tei and So Kwun Wat and could thus hardly serve to divert traffic. In view of this, he urged the relevant government departments to promptly confirm the proposal on the TMWB, and agreed that the TMDC set up a non-standing working group for follow-ups, hoping that more effective connections to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor could be built.

105. A Member said he had originally intended to raise comments only after the Government put forward the latest proposal to the TMDC, but the Government had merely been conducting endless consultations and studies without finalising the proposal. After the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was commissioned in 2018, there would be traffic congestion as a large number of vehicles would come to Tuen Mun via an immersed tube tunnel. In view of this, he hoped the representatives of the TD, the PlanD and the CEDD present could give an account of the status of their work on the TMWB plan. He also hoped to express his views to the HyD, requesting it to finalise the alignment proposal as soon as possible and provide the schedule of the works.

106. The Vice-chairman indicated that the Under Secretary for Transport and Housing had attended the meetings of the LegCo and the TMDC for many times for matters concerning the TMWB, so he suggested the TMDC write to the Under Secretary expressing the latest opinions of Members.

107. A Member reckoned that all the relevant government departments had the responsibility to report to the TMDC on the latest status of the TMWB construction, but the HyD merely gave a written response to the TMDC’s requests and sent no representative to

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Action this meeting. Therefore, the Member suggested a letter be issued in the name of the TMDC to strongly reprimand the HyD.

108. The Chairman said that as the issue had been discussed for many times at the meetings of the full council and the Traffic and Transport Committee (“TTC”) of the TMDC of the previous two terms, he suggested passing the issue to the TTC for further follow-ups. Moreover, the HyD had indicated in its written response that it would put forward the TMWB alignment proposal as soon as possible. He suggested writing to the HyD expressing Members’ dissatisfaction with its failure to send representatives to this meeting and requesting it to provide the latest proposal on the TMWB alignment for Members at a TTC meeting. The TMDC agreed with the above suggestions.

(The letter was issued on 24 May 2016.)

VI. Reports from Government (A) Reports by Tuen Mun Area Committees (B) The 1st Report of Tuen Mun District Management Committee 2016 (TMDC Paper Nos. 16 and 17/2016) 109. Members perused the above two reports.

(C) Report by Tuen Mun Police District (TMDC Paper No. 18/2016) 110. Members perused the contents of the above paper.

111. Mr Rupert DOVER, District Commander (Tuen Mun) of the HKPF, gave Members a brief on the cumulative crime figures and the related information for January to March 2016: January to March 2016 (i) The overall number of reported crime cases was 725 in total, a decrease of 166 cases or over 18.6% on the same period in the previous year. The crime detection rate was 43.6%, slightly down 0.7% on the same period in the previous year; (ii) The overall number of violent crime cases was 105 in total, a decrease of 33 cases or over 23.9% on the same period in the previous year. The crime detection rate was 51.4%, down 5.9% on the same period in the previous year; (iii) Crimes recording decreases mainly involved miscellaneous theft (-17.3%), violent crimes (-23.9%), technology crimes (-23.4%), deception (-18%), wounding and serious assault (-19.4%), missing motor vehicles (-50%), theft from vehicles (-40%), burglary (-21.7%), indecent assault (-57.1%) and domestic violence crimes (-28.6%); and (iv) Crimes recording increases mainly involved triad-related crimes (+6 cases or 20.7%), debt collection-related crimes (+6 cases or 46.2%) and shoptheft (+4 cases or 2.2%).

112. He further said that while the overall crime situation in Tuen Mun saw a decline for January to March 2016, which was similar that for April to May, there was a slight increase in the number of burglary cases in Tuen Mun North near the Yuen Long boundary. In the first quarter of this year, the Anti-Triad Unit of the Police had launched an operation immediately after receiving triad-related intelligence, with 53 persons arrested successfully and the relevant weapons seized. Moreover, the Police had made very successful efforts in combating triad recruitment of juveniles. Reports on debt collection-related crimes in the

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Action first quarter of this year were mainly against money lending companies, and some of these crimes also involved cases relating to criminal damage, splashing of red paint and so forth. The Police had successfully arrested several related persons in an operation in early April. To further fight debt collection-related crimes, the Police had launched an operation called “Solomon Plan” which aimed at minimising the chance of the crimes. Meanwhile, the Police looked forward to closer contact with security guards in the district to give them correct information on crime prevention and exchange intelligence with them. Besides, the Police would make greater use of technological platforms to liaise with various stakeholders for access to more intelligence.

113. A Member said some members of the public had told him that the number of policemen patrolling on streets had recently decreased while the number of “bogus refugees” had increased of late. He therefore requested that if manpower resources permitted, the Police should deploy more policemen to the district for patrol, in order to prevent crimes and ease the public’s worries.

114. A Member concurred with the above views, opining that enhanced patrol by uniformed policemen could effectively prevent crimes. Besides, she asked the Police about the situation of “naked chats” deception cases and domestic violence in the district, and expressed concern over clashes involving South Asians.

115. A Member enquired of the Police about the percentage of crimes involving torture claimants in the overall crime figure.

116. A Member indicated that despite the declining trends shown in many crimes, the number of debt collection-related crimes had increased compared with the same period in the previous year. Moreover, she said that a person had claimed to have not only suffered from suspected abuse of address but received intimidation letters with debt collection contents. The person had told her that the Police had refused to handle the said matters. The Member hoped the Police would give explanation in this connection.

117. Noting that triad-related crimes had not only taken up a relatively large proportion in the overall crime figure but recorded a relatively significant increase, a Member hoped the Police would step up efforts to fight these crimes. Moreover, as the number of debt collection-related crimes was on a rising trend and the victims concerned had greater worries, the Member hoped the Police could take follow-up actions against these crimes. Besides, despite the decrease in the number of telephone deception cases, this type of crime might still happen from time to time. The Member requested the Police to continue strengthening publicity to remind the pubic to guard against the crime.

118. A Member pointed out that the public in the district were very concerned about crimes involving “bogus refugees”. She hoped the Police would step up patrol in the district. Besides, she had attended a briefing session held by the Police on 21 April this year and noted that South Asian women present at the session were courageous enough to share the problems they encountered in order to seek assistance. She suggested the Police organise more briefing sessions of this kind to let women know clearly about their rights and benefits and foster more harmonious families.

119. A Member said that while it was encouraging to see declines in various crime figures, he worried that this also implied a decline in the Police’s crime detection ability. In addition, she was concerned about the problem of illegal parking in Tuen Mun, saying that the problem had already caused disruption to normal traffic. Taking the transport

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Action interchange in Sam Shing as an example, she said that illegally-parked vehicles impaired the normal passenger pick-up/drop-off of buses at the interchange and the normal traffic flow on Castle Peak Road. In view of this, she urged the Police to dispatch more manpower to there to maintain order. Besides, as the area of the Harrow International School around Tsing Ying Road was heavily congested, she hoped the Police could dispatch more manpower to scene to facilitate the traffic flow there.

120. A Member said some members of the public had told him that police patrol was inadequate in the district, so he hoped the Police could strengthen patrol. Moreover, he requested the Police to pay more attention to crimes involving non-Chinese criminals, students and children, which were on a rising trend. Besides, some members of the public had recently found that a man often provided food for children on streets in Butterfly Estate. This matter might not involve any crimes but it had aroused concern among parents, so he would like the Police to follow it up.

121. A Member indicated that the International Social Service Hong Kong Branch had recently set up an office in Tuen Mun Central Square and provided humanitarian support services (including distribution of materials) for non-refoulement claimants in New Territories, attracting many South Asians to gather there. Sometimes there were a large number of people gathering, arousing concern among some local community members. She knew that the Police had earlier contacted the relevant persons for follow-ups. She praised the Police for putting the matter in perspective and suggested it interact more with non-Chinese people or organise talks for them, so as to facilitate integration and mutual understanding between Chinese and non-Chinese people. Besides, she attributed the serious problem of illegal parking in the district (e.g. the location of the traffic light on Tin King Road near Siu Lung Court) to the inadequacy of car parks. She hoped the Police could strike a balance between road safety and the problem of illegal parking and explore solutions.

122. A Member said that the Police had contacted him for the matter concerning the office set up by the International Social Service Hong Kong Branch in Tuen Mun Central Square, whereas the Social Welfare Department had neither conducted any consultation nor seek opinions from Members or other stakeholders on this matter. Moreover, while the International Social Service Hong Kong Branch had put in place various administrative measures to maintain order, each month there were as many as 3 000 to 4 000 persons going there to collect materials and ordinary members of the public could hardly identify the refugee status of those people. The Member therefore requested the Police to increase the frequency of patrol around there and pay close attention to the situation.

123. Mr Rupert DOVER, District Commander (Tuen Mun) of the HKPF, thanked Members for their comments and enquiries. He gave a consolidated response as follows: (a) While the number of policemen had not decreased over the past several years, the frequency of patrol might have decreased as some policemen had been re-deployed for other duties. In view of this, the Police would step up patrol in the district to make the public feel safer; (b) The Police had paid attention to and followed up on the traffic problems around the Harrow International School, striving to maintain smooth traffic flow during the morning and late afternoon hours every day; (c) The Police would make concentrated efforts to address the problem of illegal parking in the district, with priority given to tackling illegally-parked vehicles that posed potential risks to road safety; (d) In view of Members’ concern over the services of the International Social Service

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Action Hong Kong Branch, the Police had increased the frequency of patrol around there and would pay close attention to the situation. Besides, since the opening of the office of the International Social Service Hong Kong Branch in the district in February 2016, the Police had received six cases involving non-Chinese people gathering in the district, but nothing particular had been found after investigation. The Police had arrested three persons in the dispute taking place near the International Social Service Hong Kong Branch earlier, but the crimes they committed had nothing to do with Tuen Mun; (e) There had been 171 non-Chinese people arrested in Tuen Mun in 2015, an increase by 14 persons on 2014. The non-Chinese people arrested in New Territories mainly came from Yuen Long. “Bogus refugees” represented about 32.6% of the overall number of persons arrested in New Territories North, and about 60% of them were non-Chinese people holding valid Hong Kong Identity Cards; (f) From January to March 2016, the Police had received a total of 14 “naked chat” cases. The figure represented a decrease of four cases compared with the same period in 2015 and showed on a downward trend. Despite this, the Police would continue to remind the pubic to guard against this type of crime; (g) The crime detection rate of the Police had been relatively stable despite the recent decreases in the crime figures of the district; (h) Cases relating to debt collection-related crimes had indeed increased. The Police would not refuse to handle any cases of request for assistance by persons under threat and would make its best endeavour to help the victims and follow up on the cases; (i) The Police would not make light of the matter concerning a man often providing food for children on streets in Butterfly Estate. It had not only taken the initiative to contact the relevant schools for follow-ups but, moreover, taken relevant crime prevention measures; and (j) Telephone deception cases might still happen from time to time and swindlers might even keep changing their tricks. Therefore, the Police would continue to step up the related publicity.

124. A Member said that there had been in total of 171 cases involving non-Chinese people in 2015, among which some 50 to 60 cases involved claimants. But given that there were currently about 3 600 cases of non-refoulement claims in New Territories, the Member hoped the Police could provide further information about the proportion therein.

125. Mr Rupert DOVER, District Commander (Tuen Mun) of the HKPF, responded that from January to February 2016, there had been a total of 129 crime cases in New Territories North Police District involving the arrest of non-Chinese people, and some 60% of these arrested persons were holders of valid Hong Kong Identity Cards while the other were refugees or illegal immigrants. Crimes involving non-Chinese people had accounted for about 14.8% of the overall crime figure for February 2016, among which only some 12.9% of the cases had happened in New Territories North. Therefore, he considered the situation was not serious in general.

126. The Chairman thanked Mr Rupert DOVER for his responses and would like him to consider the views of the TMDC.

(D) Signature Project Scheme of Tuen Mun District 127. DO(TM) reported that the two proposals on the Signature Project Scheme of Tuen Mun had been endorsed by the Public Works Subcommittee of the LegCo on 20 April 2016,

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Action and would further be submitted to the Finance Committee of the LegCo for consideration and approval of funding application. The date of the meeting concerned was to be confirmed. Any further information would be reported to the TMDC.

128. Members had no comments or questions on the above matter. The Chairman thanked DO(TM) for her report.

VII. Reports by TMDC Representatives 129. The TMDC representatives had nothing to report.

VIII. Members’ Enquiries to Government Departments 130. As Members had nothing particular to ask the representatives of the major government departments, the representatives left the meeting.

IX. In-house Matters (A) Members Joining or Resigning from Committees and Working Groups under TMDC 131. The Secretary reported that a number of Members had joined the working groups under the TMDC in the past two months. The details were as follows:

Date Working Group Working Group Working Group Working Group on Development on Tuen Mun on Community on Castle Peak and Planning of Major Activities Crisis Bay Tuen Mun Management District 2.3.2016 Ms CHING Ms CHING Ms CHING - Chi-hung Chi-hung Chi-hung Ms Beatrice CHU 18.3.2016 Mr NG Koon-hung - - - 1.4.2016 Mr LAM - - Mr LAM Chung-hoi Chung-hoi Ms Beatrice CHU 11.4.2016 Ms Catherine - - - WONG 12.4.2016 Mr KWU - - Mr YIP Man-pan Hon-keung Mr TO Sheck-yuen Ms HO Hang-mui Mr YIP Man-pan Mr YEUNG Chi-hang Mr TAM Chun-yin 14.4.2016 Ms LUNG - - -

Shui-hing

(B) Position of TMDC Funds as at 20 April 2016 (TMDC Paper No. A23/2016) 132. Members perused the contents of the above paper. 30

Action

(C) Outstanding Payments for Projects Approved in 2015-2016 Financial Year (TMDC Paper No. A24/2016) 133. Members perused the contents of the above paper.

134. The Chairman said that the outstanding payments for the projects approved in the 2015-2016 financial year would be deferred to the 2016-2017 financial year, and the applications for the funding concerned had been endorsed by the Finance, Administration and Publicity Committee (“FAPC”) at its meeting on 22 April 2016. The applications for funding of more than $100,000 were set out in this paper for endorsement by the TMDC.

135. There being no further comments, the Chairman declared that the applications for TMDC Funds set out in Paper No. A24/2016 were endorsed.

(D) Draft Budget of TMDC Funds for 2016-2017 Financial Year (TMDC Paper No. A25/2016) 136. Members perused the contents of the above paper.

137. The Chairman said that the first draft of the budget for the 2016-2017 financial year was set out in the paper. The HAD had announced that the approved allocation to the TMDC in the 2016-2017 financial year was $24,400,000. The Secretariat had consulted the FAPC on the budget and included its views in the draft. Moreover, the amount of funding available for general organisations to apply for in the last-round application in each financial year had been too low for them to organise activities; therefore, starting from the current financial year, the total funding in the first two rounds of applications would be capped at $3 million and a sum of $1 million would be reserved for the last round. Besides, at its meeting on 14 April 2016, the Working Group on Development and Planning of Tuen Mun District had not yet decided the matter concerning an allocation of $500,000 for a study on the development of the old area of Tuen Mun and had to defer it to the next meeting for follow-ups. Therefore, no provision was made for the allocation concerned in the budget at the moment. However, even if the working group later resolved to reserve the funding for the activity, which would cause a rise in the estimated allocation, the amount of over-committee would not exceed the cap set by the HAD. Therefore, by then the TMDC might still consider allocating funding to the working group for the study.

138. A Member enquired about the total amount of funding allocated to general district organisations in the first-round application for TMDC Funds (April to July 2016).

139. The Secretary responded that a total of $1.68 million had been allocated to general district organisations in the first-round application of TMDC Funds, so a maximum of $1.32 million could be allocated to general district organisations in the second-round application.

140. There being no further comments, the Chairman declared that the draft of the budget for the 2016-2017 financial year set out in Paper No. A25/2016 was endorsed.

(E) Applications for TMDC Funds (TMDC Paper No. A26/2016) 141. Members perused the contents of the above paper.

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Action 142. The Chairman said that to avoid conflicts of interests, any Member who found himself involved in any application during the discussion on applications for TMDC Funds should refrain from speaking, and any Member who wished to speak or vote on a funding application in which he was involved should make a request to the Chairman beforehand.

143. The Chairman further said that the application for TMDC Funds set out in Paper No. A26/2016 was recommended by the FAPC. As the funds applied for exceeded $100,000, the application was submitted to the TMDC for endorsement.

144. There being no further comments, the Chairman declared that the application for TMDC Funds set out in Paper No. A26/2016 was endorsed.

(F) Reports by Committees (TMDC Paper Nos. A27/2016 to A32/2016) 145. Members perused the above six reports.

146. There being no further comments, the Chairman declared that the TMDC endorsed the contents of the above six reports.

(G) Reports by Working Groups (TMDC Paper Nos. A33/2016 to A36/2016) 147. Members perused the above four reports.

148. The Chairman said that paragraph 3 of Paper No. A35, the report of the Working Group on Community Crisis Management, specified the operation mode and meeting arrangements of the working group. As the working group might have to call urgent meetings at any time, it had resolved to allow flexibility in its meeting arrangements, which included exempting from the requirement of three clear working days’ advanced notice of meeting. The TMDC agreed with the above arrangements.

149. There being no further comments, the Chairman declared that the TMDC endorsed the contents of the above four reports.

X. Any Other Business (A) Buildings Department’s Written Invitation for TMDC to Nominate Representative for Consideration for Appointment to Disciplinary Boards Appointed under Sections 5(3A) and 11(4A) of Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123) 150. The Chairman said that in 2013, upon invitation by the Buildings Department (“BD”), the TMDC had nominated a Member for the BD to consider appointment to the disciplinary boards appointed under the Buildings Ordinance for 2014 to 2016. The nominee at that time was Mr LUNG Kang-san, a then Member of the TMDC. After that, the BD accepted Mr LUNG Kang-san being put on the candidate lists of “lay members” for the Authorized Persons’, Registered Structural Engineers’ and Registered Geotechnical Engineers’ Disciplinary Board, the Registered Contractors’ Disciplinary Board and the Registered Inspectors’ Disciplinary Board in his personal capacity. As the term of office of members of the current disciplinary boards would expire soon, the BD hoped the TMDC would nominate a Member to serve on the above disciplinary boards of the new term from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2018.

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Action 151. The Vice-chairman nominated Mr Leo CHAN, the Vice-chairman of the CIHC, as the representative and said that Mr Leo CHAN had earlier accepted the nomination.

152. As there were no other nominations, the Chairman announced that the TMDC agreed to nominate Mr Leo CHAN to be a candidate on the lists of “lay members” for the Authorized Persons’, Registered Structural Engineers’ and Registered Geotechnical Engineers’ Disciplinary Board, the Registered Contractors’ Disciplinary Board and the Registered Inspectors’ Disciplinary Board in his personal capacity. The Chairman asked the Secretariat to notify the BD about the TMDC’s nomination for its follow-ups.

(B) Nomination of TMDC Representative to New Selection Panel under Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme and Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme 153. The Chairman indicated that in 2012, upon the invitation of the BD, the TMDC had nominated a Member as the TMDC’s representative to the Selection Panel under the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme and the Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme to assist in selecting target buildings from private buildings. The then nominated Member was Ms CHING Chi-hung. As the term of office of the members of the current Selection Panel would expire soon, the BD hoped the TMDC would nominate a Member to serve on the panel for the new term from 1 May 2016 to 30 April 2019.

154. Mr CHAN Man-wah nominated Ms CHING Chi-hung as the representative. Ms CHING Chi-hung accepted the nomination.

155. As there were no other nominations, the Chairman announced that the TMDC agreed to nominate Ms CHING Chi-hung to the Selection Panel under the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme and the Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme to assist in selecting target buildings from private buildings. The Chairman also asked the Secretariat to notify the BD about the TMDC’s nomination for its follow-ups.

156. The Chairman further said that he had earlier received a letter from the THB for inviting the TMDC to nominate a Member as its representative to a panel having the same name as the said panel under the BD to assist in selecting target buildings from the former Hong Kong Housing Authority properties governed by the Buildings Ordinance (including buildings in HOS courts, Tenant Purchase Scheme estates and public rental housing estates) for the term from 1 June 2016 until the formation of the next TMDC.

157. Mr KAM Man-fung nominated Mr SO Shiu-shing as the representative. Mr SO Shiu-shing accepted the nomination.

158. As there were no other nominations, the Chairman announced that the TMDC endorsed the nomination of Mr SO Shiu-shing to the Selection Panel under the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme and the Mandatory Window Inspection Scheme. He also asked the Secretariat to notify the THB about the TMDC’s nomination for its follow-ups.

(C) The 7th “Quit to Win” Smoke-free Community Campaign 159. The Chairman said that the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health (“COSH”) organised the 7th “Quit to Win” Smoke-free Community Campaign to spread smoke-free messages in the community and promote the benefits of smoking cessation to more smokers, with a view creating a smoke-free atmosphere in the community. The COSH hoped the

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Action TMDC would: (i) continue to be a supporting organisation of the campaign and allow the COSH to display the TMDC’s logo on the promotional materials of the activities under the campaign; (ii) assist in inviting suitable partner organisations in the district; and (iii) assist in promoting the campaign to residents and hiring venues. The TMDC had supported the above campaign in the previous year and passed the matter to the SSC for follow-ups.

160. As Members expressed support for the campaign and the above arrangements, the Chairman announced that the TMDC agreed to support the campaign and accepted the above three requests by the COSH. Besides, following the arrangements in the previous year, the TMDC agreed to pass the matter to the SSC for follow-ups. The Chairman asked the Secretariat to notify the COSH about the TMDC’s decision for its follow-ups.

161. There being no other business, the Chairman closed the meeting at 2:09 p.m. The next meeting would be held on 5 July 2016 (Tuesday).

Tuen Mun District Council Secretariat Date: 25 May 2016 File Ref: HAD TMDC/13/25/DC/16

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