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Housing (Amendment) Bill 2002 to be introduced into
the Legislative Council 2.
LCQ 20: Land demand for primary and secondary school
premises 3.
Building plans approved in September 4.
'Significant' staff cuts in housing shuffle
1. Housing (Amendment) Bill 2002 to be introduced into the Legislative Council
Hong Kong
Government, 20 November 2002 To
implement a recommendation of the Report of the Committee on the Review of the
Institutional Framework for Public Housing (RIFPH), the Government will introduce
into the Legislative Council the Housing (Amendment) Bill 2002 early next month.
The RIFPH Report recommends that the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands
(SHPL) should be appointed Chairman of the Housing Authority (CHA). Under
the Housing Ordinance, only non-official members of the Housing Authority (HA)
are eligible for appointment by the Chief Executive (CE) as CHA. To
take forward this recommendation, the Government seeks to amend the Housing Ordinance
such that the CE may appoint either an official or a non-official HA member to
become CHA, said a spokesman for the Housing, Planning and Lands Bureau. Meanwhile,
consequential legislative amendments will also be proposed to transfer the power
of appointment of appeal panel (AP) members from SHPL to the CE in order to maintain
the independence and objectivity of the appeal process. "If
SHPL is appointed CHA, he should not have the power to review decisions of the
HA of which he is the Chairman, otherwise it will undermine the independence of
the appeal process," the spokesman said. "We
therefore propose to transfer the power of appointment of appeal panel members
from SHPL to the CE, and to transfer the power to make rules regulating the appeal
process to the Chief Executive in Council," the spokesman said. The
Housing (Amendment) Bill 2002 will be gazetted on Friday (November 22) and will
be introduced into LegCo on December 4.
2. LCQ 20: Land demand for primary and secondary school premises
Hong
Kong Government, 20 November 2002 Following
is a question by the Hon Cheung Man-kwong and a written reply by the Secretary
for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, in the Legislative Council
today (November 20): Question:
Will
the Government inform this Council : (a)
a breakdown, by school districts, of the location and size of the sites reserved
for constructing primary and secondary schools in the current year and the next
two years, the number and type of schools to be constructed, and the projected
year of completion; (b)
as only 33 school premises are left for the conversion of bi-sessional primary
schools into whole-day schools, which fall short of the school premises required
to meet the need to convert all bi-sessional primary schools into whole-day schools
before the 2007 / 2008 school year, whether the Government will allocate more
land for constructing schools; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons
for that; and (c)
of the criteria for reserving school sites, whether a limit has been set on the
amount of land to be allocated each year for the construction of schools and whether
modifications will be made to the use of reserved school sites; if so, of the
details? Reply:
Madam
President, (a) Detailed breakdown, by school districts, of the location and size
of the sites reserved for constructing primary and secondary schools (including
special schools) in the current year and the next two years, the number and type
of schools to be constructed, and the projected year of completion is provided
at Annex.
(b)
According to the latest population projection, the population of primary pupils
in Hong Kong will continue to decrease from the present to 2007. The 33 school
premises to be allocated would be adequate for meeting the overall demand for
school places for full implementation of whole-day primary schooling by 2007.
For those bi-sessional schools which are still not allocated with school premises
owing to district and population factors, the Education Department will continue
to assist them to turn whole-day through other different measures (such as merging
of the AM and PM sessions, use of suitable vacant premises or building of additional
classrooms for the schools). We will adopt a flexible and pragmatic approach in
making arrangements for conversion of bi-sessional primary schools, with a view
to achieving the target of quality whole-day primary education. (c)
Under the present mechanism, the Education Department makes projections on the
supply and demand of different types of school places having regard to the forecast
growth and movement of population provided by relevant Government departments
(including the Census and Statistics Department, Planning Department and Housing
Department), relevant provisions in the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines,
and prevailing education policies. The supply and demand of school places in secondary
schools and special schools are assessed and planned on a territory-wide basis.
We will make suitable adjustments in reserving sites for construction of schools
for districts with persistent shortfall or surplus of school places. The supply
and demand of primary school places are assessed and planned on a district basis.
This is to, as far as possible, obviate the need for primary students to travel
long distances to attend schools. On
the above basis, the Education Department reserves sites for constructing schools
following the principle of demand. There is no pre-set quota. If
a site reserved for education purpose is eventually not required for school construction
(for example, the provision of additional school places is confirmed to be unnecessary
for meeting demand in the district concerned according to latest projections or
for implementing an education policy) or, during the investigation stage, a site
reserved for education purpose is assessed to be technically non-feasible (for
example, the site is found unsuitable for constructing school owing to geological
problems), we will return the site to the Planning Department for re-planning
purpose.
3. Building plans approved in September
Hong Kong Government, 20 November 2002 The
Buildings Department approved 28 building plans in September -- eight on Hong
Kong Island, eight in Kowloon and 12 in the New Territories. The
approved plans covered seven for apartment and apartment/commercial developments,
two for commercial development, nine for factory and industrial developments and
10 for community services developments. In
the same month, consent was given for works to start on 20 building projects,
which will provide on completion 119,272 square metres of usable domestic floor
area and 62,075 square metres of usable non-domestic floor area. The
department also issued 11 occupation permits -- two on Hong Kong Island, five
in Kowloon and four in the New Territories. Of
the buildings certified for occupation, the usable floor areas for domestic and
non-domestic uses were 223,814 square metres and 23,618 square metres respectively.
The
declared cost of the new buildings completed in September totalled about $4.196
billion. In
addition, nine demolition consents involving nine building structures were issued.
The
department received 2,235 complaints against unauthorised building works in September,
and issued 2,826 removal orders on unauthorised works.
4. 'Significant' staff cuts in housing shuffle
Michael Ng, The Standard 21 November 2002 Government
housing chief Leung Chin-man promises ``significant'' gains from the streamlining
of the Housing Bureau and Housing Authority. Leung,
the Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Housing), told the Legislative
Council's Establishment Subcommittee yesterday that he was set to reduce the department's
staff of directorate-level officers from the current 73. ``I
thought the number of directorate-level officers has been too high; there should
be space for us to take further streamlining action,'' Leung said. ``The
scale of staff reduction will be significant.'' He
said a related study had been delayed by the announcement last Wednesday of Secretary
for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen's nine-point plan on housing policies.
So Leung said he could not evaluate the exact number of directorate-level officers
to be laid off at this time. Apart from those high-ranking officers, he said the
review would also apply to medium or low-ranking staff. However,
there would be no lay-offs and numbers would be reduced through voluntary redundancies
and natural attrition. Leung
said the bureau would submit an interim report to the legislature in six months,
providing details on the number of directorate-level and medium-level officers
to be cut in the future. Five
directorate-level posts are set be eliminated in the reorganisation of the former
Housing Bureau and Housing Department, which comes into effect on January 1. Nevertheless,
as suspension of the building of Home Ownership Scheme flats will lower the workloads
of Housing Department staff, Leung said the bureau would look at reshuffling staff. ``We
will also study the feasibility of renovating public housing flats, instead of
redeveloping these flats, in order to reduce the resources of the government,''
he added.
The Establishment Subcommittee approved the creation of a two-year posting for
an administration officer Grade C in the Chief Secretary for Administration Office.
The
officer will be responsible for co-ordinating implementation of the HK$6.5 billion
Central Government Complex at the Tamar site. | 
