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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (December 13):
Question:
Regarding the management of Fu Shan Crematorium and Kwai Chung Crematorium under the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) given that FEHD plans to transfer in January next year the management, including such duties as receiving coffins, handling ashes and cleaning the premises, of the aforesaid crematoria to the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD), which is currently responsible for the operation and maintenance of cremators, whether EMSD will reconsider taking over the FEHD staff who are familiar with the above work and giving up the plan to outsource such duties; if it will not consider, of the reasons for that;
(b) given that FEHD staff pointed out recently that the new-type cremators acquired by EMSD may have the ashes of different dead bodies mixed together, and the authorities concerned have yet to propose any solution to this problem, whether the Government has assessed if the public have confidence in EMSD's ability, upon taking over the full duties of cremation, to effectively monitor the compliance with the relevant codes of practice by the contractors of the outsourced services, prevent bribery and avoid dead bodies being swapped or ashes being mixed together; and
(c) given that FEHD staff have alleged that Fu Shan Crematorium do not have sufficient fire escapes, of the date on which FEHD learnt of this and why it has not yet solved the problem; what remedial measures FEHD have and whether it will implement such measures before transferring the management of the Crematorium to EMSD?
Reply
Madam President,
(a) Subsequent to taking up the additional services at Fu Shan Crematorium and Kwai Chung Crematorium by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), the FEHD staff of the crematoria concerned will be re-deployed to other crematoria or venues. As such, there is no requirement for EMSD to retain any of these FEHD's staff. EMSD will arrange its technicians to take up the technical work of the two crematoria and will not outsource these works. The department has started to recruit technicians and some of them have reported duty at the concerned crematoria. EMSD will only outsource non-technical duties of the crematoria, such as cleansing of venues.
(b) The new cremators in Kwai Chung and Fu Shan Crematorium are designed with three chambers. Transferring of dead body or skeleton from one chamber to another is controlled by computer and monitored by staff specially assigned for the operation. After the transfer of dead body or skeleton from a chamber to a lower chamber, staff will ensure that there is no skeleton left in that chamber before handling a new dead body or skeleton. Mixing of skeleton therefore will not occur. Since EMSD will arrange adequate manning to carry out the additional services, it is not required to outsource any of the services and there is no question of monitoring contractor in handling the dead body or remains.
(c) FEHD learnt of the staff's allegation that Fu Shan Crematorium did not have sufficient fire escapes at the meeting with staff union on October 26, 2006. In point of fact, when Fu Shan Crematorium started operation upon completion of reprovisioning works in 2004, it had already been checked and found complied with the requirements stipulated by the relevant fire services and buildings ordinances, including the provision of sufficient means of fire escapes. To ensure the work safety of its staff, EMSD recently arranged safety officers to Fu Shan Crematorium to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment on the work that it would take over. The assessment results confirm that the existing fire escapes of the crematorium are in compliance with the safety standards.
Thank you Madam President.
Ends/Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:03
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