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Following is a question by the Hon Tommy Cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (January 10):
Question:
Will the Government:
(a) inform this Council whether it has studied the trend of changes in size among local restaurants; if so, of the results of the study; if not, whether the authorities will conduct such a study to assess how Hong Kong's economic conditions have affected the development of restaurants; and
(b) set out in Annex 1 the respective numbers of licensed general restaurants in various size groups and their percentages in the total number of such restaurants in 2004-2005 and 2005-2006?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) As the licensing authority for food premises, the main responsibility of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department is to draw up regulatory measures to ensure the hygiene and safety of food premises. In respect of trade facilitation, the department has also launched measures to facilitate the trade. For instance, it has streamlined food business licensing regime and enhanced the efficiency in issuing licenses. As regards the operation and scale of food businesses, they should be determined by operators having regard to their business needs and development. The Government has no plan to study the change in the sizes of food premises at present or in future.
(b) As at January 2, 2007, there were 7 943 restaurants holding valid general restaurant licences (including full and provisional licences). A breakdown of these premises by size groups is provided in Annex 2.
As we have not collected data on the breakdown of the licensed restaurants by size group before, the relevant figures for 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 are not available. Insofar as licensed general restaurants are concerned, the total numbers for 2004, 2005 and 2006 are 7 949, 8 020 and 7 976 respectively.
Ends/Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:18
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