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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 18):
Question:
Since the end of June 2003, the fixed penalty for public cleanliness offences has been raised to $1,500, and with effect from January 1, 2007, the coverage of statutory no smoking areas is expanded, and smoking offenders are liable to a maximum fine of $5,000 upon conviction. It has been learnt that, since the implementation of the relevant legislation, many members of the public who committed the above offences had been detained for not being able to pay the fines, causing tremendous disturbances to their state of mind and daily life. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) in each month since the implementation of the relevant ordinances, of the respective numbers of cases in which fixed penalty notices were issued to persons for littering and summons were issued to persons for smoking in statutory no smoking areas, together with a breakdown of illegal smoking cases by the penalty imposed;
(b) among the cases referred to in (a), of the number of those in which the offenders concerned were unable to pay the fines; and
(c) whether the Government will consider amending the relevant legislation to replace the above fines with community service orders, so as to avoid detention of low-income people because they are unable to pay the fines; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
My reply to the question raised by Hon Albert Chan is as follows:
(a) and (b) Since the end of June 2003 when the fixed penalty for public cleanliness offences has been raised to $1,500 till end of March this year, the number of fixed penalty tickets issued in relation to littering by the seven government departments as well as the number of cases therein in which the fixed penalty has not been paid leading to the issuance of summonses or court orders are listed as shown in Annex 1.
On the other hand, since January 1, 2007, the number of summonses issued by the Tobacco Control Office (TCO) of the Department of Health and the Police Force is listed at Annex 2, on a monthly basis.
The penalty for the 6,635 cases of smoking offence imposed by the court is shown in Annex 3.
As at June 12, 2008, there were 226 cases left unsettled with due date expired.
(c) Legally speaking, community service order is a more serious penalty than penalty. According to section 4 of the Community Service Orders Ordinance (Cap. 378), "where a person of or over 14 years of age is convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment, the court which sentences him for that offence may make an order requiring him to perform, during the life of the order, unpaid work in accordance with this Ordinance".
At present, smoking offence itself is not one that is punishable with imprisonment. There is no provision in existing law which allows offences that are not punishable with imprisonment to have community service orders as the alternative penalty.
Separately, if an offender wishes to dispute the issue of a fixed penalty notice on littering, he/she can ask the concerned enforcement department to arrange a hearing of the case by the Court. If the offender is convicted by the Court, the Court would impose the sentence it deems most appropriate, including the level of fine and/or imprisonment terms or a Community Service Order, on the offender. Should the offender have financial difficulties in paying the fine, he/she might appeal to the Court for a lower fine. Under the Fixed Penalty (Smoking Offences) Bill which is being scrutinised by the Legislative Council, the same arrangement is being proposed by the Government for smoking offences.
In fact, members of the public need not worry about the penalty amount if they comply with the public cleanliness law and do not smoke in no-smoking areas. Also, we cannot presume that the reason for people not to pay the penalty was all because of financial problems. We would continue to help members of the public comply with relevant requirements through education and publicity so as to save financial burden arising from paying penalties.
Ends/Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Issued at HKT 13:03
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