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The Government has proposed a capital injection of $3 billion into the Beat Drugs Fund for the new financial year, demonstrating its resolve to take the lead in mobilising the community to fight drugs, the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, said today (March 24) at the Special Meeting of the Legislative Council Finance Committee.
He said the Government would seek the views of the Action Committee Against Narcotics and the stakeholders in the anti-drug sector on details of the proposed injection before consulting the LegCo Panel on Security in April. It will also follow the established procedures to seek funding approval from the LegCo Finance Committee.
In the draft Estimates for the new financial year (2010-11), the allocation on the security policy area group is $34.4 billion, representing 10.8% of the total Government expenditure. The two policy areas of Internal Security and Immigration Control will account for $30.5 billion.
Mr Lee said, "In recent years, the Government has already stepped up fire safety inspections of licensed premises and taken action against operators who contravene the relevant regulations. Fire Services Department (FSD) will continue to adopt a four-pronged approach for enhancing the fire safety of old buildings through publicity, law enforcement, checking and partnership with owners / occupiers and property management of buildings."
He said that after the No.4 Alarm Fire in the industrial building in Cheung Sha Wan, FSD had decided to conduct a survey of all industrial buildings in order to assess their current fire safety conditions and examine whether it was necessary to introduce improvement measures. During the survey, FSD will take fire hazard abatement action on the industrial buildings being surveyed. In addition, in the new financial year, FSD will create 10 additional posts to enhance live-fire and rescue training for frontline fire fighters.
All along, the Security Bureau supports FSD to renew their equipment in order to protect the safety of frontline firemen. In the past few years, the Government has allocated funding to FSD in a timely manner for the procurement of equipment. For instance, a total of $45 million was earmarked in 2008-09 and 2009-10 for FSD to procure new breathing apparatuses; in 2009-10, $170 million was allocated for the replacement of the radio communication system; and $89 million was recommended to be earmarked in 2010-11 for the procurement of fire tunic and overtrousers that offer greater protection. In addition, over $290 million has been earmarked in 2009-10 and 2010-11 for the procurement of fire appliances and equipment.
In respect of the emergency ambulance services, Mr Lee pointed out that FSD would create 44 additional ambulance officers and ambulancemen posts, so as to strengthen the management functions of ambulance services and increase ambulance shifts. Furthermore, the Government will step up publicity efforts to encourage more judicious use of ambulance services.
He said: "In order to further enhance ambulance services, we propose to implement a Medical Priority Dispatch System in Hong Kong to prioritise emergency ambulance calls in accordance with the degree of urgency, so as to provide quicker response to patients in critical or life-threatening conditions. We are examining the comments collected and plan to report the outcome of the consultation and the proposed way forward to the Panel on Security of the Legislative Council in April this year."
In 2009, the overall crime figure and the violent crime figure registered a decrease of 1.1% and 1.6% respectively as compared with 2008. Most categories of crimes - such as robberies, burglaries, wounding and serious assault as well as indecent assault - also decreased in number. Overall speaking, the law and order situation of Hong Kong has remained stable. The Police will as always remain alert to maintain the law and order of the society.
The major operational targets of the Commissioner of Police for 2010 include combating violent crimes, triad activities, "quick-cash" crimes, terrorism, trafficking and abuse of drugs, offences related to visitors and illegal immigrants, and road safety.
In addition, an enhanced torture claim screening mechanism has been implemented since December 2009. The Government now provides a subvention to the Duty Lawyer Service, for the latter to provide publicly-funded legal assistance to needy claimants. The Government has also appointed adjudicators with legal professional background, to rule on petitions against screening decisions independently. The Government will continue to devote efforts to the fair and effective screening of torture claims. In the coming year, additional manpower will be deployed in the handling of claims. The Government will also put forth this year the draft legislation for a statutory screening mechanism to be set up.
Mr Lee said that to combat illegal employment, the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 2009 was passed by the Legislative Council in November last year. Stringent enforcement actions to combat illegal employment will continue, to reduce the economic incentives for illegal immigrants and overstayers to prolong their presence in Hong Kong. The Government noted that since the legislation took effect in mid November, the number of torture claims received by the Immigration Department has declined, while the number of withdrawal and voluntary repatriation cases has gone up.
He said the Government would continue to provide assistance to Hong Kong residents in distress outside Hong Kong. The Immigration Department will gradually enhance the "1868" hotline services in this year, such as increasing the capacity of the hotline and adding automatic call distribution function.
As regards the Outbound Travel Alert System, the Government will take into account operational experience to exchange views with relevant trades and conduct review from time to time, with a view to enhancing the system.
Ends/Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Issued at HKT 16:50
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