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Fishermen Claims Appeal Board appointed
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     The Government today (September 5) announced the setting up of a differently constituted Fishermen Claims Appeal Board (FCAB) for processing appeal cases regarding ex-gratia allowance (EGA) by fishermen who claim to have been affected by marine works projects around Lamma Island waters.

     The FCAB comprises one non-official Chairman and four non-official members. Mr Andrew Mak Yip-shing has been appointed as the Chairman of the FCAB. The non-official members are Mr Vincent To Wai-keung, Professor Joseph Lai Ki-leuk, Mr James Kong Tze-wing and Ms Katherine Cheung Marn-kay. These appointments have taken effect and will last until work on the aforementioned appeal cases has been completed.

     EGA may be granted to eligible fishermen as a result of the loss of their habitual fishing grounds arising from marine works projects. An Inter-departmental Working Group (IWG) within the Government will usually be set up in that connection to consider and decide on the amount of EGA to be granted to affected fishermen. An FCAB, which is a non-statutory body, will also be formed on an ad hoc basis to consider any appeals to be made by fishermen in respect of an IWG's decisions.

     For the EGA disbursement exercise relating to Lamma Island waters projects, an FCAB was appointed in November 2010 and completed its work in August 2011. The FCAB's decision to reject Cheung Chau as an eligible home port was challenged by the appellant fishermen by way of judicial review in which the Court ordered in May 2012 that a differently constituted FCAB be formed to reconsider the appeal cases concerned.

     The terms of reference of this FCAB are:

* To see that the criteria established by the IWG for processing and/or vetting fishermen's claims for EGA comply with government policy, and are fair and reasonable (in the public law sense) to the eligible fishermen in general.

* To see that the IWG's decisions on the eligibility for, and the amount of EGA granted, comply with the government policy and are fair and reasonable (in the public law sense) to the fishermen claiming for EGA.

* To examine any new or additional information/evidence provided by the appellants (or their representatives) who have lodged an appeal against the IWG's decisions or the relevant departments, and to consider the relevance of and the weight to be given to such information/evidence.

* To consider whether to uphold the IWG's decisions on the appellants' cases or to revise the decisions, and to determine the amount of EGA payable to the appellants, as appropriate.

     The above terms of reference allow this FCAB latitude to consider the subject appeals afresh.

     The secretariat of the FCAB is located at the office of the Lands Department (Acquisition Section), 19/F, North Point Government Offices, 333 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong.

Ends/Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:00

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