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The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:
The agenda of the Legislative Council (LegCo) meeting, scheduled for tomorrow (May 22) at 11am in the Chamber of the LegCo Complex, has been revised. During the meeting, Members will resume Second Reading debates on the Pilotage (Amendment) Bill 2013 and the District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2013. If these Bills are supported by Members and receive their Second Readings, they will go to the Committee Stages and be read the third time.
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On Member's Bill, the Professional Accountants (Amendment) Bill 2013 will be introduced into the Council for First and Second Readings. Second Reading debate on the bill will be adjourned.
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Meanwhile, the Secretary for Food and Health will move a proposed resolution under the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance to seek the Council's approval to the Pharmacy and Poisons (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulation 2013 and the Poisons List (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulation 2013, made by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board on March 28, 2013.
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The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury will move a proposed resolution under the Loans Ordinance to resolve that: (a) the Government be authorised to borrow from any person from time to time for the purposes of the Bond Fund established by a resolution made and passed under section 29 of the Public Finance Ordinance (Cap. 2) such sums not exceeding in total $200 billion or equivalent, being the maximum amount of all borrowings made under this paragraph that may be outstanding by way of principal at any time; (b) sums borrowed under paragraph (a) are to be credited to the Bond Fund; and (c) this Resolution is to replace the Resolution made and passed by this Council on July 8, 2009 and published in the Gazette as Legal Notice No. 169 of 2009.
The Secretary for Food and Health will move a proposed resolution under the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance to approve the Pharmacy and Poisons (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulation 2013 and the Poisons List (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulation 2013, made by the Pharmacy and Poisons Board on April 22, 2013.
On Members' Motions, Members will debate a motion on democratic procedures for the election of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage in 2017. The motion, to be moved by Mr Alan Leong, states: "That Qiao Xiaoyang, Chairman of the Law Committee under the National People's Congress, made a speech on March 24 this year, indicating that regarding the election of the Chief Executive of the HKSAR by universal suffrage, 'the issue that requires a consensus is essentially about the democratic procedures for nomination'; in this connection, this Council urges the SAR Government to ensure that, irrespective of how various sectors interpret the so-called 'democratic procedures for nomination', when formulating the proposals on the election of the Chief Executive in 2017, the rights to make nomination, to stand for election and to vote are universal and equal, without any 'screening' or 'pre-selection' through a nominating committee."
Mr Ip Kwok-him, Mr Wong Yuk-man, Mr Michael Tien and Ms Cyd Ho will move separate amendments to Mr Alan Leong's motion; while Mr Lee Cheuk-yan will move an amendment to Mr Ip Kwok-him's amendment.
Members will also debate a motion on Drug Formulary and drugs subsidy system. The motion, to be moved by Ms Alice Mak, states: "That the Hospital Authority (HA) has implemented the Drug Formulary (the Formulary) system since July 2005 to standardise its policies on procurement and use of drugs; at present, HA's annual drugs expenditure only accounts for around 10% of its overall expenditure, and the responsibilities of including new drugs in the Formulary and reviewing the Formulary rest with HA's Drug Advisory Committee and Drug Utilization Review Committee respectively; yet, the lack of transparency in the relevant work and low participation of other stakeholders have led people to question that the Formulary does not put patients' rights and interests first, resulting in patients having to purchase at their own expense drugs which are of significant efficacy but expensive; although the Government has put in place safety net systems such as the Samaritan Fund, etc., situations of patients suffering delays in treatment due to their inability to afford better but expensive drugs, having to sell their properties in order to purchase drugs, or relying on lower-quality drugs to extend their lives still arise, etc., reflecting the existence of many loopholes and inadequacies in the existing system; in this connection, this Council urges the Government to review the existing drugs policies and perfect the relevant mechanism, so as to provide assistance for more people in need; the relevant measures should include:
(1) to reform HA's Drug Advisory Committee and Drug Utilization Review Committee, include more representatives of stakeholders (including representatives of patients' organisations) and make public the records of meetings of those Committees, so as to increase the transparency of the process of formulating and reviewing the Formulary;
(2) when updating the Formulary, to correspondingly devote adequate resources to ensure that medical practitioners can prescribe the most suitable drugs according to patients' medical conditions;
(3) to take out HA's drugs expenditure from its overall expenditure estimates and allocate it to the various hospital clusters as an independent fund, so as to ensure that the funding is fully used for drugs expenditure and not used for other expenditure items;
(4) to expand the Formulary to include more drugs which are of significant efficacy but expensive as General Drugs and Special Drugs, so that more patients can use such drugs at standard fees and charges;
(5) to increase the expenditure estimates on drugs, and when considering whether to include certain drugs in the Formulary and the relevant categories, reduce the weighting of costs and prices and adopt efficacy and patient safety as the overriding principle, so that patients will not be forced to take lower-quality drugs due to the lack of financial means;
(6) to include more drugs in the subsidy coverage of the Samaritan Fund, and further relax the assessment criteria of the financial test of the Samaritan Fund by using the income and asset of individual applicants instead of households as the basis;
(7) to provide tax relief, so as to alleviate the financial burden of patients or their family members arising from the purchase of drugs at their own expense; and
(8) to consider abolishing the Formulary system in the long run."
Dr Leung Ka-lau, Dr Joseph Lee, Mr Chan Han-pan, Mr Albert Ho and Dr Fernando Cheung will move separate amendments to Ms Alice Mak's motion.
Mr Jeffrey Lam will move a motion on maintaining a business-friendly environment in Hong Kong. The motion states: "That, given the slow recovery of the global economy, this Council urges the Government to adopt proactive policy measures to maintain a business-friendly environment in Hong Kong and devote more resources to assist small and medium enterprises."
Mr Tang Ka-piu, Mr Michael Tien, Mr Ip Kin-yuen, Mr Wu Chi-wai, Mr Yiu Si-wing and Mr Charles Peter Mok will move separate amendments to Mr Jeffrey Lam's motion.
Mr Albert Ho will move a motion on the 4 June incident. The motion states: "That this Council urges that: the 4 June incident be not forgotten and the 1989 pro-democracy movement be vindicated."
In addition, the Chief Secretary for Administration will present the Government Minute in response to the Report of the Public Accounts Committee No. 59 of February 2013 and address the Council.
During the meeting, Members will also ask the Administration 22 questions on various policy areas, six of which require oral replies.
Two Members' Motions will be dealt with at the Council meeting of May 29, 2013. One of these motions is about actively promoting family-friendly policies. The motion, to be moved by Ms Starry Lee, states: "That, given the occurrence of a number of family tragedies in Hong Kong in recent years, which have greatly shocked the society and reflected the existence of many unhealthy trends in today's society gradually breaking up, damaging and distorting the social and family relationships, this Council urges that the Government should make stronger efforts in promoting family-friendly policies, enhancing family cohesion and individual resilience against adversities, restoring mutual love among family members and building up positive family values, so as to create a harmonious society; the proposed measures include:
(1) the relevant departments should assess the gravity of domestic violence in Hong Kong at present, enhance the relevant social welfare services, review the modes of professional services for handling and supporting families in crisis and the corresponding effectiveness of inter-departmental support services, and strengthen outreach services, so as to provide families in crisis with highly efficient, timely and targeted services;
(2) to expeditiously implement an impact assessment system in respect of public policies on families to assess the impact of existing social policies, legislation and measures on families, so as to make the relevant improvements;
(3) to enhance the functions of the Family Council, and set up a 'social fund for families' to subsidise social welfare organisations to organise programmes and activities related to family education;
(4) to actively step up publicity on positive family education on parenting, child duties and ethics, and promote family education through community service organisations, schools and the media, etc.;
(5) to provide more child care support services to dual-income parents (including expanding community child-minding services, increasing the child-minding places in various districts, providing flexible-hour child-minding services, etc.); develop after-school remedial centres to enable children of dual-income parents to receive appropriate care after school;
(6) to encourage public and private organisations to implement family-friendly employment policies more proactively for creating a family-friendly working environment, including encouraging organisations to provide staff with child care services and implementing a flexible working hour system with 'flexible hours and flexible places', and implementing a flexible leave policy, etc.;
(7) to include all public holidays other than Sundays as paid statutory holidays through employer-employee negotiations and a progressive approach; and promote 'International Day of Families' to call on the community to cherish the value of family;
(8) to raise the Child Allowance, subsidise the pre-primary education across the board, and conduct studies on extending the applicability of existing paid maternity leave to employees engaged under non-employment contracts, etc. so as to alleviate the financial burden on families in Hong Kong; and
(9) to promote a housing policy which fosters inter-generational harmony, encourage the inclusion of residential complementary facilities suitable for both the elderly and the young in the designs of private and public housing, and improve community facilities to provide families with more room for parent-child activities."
Mr Kwok Wai-keung, Mr Wong Kwok-hing, Dr Helena Wong, Mr Cheung Kwok-che and Ms Claudia Mo will move separate amendments to Ms Starry Lee's motion.
The other motion is about enhancing the overall sustainable competitiveness of Hong Kong. The motion, to be moved by Dr Lam Tai-fai, states: "That the China Urban Competitiveness Reports issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in recent years point out that the gap between Hong Kong's competitiveness and that of other Mainland cities is continuously getting narrower, and Hong Kong's overall growth is relatively slow, with the scale of its economy expected to lag behind those of Mainland cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, etc., by 2015; in this connection, this Council urges the Government to conduct a comprehensive review and assessment of areas such as economic development, improvement of people's livelihood, promotion of democracy, etc., and formulate feasible and timely policies which will be implemented, so as to enhance Hong Kong's overall sustainable competitiveness."
Mr Tang Ka-piu, Mr Christopher Cheung, Dr Lo Wai-kwok, Dr Kenneth Chan, Mr Wu Chi-wai and Mr Charles Peter Mok will move separate amendments to Dr Lam Tai-fai's motion.
The agenda of the above meeting can be obtained via the LegCo website (www.legco.gov.hk). Please note that the agenda is subject to change, and the latest information about the agenda could be found in the LegCo website.
Members of the public are welcome to observe the proceedings of the meeting from the public galleries of the Chamber of the LegCo Complex. They may reserve seats by calling 3919 3399 during office hours. Seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Members of the public can also watch or listen the meeting via the web broadcast system on the LegCo website.
Ends/Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Issued at HKT 22:15
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