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Following is a question by the Hon Wu Chi-wai and a reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Tsang Tak-sing, in the Legislative Council today (May 22):
Question:
In reply to a question of a Member of this Council in March this year, the Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) indicated that more than 50 private recreational leases (PRLs) that had expired in 2011 and 2012 were being renewed. The PRLs were granted by the Government at nil or nominal rents to sports clubs of social welfare organisations and private sports clubs (sports clubs) many years ago. It has been reported that the PRLs will be renewed for 15 years. On the other hand, the Office of The Ombudsman (The Ombudsman) published in 2012 a direct investigation report, in which it: (i) criticised HAB for its clear inadequacy of monitoring efforts in the enforcement of the lease conditions of the PRLs, (ii) criticised various sports clubs for serious scarcity of opening hours of their facilities for use by outside bodies, (iii) suggested that HAB should maximise the number of opening hours of facilities as far as the sports clubs' respective scale of operation permitted, and (iv) suggested that HAB should develop a proper mechanism for handling complaints concerning the opening of the sports facilities of the sports clubs and stipulate clearly who has the authority to make the final decision in case of disputes. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) as the facilities of most sports clubs are dedicated for use by their members and only limited access is granted to group applicants at present, whether the authorities know the conditions for membership application set by the relevant sports clubs of the lessees of PRLs; if they do, of the relevant information, broken down by the name of the relevant sports clubs; whether HAB has reviewed if those conditions can tie in with the Government's policy objectives for sports development (including the promotion of elite sports development), and can convince the public that the sports clubs' repayment to society matches the subsidies in land resources they receive; of the reasons for the authorities deciding to renew the PRLs with the various lessees for 15 years; whether they have considered shortening the terms of leases or requesting the lessees who occupy larger land areas to surrender part of the land for housing development;
(b) whether the Government has policies and measures to follow up the aforesaid criticisms and suggestions raised by The Ombudsman; if it has, of the details; and
(c) as the Government informed this Council in 2011 that in renewing the PRLs, it would add new provisions requiring the sports clubs concerned to further open up their facilities to outside bodies, of the number of hours for which each sports club is required to open up its facilities to outside bodies under the new provisions, as well as a list setting out the name of each lessee, the address of the facilities concerned, and the number of opening hours of each of those facilities (e.g. swimming pools and gyms, etc.)?
Reply:
President,
Whilst renewing private recreational leases (PRLs) that expired in 2011 and 2012, the Administration is overseeing lessees' compliance with the terms of the PRLs, including implementation of schemes to allow greater access to their facilities. We shall report the progress of lease renewals at a coming meeting of the Legislative Council Panel on Home Affairs.
My reply to the three parts of the question is as follows:
(a) PRL lessees determine their membership requirements in accordance with their individual circumstances, and such requirements are laid down in their articles of association. Generally speaking, a candidate for membership may become a member upon the recommendation of existing members and his or her acceptance of the objects of the club.
Sports clubs operating under PRLs have the promotion of sport and recreation as one of their objects, which is consistent with the Administration's policy for sports development. Over the years, sports clubs throughout Hong Kong have provided their services to over 650 000 members, their relatives and friends, as well as given outside bodies access to their sports facilities, by charging members or facility users or raising funds on their own to develop, maintain and manage their facilities. Up to the present, they still help to meet the sporting and recreational needs of the public.
The Home Affairs Bureau (HAB) has advised all PRL lessees that the Administration will conduct a comprehensive review of the PRL policy and that lessees shall not assume that their PRLs would be further renewed or be renewed under the same terms and conditions upon the expiry of the renewed lease. Renewing existing PRLs for 15 years is considered appropriate and reasonable in order to allow lessees time to respond to possible policy changes by the Administration.
Under the existing lease terms, the Administration has the power to resume specific sites occupied under PRLs, provided that an appropriate notification period is given to the lessee in question. This being the case, the length of the renewal term should not in principle have a bearing on the Administration's long-term planning.
(b) The HAB is acting on the advice of the Office of The Ombudsman with regard to the administration of PRLs, for example, by requiring lessees under the new lease condition to submit reports on the utilisation of their facilities, increasing publicity and consulting competent authorities on the establishment of a complaint handling mechanism. We have made good progress in requiring lessees to allow greater access to outside organisations in relation to the scale of their facilities.
(c) Up to now, we have approved 46 schemes submitted by PRL lessees to allow greater access to their sports facilities. Of these, seven have completed the lease renewal procedures (as at the end of April). As the renewal of the majority of the PRLs is still in progress, we shall provide further details regarding the extent to which lessees will allow greater access to their sports facilities at an appropriate time.
All of the seven cases in respect of which we have completed renewal procedures have agreed to allow access to their sports and recreational facilities well in excess of the minimum requirement of 50 hours per month. Following formal consultation, the sports clubs concerned have agreed to open their facilities as far as possible in accordance with their respective scale and conditions, with the total number of hours of access ranging from 161 to 3 320 per month (please refer to the Annex for details). Facilities that are open to outside bodies are suitable for sports such as lawn bowls, squash, tennis, badminton, cricket and swimming. We have provided information to eligible outside bodies through the relevant competent authorities, and have published newspaper advertisements to promote the greater use of these facilities.
Ends/Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:46
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