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Following is a question by the Hon Chan Kin-po and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, in the Legislative Council today (July 3):
Question:
The Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates (the Marking Scheme) currently covers 28 misdeeds. Public rental housing (PRH) estate and interim housing (IH) households who are found to have committed any of the misdeeds will be allotted three to 15 points according to the degree of seriousness of the misdeeds involved. When a household has accrued 16 points or more within two years, its tenancy/licence is liable to termination. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the allotment of points to PRH/IH households in each of the past five years, with a breakdown by the misdeed involved; among such cases, the number of those in which the tenancies/licences of such households were terminated due to an accumulation of 16 points or more, as well as the respective numbers of PRH/IH units so recovered;
(b) whether the Government will enhance the enforcement of the Marking Scheme in the coming year, including deploying additional manpower to conduct proactive inspections, enhancing its Falling Objects Monitoring System, taking stringent actions against and imposing penalties on non-compliant cases, as well as stepping up publicity on the Marking Scheme, etc.; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) given that the results of the Public Housing Recurrent Survey 2012 show that 71.3 per cent of PRH households considered that the Marking Scheme could improve the cleanliness and hygienic conditions of their estates, which was 12.1 percentage points lower than the 83.4 per cent in 2006, and 25.2 per cent of the households considered that the penalties were lenient, which was 8.5 percentage points higher than the 16.7 per cent in 2007, whether the Government will review the coverage of misdeeds and the penalties under the Marking Scheme, and consider introducing enhancement measures to reinforce the effectiveness of the Marking Scheme in improving the environmental cleanliness of PRH/IH; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) implemented the Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates (Marking Scheme) in 2003 to strengthen enforcement measures against hygiene-related offences in public rental housing (PRH) estates. The Marking Scheme currently covers 28 misdeeds, categorised by the severity of their impact on environmental hygiene or estate management. Tenants who are found to have committed misdeeds in the estates in which they live will be allotted points depending on the severity of the offence, from 3 to 15 which will be valid for two years. An accumulation of 16 points or above within two years will trigger termination of tenancy by means of a Notice-to-quit (NTQ) issued by the HA.
My reply to the three-part question from the Hon Chan Kin-por is as follows:
(a) The statistics of points-allotted cases to PRH and Interim Housing households with a breakdown by the 28 misdeeds in the period from 2008 to 2012 are set out at the Annex. Over this period, there were 31 cases with 16 points or above allotted with NTQs issued. Of these 31 cases, 13 PRH flats were recovered. The remaining cases include those under ongoing procedures for flat recovery after the NTQs were confirmed by the Appeal Panel (Housing), those that are pending appeals or with NTQs cancelled by the Appeal Panel (Housing) after a hearing.
(b) The Housing Department (HD) all along adopts proactive measures to enforce the Marking Scheme vigorously. Apart from the daily patrols by estate staff, the HD has set up 12 Special Squads headed by Housing Officers to take enforcement action in each management region.
To strengthen the action to tackle throwing objects from a height, the HA tightened up control measures during the review of the Marking Scheme in 2006, by allotting 7 points to cases involving throwing objects jeopardizing environmental hygiene and 15 points to cases involving throwing objects that may cause minor danger or personal injury. For offences that may cause serious danger or personal injury, the HA would immediately terminate the tenancy of the household concerned by issuance of a NTQ pursuant to the Housing Ordinance. Besides, the HD has arranged for 12 Special Operation Teams comprised of former disciplinary force members to be deployed to estates by rotation to assist the relevant estate management in detecting cases of throwing objects from height. In addition, the HD has installed Mobile Digital Closed Circuit Television System at black spots of throwing objects from height since 2004 and has introduced Mobile Surveillance Systems, which are compact in size and with high definition cameras in 2010, to facilitate the gathering of evidence for enforcement. The HD or the Police will initiate prosecution when the situation warrants.
The HD will continue to implement proactive measures and step up publicity through Estate Management Advisory Committees, the Housing Channel, estate newsletters, posters and leaflets, etc to educate tenants to sustain a clean and hygienic living environment in PRH estates.
(c) The objective of the Marking Scheme is to help PRH tenants to rectify malpractices which may affect the environmental hygiene of their living places and to foster their sense of civic responsibility. It is not about penalising tenants or recovering their PRH flats. Since its implementation in 2003, the scope of the Marking Scheme has been extended to cover 28 misdeeds frequently committed by tenants including aspects of environmental hygiene, civic obligation of tenants, reckless conducts and breaches of tenancy agreement, etc.
The implementation of the Marking Scheme has been generally well received and supported by tenants. In fact, the environmental and hygienic conditions of PRH estates have shown continuous improvement over the past ten years. The HA will carefully consider the overall situation in the community and tenants' aspirations during reviews of the Marking Scheme so as to strike a balance in implementing the mechanism. As the Marking Scheme has already covered the common misdeeds committed by PRH tenants, currently the HA has no plans to add in new "points-allotting" misdeeds in the Marking Scheme. However, the HD will continue to strengthen enforcement action, such as deploying dedicated teams to assist estate staff to tackle incidents of throwing objects from height and enhancing the collaboration with the Police in initiating prosecution when necessary.
Ends/Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Issued at HKT 12:53
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