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Following is a question by the Hon Gary Fan and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, in the Legislative Council today (April 9):
Question:
Currently, certain mainland vehicles belonging to the mainland government, departments directly under the mainland authorities or some enterprise units are only required to obtain International Circulation Permits for running on the roads of Hong Kong, and are not required to be registered and licensed in Hong Kong. The local vehicle registration marks of these vehicles are prefixed by "FU" or "FV". It has been reported that when these vehicles are illegally parked in Hong Kong, there is insufficient information on the vehicles for the authorities to institute prosecutions because these cross-boundary mainland vehicles are not required to display vehicle licences (commonly known as "vehicle licence discs") on the front windscreens. Regarding monitoring the compliance with the traffic legislation of Hong Kong by the aforesaid cross-boundary mainland vehicles, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) in the past five years, of the number of cross-boundary mainland vehicles with vehicle registration marks prefixed by "FU" or "FV", the number of fixed penalty notices issued by the authorities to owners or drivers of these vehicles for contravention of the traffic legislation of Hong Kong, as well as the number of fixed penalty notices in respect of which the penalties were still not fully settled after the expiry of the statutory deadlines; and
(2) how the Police institute prosecutions against the persons mentioned in (1) who did not fully settle the penalties by the deadlines, and of the number of cases in the past five years in which prosecutions could not be instituted?
Reply:
President,
All Mainland cross-boundary vehicles are regulated under a quota system jointly administered by the governments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Guangdong Province. For non-commercial vehicles of Mainland governments, departments directly under the Mainland authorities or enterprise units with approved quotas for travelling to Hong Kong, quota holders are required to apply for International Circulation Permits (ICPs) from the Transport Department (TD) in accordance with the Road Traffic (Registration and Licensing of Vehicles) Regulations (Cap. 374E) (the Regulations) before they drive the relevant vehicles to Hong Kong. The validity of ICPs shall not exceed 12 months.
Upon issuance of ICPs, the TD will at the same time assign vehicle registration marks with prefix "FU" or "FV" to the respective vehicles. Under the Regulations, it is an offence if ICP holders fail to display on the concerned vehicles the assigned vehicle registration marks and the valid ICPs on the left-hand side of the vehicles' windscreen in such a manner that it is clearly visible from the front of the vehicles.
My replies to the questions raised by Hon Gary Fan are as follows:
(1) In the past five years, the number of non-commercial vehicles of Mainland governments, departments directly under the Mainland authorities or enterprise units issued with ICPs is as follows:
Year Number of Vehicles
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2009 around 1 500
2010 around 1 700
2011 around 1 900
2012 around 2 100
2013 around 2 300
According to the Police's prosecution records, the relevant figures relating to the fixed penalty notices issued to the aforementioned vehicles in the past five years are as follows:
Year Number of fixed Number of overdue
penalty notices fixed penalty
issued notices
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2009 25 5
2010 34 5
2011 29 9
2012 60 15
2013 42 14
As at end 2013, except for one case, all of the above overdue penalties have been settled.
(2) If an ICP holder fails to pay the fixed penalty by the statutory deadline, the Police will apply for a notice of court order from the Magistrates' Court to order the defaulter to pay the original fixed penalty, additional penalty and costs. At the same time, the TD will consider putting on hold the processing of all licence applications relating to the vehicle concerned until the outstanding penalty is settled.
The ICPs and vehicle registration marks of the vehicles concerned have already provided sufficient information for the Police to institute prosecution in case such vehicles have contravened the traffic regulations in Hong Kong. In the past five years, there was no case under which the Police could not institute prosecution action against those persons mentioned in part (1).
Ends/Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Issued at HKT 12:30
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