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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Lau Wong-fat and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, in the Legislative Council today (November 18):
Question:
It has been reported that as quite a number of mini-storages currently available for rent by members of the public boast about their respect for customers' privacy, their staff will not inspect the articles stored by hirers and allow hirers to store and retrieve their articles by themselves. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the setting up (including the locations) of mini-storages is subject to the regulation of any existing legislation;
(2) whether it knows the current total number of mini-storages in Hong Kong as well as their geographical distribution;
(3) how the Government prevents such storages from being used for storing dangerous, inflammable or prohibited articles; and
(4) of the means through which the Government knows at present whether dangerous/inflammable articles are being stored in mini-storages and the types of such articles, so that appropriate fire-fighting methods can be adopted in case of fire in such mini-storages?
Reply:
President,
Having consulted relevant policy bureaux and department, my reply to the various parts of Dr Hon Lau's question is as follows:
(1) and (2) At present, there is no specific legislation for regulating mini-storages in Hong Kong and no requirement on the locations of such storages. The Government does not have statistics on mini-storages.
(3) The Fire Services Department (FSD) has approached certain operators of mini-storages to understand their operations. In general, mini-storages mainly provide tenants with smaller-scale storage services. Tenants of mini-storages are generally required to sign an agreement with the operators and these agreements typically contain conditions restricting the keeping or storage of explosives, dangerous goods, chemicals, flammable substances and compressed gases etc.
Besides, in order to enhance public awareness of safe storage of dangerous goods, FSD will from time to time remind operators of different industries about the importance of safety management of dangerous goods. For example, FSD issued letters to logistics and freight forwarding companies in September 2015 to remind them of safety measures requiring their attention during daily operations, and the statutory requirements set out in the Dangerous Goods Ordinance (Cap 295) that no person shall store, convey or use any dangerous goods exceeding exempt quantity.
FSD will continue to combat illegal activities regarding over-storage of dangerous goods through enforcement actions. The Department has set up a Fire Protection Task Force which carries out investigation within 24 hours into complaints relating to over-storage of dangerous goods in order to ensure public safety.
(4) Upon arrival at the fire scene after receiving fire calls, fire personnel will immediately conduct multi-faceted risk assessments and develop a fire-fighting strategy. During fire-fighting, fire personnel will observe changes in circumstances and conduct dynamic risk assessments. On the other hand, the Dangerous Goods (General) Regulations (Cap 295B) specify the requirements for the marking, labelling and packaging etc. of various dangerous goods. In general, fire personnel can, through examining the markings, labelling and packaging during incidents involving dangerous goods, make an initial assessment of whether and what categories of dangerous goods are involved. In addition, fire personnel can obtain relevant information as well as the Material Safety Data Sheets of the stored goods by inquiring the responsible persons at scene or persons in charge of the storages concerned.
Ends/Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:26
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