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Following is a question by the Hon Kwok Wai-keung and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (May 11):
Question:
Some women have relayed to me that the majority of the public places in Hong Kong are not fitted with babycare rooms and employers also rarely implement breastfeeding friendly policy in the workplace, which have caused them much inconvenience in taking care of their babies. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows the current number of public places fitted with babycare rooms, and the increase in such number in each of the past three years;
(2) of the current number of government premises fitted with babycare rooms, broken down by type of premises and the District Council district in which the premises are located;
(3) whether it knows if all public hospitals are currently fitted with babycare rooms which are open round the clock; if the answer is in the affirmative, of the average number of babycare rooms in each public hospital; if the answer is in the negative, whether the Hospital Authority (HA) will have babycare room(s) fitted in each public hospital; if HA will, of the details;
(4) whether it knows the total number of babycare rooms fitted in the shopping malls under Link Asset Management Limited as well as in the shopping malls and railway stations under the MTR Corporation Limited, in each of the past three years, together with the year-on-year increase;
(5) whether the authorities will review the existing Practice Note on the Provision of Babycare Rooms in Commercial Buildings, and provide incentives to encourage owners or developers of public places to have babycare rooms fitted in their premises; whether the authorities will consider enacting legislation to require that babycare rooms and breastfeeding rooms of designated size be fitted in newly constructed commercial buildings and public places;
(6) whether, when conducting inspections of commercial buildings and public places in the past three years, the personnel of the government departments concerned also inspected the babycare rooms in those premises, in order to ensure that the facilities concerned complied with the standards stipulated in the Practice Note on the Provision of Babycare Rooms in Commercial Buildings and the Advisory Guidelines on Babyare Facilities; if so, of the details, and the number of cases in which the facilities concerned were found not up to standard during the inspections; if not, the reasons for that;
(7) whether it will, by making reference to overseas experience, expeditiously formulate policies and measures to safeguard the interests and rights (including interests and rights of breastfeeding babies and taking maternity leave for a longer period, etc.) of post-natal women, and provide women with better conditions and environment for taking care of babies; and
(8) of the measures the authorities will put in place in the next three years to promote the provision of more babycare rooms in both private and public places and improvement of the facilities in such rooms, as well as to bring about a social atmosphere that supports and respects breastfeeding; the expenditure involved in implementing such measures?
Reply:
President,
The Government has all along endeavoured to promote, protect and support breastfeeding, and implement this policy through the Department of Health (DH) and the Hospital Authority (HA). The Food and Health Bureau (FHB) set up a Committee on Promotion of Breastfeeding (the Committee) in early April 2014 under the chairmanship of the Under Secretary for Food and Health. Members include representatives from relevant professional healthcare bodies, academia as well as representatives of the organisations that have participated in the promotion of breastfeeding. The Committee provides specific recommendations on strategies and action plans to further strengthen the promotion, protection and support for breastfeeding. Its objective is to enhance the sustainability of breastfeeding and promote breastfeeding as a norm for babycare widely accepted by the general public. The Committee has formulated a three-year work plan which includes strengthening publicity and education on breastfeeding, encouraging adoption of breastfeeding friendly workplace policy and promoting breastfeeding friendly premises. The Government will collaborate with relevant parties and sectors in the community to implement the work plan in phases. My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows.
(1), (2), (4) and (5) The Government has been actively promoting the provision of babycare facilities in government offices and public places. The Advisory Guidelines on Babycare Facilities were developed in August 2008 to encourage government departments to provide babycare rooms. As at December 2015, there were 255 babycare rooms on government premises (please refer to Annex 1 and Annex 2). Various types of government premises were included, such as hospitals, maternal and child health centres, cultural and recreational facilities of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, community facilities of the Home Affairs Department and new shopping centres of housing estates under the Housing Department. The latest information has been uploaded to the DH's Family Health Service homepage and will be updated from time to time.
The Government also issued the Practice Note on the Provision of Babycare Rooms in Commercial Buildings in February 2009 to encourage and facilitate the provision of babycare rooms in private commercial premises. The Government has not collected information about babycare rooms in private commercial premises. We will continue to co-operate with different sectors and organisations to promote and support breastfeeding initiatives on various fronts. Currently, the Government has no plan to enact legislation to regulate the provision of babycare rooms in public places.
(3) The HA provides 24-hour babycare rooms in relevant public hospitals having regard to the space and facilities of individual hospitals as well as the needs of patients and staff. Annex 3 sets out the public hospitals with 24-hour babycare rooms and their corresponding number of babycare rooms.
(6) The Practice Note on the Provision of Babycare Rooms in Commercial Buildings is an advisory guidance note for voluntary compliance by the industry. The Buildings Department (BD) has not conducted inspections in commercial buildings for ascertaining their provision of babycare rooms and does not maintain the relevant statistics. However, the DH has encouraged public premises through various channels on the provision of appropriate babycare rooms with facilities conforming to relevant guidance note of the BD.
(7) The Labour and Welfare Bureau indicates that under the existing provisions of the Employment Ordinance (EO), a pregnant employee is entitled to ten weeks' maternity leave if she has been employed under a continuous contract immediately before the commencement of maternity leave. If the employee encounters health problems before or after delivery, the employer must allow her to take an additional period of leave for a maximum of four weeks. If the employee takes additional leave with the agreement of the employer, the continuity of her employment contract will not be affected. Moreover, if agreed by the employer, the employee may choose to commence her maternity leave two weeks instead of four weeks before the expected date of confinement and take the remaining maternity leave after she has given birth. Such flexibility in taking maternity leave enables the employee to make appropriate arrangements that suit her needs.
The Government is of the view that the provisions on maternity protection in the EO, including those on the duration and the taking of maternity leave, have provided comprehensive protection for pregnant employees in various aspects and struck a balance between the interests of both the employers and the employees.
(8) As mentioned above, the Committee has formulated a three-year work plan to enhance publicity and education on breastfeeding, encourage adoption of a breastfeeding friendly workplace policy and promote breastfeeding friendly premises. The DH has been implementing the measures laid down by the work plan progressively and will report the progress to the Committee as and when appropriate. The progress of implementing the work plan and other efforts in promoting breastfeeding are set out below.
Support from all sectors is required to create a friendly environment for breastfeeding. In this connection, promoting breastfeeding friendly premises in public places of the community is one of the Committee's recommendations to strengthen community support for breastfeeding. The DH compiled a "Guide to Establishing Breastfeeding Friendly Premises" in May 2015 for reference of public places interested in establishing a breastfeeding friendly environment. In addition, the Government has enhanced publicity on breastfeeding through various channels, including production and broadcasting of Announcements in the Public Interest on television and radio, dissemination of the message in newspapers and parenting magazines, display of posters and attending media interviews.
Moreover, the FHB, in collaboration with the DH and the Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF HK), launched a promotional campaign entitled "Say Yes to Breastfeeding" in 2015. It aims to encourage the private sector to implement a breastfeeding friendly policy in workplace and encourage public places, big and small, to introduce breastfeeding friendly initiatives. In May 2015, the Secretary for Food and Health issued letters to over 450 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private enterprises to promote and encourage adoption of the relevant policy. Subsequently, the DH and UNICEF HK organised two briefings on the "Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace Policy" for NGOs and private enterprises in July 2015. The briefings were attended by representatives from 125 organisations and enterprises. We have learnt that enterprises in various sectors, e.g. transport, retail, education, banking, hotels and public utilities, have adopted the "Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace Policy". We hope that they can be role models to encourage more enterprises in their sectors to adopt the breastfeeding friendly policy.
The DH is also working with the UNICEF HK to introduce and promote "Breastfeeding Friendly Premises" measures to the catering industry. So far, the DH has held five briefings for the catering industry and its practitioners. Staff training was also provided for the participating restaurants by the DH. As at December 2015, four catering groups (including 64 restaurants from 12 restaurant chains) had implemented "Breastfeeding Friendly Premises" measures. The Government will continue to promote and support breastfeeding on various fronts.
The expenditures on promoting breastfeeding incurred by the FHB and the DH have been subsumed as part of the overall allocation provided for the service units concerned. No breakdown is available. However, the Government has earmarked a sum of $5 million in 2016-17 for the DH's Family Health Service to promote and encourage breastfeeding in accordance with the three-year work plan drawn up by the Committee. In addition, a sum of $1.5 million is allocated to the DH's Family Health Service in 2016-17 to pilot Baby Friendly Initiative in three maternal and child health centres.
Ends/Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:05
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