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LCQ7: Sizes of licensed food premises
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     Following is a question by the Hon Tommy Cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (March 1):
 
Question:

     On January 10, 2007, the authorities replied to my written question on restaurants holding valid general restaurant licences (including full and provisional licences) (licensed restaurants).  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) given that in the aforesaid reply, the authorities provided the number of licensed restaurants as at January 2, 2007 and a breakdown of those restaurants by size (set out in the table below), of the relevant figures as at January 2 this year; and
 
Size groups adopted by the Food and
Environmental Hygiene Department for
determining restaurant licence fees
Number of licensed restaurants
(percentage in the total number)
Exceeding
(m²)
Not exceeding
(m²)
January 2, 2007 January 2, 2017
  100 3 335 (42.0%)  (  %)
100 150 1 086 (13.7%)  (  %)
150 200 698 (8.8%)  (  %)
200 250 548 (6.9%)  (  %)
250 300 390 (4.9%)  (  %)
300 350 300 (3.8%)  (  %)
350 400 232 (2.9%)  (  %)
400 450 156 (2.0%)  (  %)
450 500 127 (1.6%)  (  %)
500 600 179 (2.3%)  (  %)
600 700 138 (1.7%)  (  %)
700 800 108 (1.4%)  (  %)
800 900 85 (1.1%)  (  %)
900 1 000 60 (0.8%)  (  %)
1 000 2 000 377 (4.7%)  (  %)
2 000 3 000 88 (1.1%)  (  %)
3 000 4 000 16 (0.2%)  (  %)
4 000 5 000 9 (0.1%)  (  %)
5 000   11 (0.1%)  (  %)
  Total 7 943 (100%)  (100%)

(2) given that the authorities indicated in the aforesaid reply that they had not studied the trend of the sizes of licensed restaurants, whether the authorities conducted, in the past 10 years, (i) the relevant study and (ii) an assessment of the correlation between the sizes of licensed restaurants and operating costs, labour force as well as economic situation; if they conducted such study and assessment, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     My reply to the question raised by the Hon Tommy Cheung is as follows:

(1) The numbers of restaurants holding valid general restaurant licences (including full and provisional licences) as at January 2, 2007 and January 2, 2017 were 7 943 and 10 798 respectively.  A breakdown of these restaurants by size is set out in the Annex.

(2) As the licensing department for food premises, the main responsibility of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) is to draw up regulatory measures to ensure the hygiene and safety of food premises.  On business facilitation, FEHD has also been actively implementing various business-friendly measures, such as streamlining the application procedures for various food business licences and accepting online applications and enquiries about the progress of applications, with a view to enhancing efficiency in licensing.  As regards the operation and scale of food businesses, they should be determined by operators having regard to their business needs and development.  Hitherto, the Government has not conducted any study on the trend on the sizes of food premises.
 
Ends/Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:20
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