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Following is a question by the Hon Frederick Fung and a reply by the Secretary for Home Affairs, Dr Patrick Ho, in the Legislative Council today (October 15):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council of
(1) the numbers of inspections carried out and warnings issued under the Bedspace Apartments Ordinance and Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance respectively in each of the past three years, as well as the follow-up actions taken by the Administration after issuing the warnings;
(2) the number of bedspace apartments and hotels/guesthouses which had their business licences revoked for violating the above ordinances in each of the past three years, broken down by the offences committed; and
(3) the current number of rental en suite units with kitchens and toilets in Hong Kong as well as the districts in which they are mainly located, and whether the above ordinances are applicable to these units; if not, of the means by which the construction structure, fire safety facilities and environmental hygiene conditions of these units are monitored by the authorities at present?
Reply:
Madam President,
(1) The Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance was enacted in 1991 to regulate the fire and structural safety and hygiene conditions of hotels and similar premises by way of a licensing scheme. In accordance with the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance, a "hotel" or "guesthouse" means any premises whose occupier, proprietor or tenant holds out that he will provide sleeping accommodation at a fee for any person presenting himself with a tenancy term of less than 28 consecutive days.
Hotels, guesthouses, motels, holiday flats and holiday camps fall within the ambit of the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance.
The Bedspace Apartments Ordinance was enacted in 1994 to regulate the fire and structural safety and hygiene conditions of bedspace apartments by way of a licensing scheme. In accordance with the Bedspace Apartments Ordinance, a "bedspace apartment" means any flat in which there are 12 or more bedspaces used or intended to be used as sleeping accommodation under rental agreements. Under the Ordinance, for the purpose of determining whether a flat is a bedspace apartment, the existence of partitions in the flat shall be disregarded. The Bedspace Apartments Ordinance, therefore, applies to any flat in which there are 12 or more floor spaces, beds, bunks or sleeping facilities of any other type, intended to be used as sleeping accommodation for one person, no matter whether the flat has been converted into cubicles or cubicles with kitchen and toilet facilities.
Under the current prosecution policy, the Office of the Licensing Authority of the Home Affairs Department (the Office) will issue warning letters to operators of suspected unlicensed premises. If the operators disregard the warning letters and continue with the business, staff of the Office will go to the premises to solicit evidence for the Department of Justice to consider if immediate prosecution should be instituted.
Staff of the Licensing Authority will conduct a site inspection of the licensed premises about four times a year. If they find out that there is a breach of the licensing requirements during the site inspection, the Office will issue warning letters to the operators. The Office will consider revoking the licence of those operators who disregard the warnings. That said, the great majority of the licensed operators will rectify the situation immediately on receipt of the warning letters, and there is no need to institute legal proceedings against them.
In the past three years, the numbers of inspections carried out and warnings issued by the Office in accordance with the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance and Bedspace Apartments Ordinance are as follows:
Year Bedspace Apartments Hotel and Guesthouse
Ordinance Accommodation Ordinance
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2000 No. of licensed No. of licensed
bedspace apartments: 50 hotels & guesthouses: 972
Inspections: 957 Inspections: 4209
Warnings: 12 Warnings: 11
2001 No. of licensed No. of licensed
bedspace apartments: 49 hotels & guesthouses: 940
Inspections: 635 Inspections: 4789
Warnings: 13 Warnings: 38
2002 No. of licensed No. of licensed
bedspace apartments: 45 hotels & guesthouses: 939
Inspections: 485 Inspections: 4641
Warnings: 11 Warnings: 50
The Office has enhanced cooperation with the Police in various districts, especially those which have relatively more problems with unlicensed hotels and guesthouses and bedspace apartments. This has enabled the Office to collect more information on the unlicensed operations and to organise joint operations with the Police to combat against the unlicensed operations. Last month, the Office conducted several large-scale joint operations with the Police in Tsuen Wan, Yau Tsim Mong, Eastern and Sham Shui Po Districts. As a result, the Office has inspected a total of 128 premises and issued 18 warning letters. The Office is consulting the Department of Justice as to whether prosecution action should be taken in seven cases.
(2) In the past three years, the numbers of prosecutions carried out by the Office and the offences convicted under section 5 of the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance and section 5 of the Bedspace Apartments Ordinance regarding unlicensed operations are as follows :
Year Bedspace Apartments Hotel and Guesthouse
Ordinance Accommodation Ordinance
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2000 Prosecutions: 3 Prosecutions:14
Convictions: 3 Convictions: 10
2001 Prosecutions: 2 Prosecutions: 7
Convictions: 0 Convictions: 6
2002* Prosecutions: 0 Prosecutions: 8
Convictions: 2 Convictions: 8
(* The number of convictions of unlicensed bedspace apartment is more than the number of prosecutions in 2002 because the two prosecutions were both instituted in 2001.)
No hotels/guesthouses or bedspace apartments have had their licences revoked in the past three years because staff of the Office conduct regular site inspections of such premises to prevent any violation of the licensing requirements.
(3) Some old-type buildings with larger floor space may be partitioned to become small rental cubicles with kitchens and toilets for rent or sale. Such works may violate the Buildings Ordinance, which provides that before the commencement of any works (including the partition of cubicles) which may affect the structure or fire safety facilities of a building, prior approval from the Building Authority must be obtained. Works that do not affect the building structure or violate the building regulations will be exempted. The Buildings Department will conduct investigations and take appropriate action upon receipt of related complaints.
The Buildings Department does not keep any statistical data on the number of cubicles with kitchens and toilets and the districts in which they are located. Most hotel rooms and some guesthouses have their own toilets. Only a small number of hotel and guesthouse rooms have their own kitchens. According to information available in the Office, there are now 118 hotels and about 700 guesthouses in Hong Kong. These hotels and guesthouses are mainly located in Yau Tsim Mong, Wan Chai and Central and Western Districts. If these cubicles are rented on a tenancy term of 28 consecutive days or more, their building structure, fire safety and hygiene conditions will, like other self-occupied or rental premises, be governed by the Buildings Ordinance. If the tenancy term of these premises is less than 28 consecutive days, then they will be regulated by the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance. Staff of the Office will refer to the Buildings Department those cases that do not fall under the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance but which they suspect are in breach of the Buildings Ordinance.
Ends/Wednesday, October 15, 2003
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