Following is a question by the Hon Shang Hailong and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, in the Legislative Council today (July 16):

Question:

     It has been reported that Hong Kong's fertility rate has remained persistently low in recent years, with the total fertility rate for 2023 standing at only 0.8, which is significantly below the replacement level of 2.1 required to maintain the population level. This situation presents profound challenges to Hong Kong's future economic development, public service demands and workforce structure. The latest report published by the United Nations Population Fund indicates that the primary cause of the global decline in fertility rates is insufficient "reproductive autonomy", which includes structural barriers such as economic pressure, gender inequality, lack of partner support and want of comprehensive reproductive health services. There are views that Hong Kong's current pro-natalist policies largely focus on providing short-term economic incentives (e.g. allowances and increased maternity leave) without formulating long-term strategies to address the aforementioned structural barriers. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) whether it will conduct a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of the existing pro-natalist measures, and propose ground-breaking policies to address the current structural economic issues faced by citizens (such as high housing costs, intense educational competition, and job instability); 

(2) given that a survey has reportedly indicated that only 22 per cent of enterprises offer family-friendly measures beyond those required by law, whether the authorities will consider implementing a "family-friendly workplace certification" programme, through which enhanced subsidies would be provided to enterprises to offer more flexible working arrangements and childrearing support; 

(3)whether the authorities will consider drawing on overseas and the Mainland experiences to actively expand the childcare service network, such as by exploring the introduction of a "neighbourhood childcare voucher scheme", subsidising parents to use qualified private childcare services within their communities, or making better use of idle government sites or community facilities in commercial areas to establish more childcare service centres; and 

(4) whether the authorities will consider allowing "top talent", "quality migrants" and "professionals" admitted under various talent admission schemes to apply for the Newborn Baby Bonus scheme, with a view to encouraging more talent to stay in Hong Kong and contribute to its development?

Reply:

President,

     The issue of childbearing straddles across a number of policy areas and bureaux, including the Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration's Office, the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the Education Bureau, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, the Health Bureau and the Housing Bureau. A consolidated reply by relevant government bureaux and departments is as follows:

(1) Childbearing is a major life decision which involves different considerations. Fertility cannot be boosted substantially by Government's policies alone. Various government bureaux and departments have adopted a range of measures to encourage fertility.

     In respect of child care, the Government has been supporting parents who cannot take care of their children temporarily through subsidising NGOs to provide a variety of day child care services, including Child Care Centre (CCC) services for children aged from birth to under three, After School Care Programme and Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project (NSCCP). To strengthen support for working families in childbearing, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) is setting up 11 aided standalone CCCs in phases over the three years starting from 2024, doubling the total number of service places to reach around 2 000. The SWD is also extending the After School Care Programme for pre-primary children to cover all districts in phases, and increasing the number of service places under the NSCCP to 2 500 with the estimated number of beneficiaries increasing to 25 000. The Government has also launched the School-based After School Care Service Scheme to provide focused support for students in need (particularly those from single-parent families) to stay in school after school hours for care and learning support, thereby allowing their parents to take up jobs. Over 120 primary schools covering 18 districts across the territory participated in the scheme in the 2024/25 school year, providing about 6 000 places. We will encourage more schools to participate in the scheme in the 2025/26 school year without imposing any quota. Meanwhile, the Government reviews the Working Family Allowance (WFA) Scheme from time to time. The rates of the household and child allowances under the WFA Scheme have been increased by 15 per cent across the board with effect from April 2024, benefiting all households receiving the WFA. The WFA Scheme provides additional allowances for relevant childbearing families, and increasing the rates of the WFA helps further alleviate the burden of grassroots working families. Taking a four-person household with two eligible children as an example, the maximum monthly WFA they may receive have increased from the original amount of $4,200 to $4,830 at present.

     Hong Kong's education system values equity and diversity. The government provides 12 years' free primary and secondary education through public sector schools, and ensures the provision of sufficient public sector school places for students eligible for receiving education in Hong Kong. Regardless of students' backgrounds, all are given access to quality education. Diversified support mechanisms are in place to cater to individual differences and promote whole-person development. Our competitive edge is clearly reflected in the excellent performance of Hong Kong students in international studies and assessments. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 results underscore Hong Kong's outstanding performance in educational equity. Hong Kong ranked second among countries or economies with high academic achievements, indicating that the family socio-economic status of Hong Kong students, including occupation and education level of their parents, had minimal bearing on their performance. This demonstrates that, under our education system, schools are able to provide ample and appropriate education support services for students with different socio-economic backgrounds. The results reaffirmed the merits of the Hong Kong education system in providing all students with quality and equal education opportunities, thereby facilitating social mobility. Besides, the Government has launched the Kindergarten Education Scheme since the 2017/18 school year with the objectives of providing good quality and highly affordable kindergarten education, and enhancing the accessibility of students to different modes of services that suit their specific needs. About 90 per cent of half-day kindergartens are currently free of charge, while the school fees for whole-day kindergartens are maintained at a low level. Families with financial needs may apply for fee remission under the Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme (KCFRS). At present, parents can receive full level of fee remission under the KCFRS.

     The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau (HYAB) has been supporting the work of the Family Council (the Council) in promoting a culture of loving families to the general public through organising different publicity programmes and activities. In October 2024, the HYAB and the Council launched the five-year Funding Scheme on the Promotion of Family Education (the Scheme). With annual funding of $8 million, the Scheme subsidises non-profit-making community projects in promoting family education to meet the needs of different families. For the 2024-25 round of applications, a total of 12 projects have been approved. On the other hand, the Council has been encouraging the wider adoption of more diversified and flexible family-friendly employment practices (FFEPs) in the community. These measures will also help promote a childbearing-friendly environment. Since 2023-24, the Council has been launching promotional videos entitled "Family-friendly Workplace" featuring various FFEPs adopted by local companies with sharings by employers and employees. The FFEPs presented include breastfeeding-friendly arrangements, allowing employees to bring their children to work during summer vacation, work-from-home arrangement and flexible work hours, etc. The Council has also collaborated with the Radio Television Hong Kong to produce radio programmes to promulgate different FFEPs. The Council will continue the relevant promotion work.

     In terms of tax measures, the basic child allowance and the additional child allowance for each child born during the year of assessment (YA) have been raised to $130,000 starting from YA 2023/24. Moreover, starting from YA 2024/25, for taxpayers who live with their children born on or after October 25, 2023, and meet the prescribed conditions, the deduction ceiling for home loan interest or domestic rents may be raised from $100,000 to $120,000 for a maximum of 19 YAs. These measures help alleviate the financial burden of taxpayers from raising children.

     As regards healthcare services, the Government has been committed to supporting assisted reproductive (AR) services and promoting healthy fertility, to assist those who wish to have children. Currently, nine public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA) offer assisted reproductive services, among which Queen Mary Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, and Kwong Wah Hospital provide in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) services. The HA is gradually increasing the publicly subsidised service quotas of assisted reproductive services for IVF treatment starting from 2024-25, from the previous 1 100 per year to 1 800 per year in 2028-29, and in parallel enhancing the training for relevant professionals. Achievement of the relevant target is underway, where the HA provided 100 additional subsidised service quotas in 2024-25 as planned, and 300 more quotas will be in place in 2025-26, followed by an additional service quota of 100 places per year in the three years that follow. In addition, the HA repositioned seven AR drugs from self-financed items to special drugs in the HA Drug Formulary in late April this year, whereby patients are only required to pay standard fees if prescribed these seven drugs under specified clinical applications, reducing the financial burden on patients receiving the relevant AR drug therapies. Aside from public AR services, starting from the year of assessment 2024-25, the Government is providing tax deductions for expenses on AR services under salaries tax and personal assessment, to relieve the financial burden from the relevant expenditure and encourage couples faced with fertility difficulties to seek medical assistance as necessary. In the meantime, the Department of Health will also revamp maternal and child health and family planning services, providing new pre-pregnancy health services to reproductive age group women at the Maternal and Child Health Centres in phases, as well as review and adjust the scope of the subsidised family planning service currently provided by non-government organisations, to promote healthy fertility. Furthermore, the Council on Human Reproductive Technology plans to lift the statutory maximum storage periods of gametes and embryos for own use within this year, to allow the members of the public to make their own decisions on the storage duration of gametes and embryos depending on their health and other conditions, so as to better realise reproductive autonomy.

     In respect of housing, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) has implemented the Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme and the Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme to encourage childbearing by giving incentives to family applicants of public rental housing (PRH) and subsidised sale flats (SSF) sale exercises. Regarding the allocation of PRH, the HA has implemented the Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme since April 1, 2024. PRH family applications with babies born on or after October 25, 2023, and aged one or below are credited one year of waiting time. As at end-June 2025, about 5 000 PRH applications have been credited one year of waiting time under the scheme, of which about 420 families have already been successfully housed to PRH. As for SSF, starting from the Sale of Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) Flats 2024 (HOS 2024), the HA has implemented the Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme which was announced in the 2023 Policy Address. A quota of about 40 per cent of the new flats for sale (i.e. 2 900 flats) under HOS 2024 were set aside for eligible applicants under the Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme and the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Members for balloting and priority flat selection. Family applicants of HOS with babies born or after October 25, 2023, are eligible if their children are aged three or below on the closing day of the application. During the application period of HOS 2024, the HA received a total of around 106 000 applications. Among them, around 50 000 were family applicants, of which around 19 000 (i.e. about 40 per cent) applied under the Priority Scheme for Families with Elderly Members and Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme. Among these 19 000 applicants, 800 applicants have successfully purchased flats through the Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme. If eligible families applying under the Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme fail to purchase a flat under HOS 2024, they may still apply under the Scheme for priority flat selection as long as their children are aged three or below on the closing day of the application in subsequent SSF sale exercises.

(2) Through publicity and promotional activities, the Labour Department (LD) motivates employers to adopt employee-oriented good human resources management measures and implement family-friendly employment practices, including allowing flexible work arrangements, granting special leave approval to cater for family needs of employees and providing relevant support to employees' family life, etc. Implementing FFEPs enables employees to balance the needs of taking care of their family, and also helps employers recruit and retain staff. Considering the diverse circumstances of enterprises, it is more appropriate to adopt an approach that motivates and encourages enterprises to flexibly implement FFEPs. The LD will continue to take forward relevant work by launching publicity and promotion through various channels, including organising activities on the Good Employer Charter.

(3) As regards the network of child care services, the SWD is setting up 11 aided standalone CCCs in phases over the three years starting from 2024. The SWD has been continuously reviewing the service planning for CCCs and would consider the overall situations of child care services and the characteristics of individual districts so as to take follow-up measures in a timely manner, including enhancing service promotion, and adjusting the planned provision of CCCs and the distribution of service places, etc., to better meet the service demand of the community.

     Regarding the planning for child care facilities, the Government has incorporated the population-based planning ratios into the Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines in respect of aided standalone CCCs, with a view to reserving necessary sites and space for these facilities early in the planning process of new and redeveloped areas. The SWD has been maintaining close contact with relevant departments to identify suitable sites in various development or redevelopment of public housing estates and urban renewal projects for the provision of child care facilities. In addition, the SWD will make the best use of vacant government accommodation/premises and vacant non-domestic premises in public housing estates to explore whether they are suitable for the use of child care facilities. The SWD will also provide relevant information and assistance to private organisations applying for registration to operate CCCs, and encourage private organisations to provide child care support for their employees.

(4) The Government announced in the 2023 Policy Address that a cash reward of $20,000 will be provided to eligible parents for each baby born from October 25, 2023, for a period of three years. Starting from October 25, 2023, parents can submit an application for the bonus at the same time when registering the birth of their baby and applying for a birth certificate. As of end-June 2025, a total of 49 567 qualified applications have been received, and the bonus has been distributed to 48 984 applicants, at a total amount of approximately $979 million. The Office of the Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration is carrying out a review of the Newborn Baby Bonus Scheme. In the review, suggestions which have been raised in the community, including whether to cover families under different talent schemes, will be considered. 

Ends/Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Issued at HKT 12:00

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