The following is issued on behalf of the Independent Committee in relation to the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po:
 
     The Independent Committee in relation to the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po announced today (January 20) that it will hold a direction conference on February 5 (Thursday) to give directions on the arrangements for subsequent hearings to be conducted by the Committee.
      
     At the direction conference, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Justice David Lok, will give directions on the subsequent hearings, including identifying individuals or organisations, or their legal representatives, who intend to attend the hearings; the language to be used, the manner of submission of witness statements and documents, etc; and will consider other matters relating to the hearings. There will not be any presentation of evidence or examination of witnesses at the direction conference.
      
     The direction conference will be held at 10am on February 5 in Cantonese at the Multi-purpose Room, 3/F, City Gallery, 3 Edinburgh Place, Central. Simultaneous interpretation in Putonghua and English will be arranged in the City Gallery.
      
     The direction conference will be open to the public. To allow more members of the public to observe the conduct of the conference, the proceedings will be broadcast simultaneously in transmission areas set up on the ground floor of the City Gallery and in the Lecture Theatre of the Hong Kong Central Library. Some members of the public will be arranged to observe the conference in these two areas. A total of about 400 seats will be available for the public, with separate arrangements for the media.
      
     To avoid members of the public queuing up outside the venue for a long time, and to allow those who wish to observe the conference to have certainty of whether seats have been secured before the day of the conference, interested individuals are required to make an online reservation through the submission of a pre-registration form in advance. The Secretariat of the Committee will allocate seats on a first-come, first-served basis according to the system's record of the time that the pre-registration forms are received. Details of the online reservations will be announced separately.
      
     In addition, the scope of the Committee’s work is extensive, and the issues are numerous and complex. In order to review the incident and related issues more comprehensively and from different perspectives, the Committee will invite members of the public and organisations to provide information on the causes and circumstances that led to the fire and its rapid spread at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, and related issues. Details of the method, timing, and scope of submission of information will be announced separately.
      
     The Chief Executive has established the Committee to review the causes of the incident and related issues of Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po, and to make recommendations to prevent similar incidents from occurring again. The Committee formally commenced its work on December 19, 2025.

Ends/Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Issued at HKT 16:00

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