LCQ1: Regulation of building works
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Question:
There are views pointing out that building works in Hong Kong have long been renowned for their high standards. However, a series of issues in several works projects have come to light in recent months, including the discovery of deviations in the installation of steel reinforcement from the approved plans in a residential project at Anderson Road in Kwun Tong and in a house at One Stanley in Stanley, exposing serious loopholes in the construction, acceptance inspection and supervision of works in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the progress of the Buildings Department's follow-up work on the steel reinforcement quality incident at One Stanley in Stanley; whether it will comprehensively review the existing acceptance inspection regime for building works, such as mandating anti-counterfeiting certification for key safety components or introducing a system of "third-party independent random inspection and acceptance"; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(2) whether it will formulate measures to eradicate the "lowest bid wins" practice and "multi-layer subcontracting" in building works, as well as addressing the culture of rushing works and the shortage of supervisory personnel, while studying the introduction of more suitable technologies for use in the industry, so as to enhance works quality and supervisory effectiveness; and
(3) regarding registered contractors and professionals involved in serious non-compliance, fabrication of safety records or jerry-building, whether the Government will expedite legislative amendments to increase criminal liabilities, such as the suspension of practising qualifications; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Government attaches great importance to the quality of construction works. As construction works involve various processes and stages, government regulatory departments, project owners, contractors and professionals have to jointly perform the multi-tiered gatekeeping functions. In actual operation, it is difficult for the personnel of the government regulatory departments to be full-time on-site to supervise every single detail. For the regulatory system to function effectively, it is necessary to ensure that all relevant stakeholders in the industry perform their supervisory duties properly, and to let them understand that non-compliance and illegal acts will be uncovered, and once they are found, the Government will strictly enforce the law and take resolute follow-up action.
The reply to various parts of the question is as follows:
(1) Regarding the steel reinforcement quality issue found in a house at the private residential development One Stanley in Stanley, the Buildings Department (BD) has largely completed its investigation. It was found that the arrangement of some wire mesh and steel reinforcement did not conform to the approved plans, and the non-compliance had never been reported to the department. The BD will consult the Department of Justice on the initiation of subsequent prosecution work.
Furthermore, the BD has ordered to undergo spot checks at the other 15 houses and 12 units in six residential blocks in the same development, and requested the developer to engage independent accredited laboratories to carry out the relevant tests under the monitoring of BD staff. The department has been receiving assessment reports from independent accredited laboratories and will take enforcement action if any non-compliance is found.
Following the doubling of audit checks on the quantity and arrangement of steel reinforcement before and after concreting on sites in May last year, the BD is preparing to further tighten regulation of the relevant critical processes in response to the One Stanley incident. In future, before concrete casting, contractors will be required to take photographs or videos to record the arrangements of steel reinforcement in structural elements inspected, and have them all verified by Technically Competent Persons under the project Registered Structural Engineer, with all records of photographs or videos submitted to the BD for spot checks by the department. After concreting, contractors must engage an accredited laboratory to carry out audit checks on the steel reinforcement. The reports, after review by the project Registered Structural Engineer, will be submitted to the department for spot checks. The BD is consulting the industry on the implementation details and plans to implement the enhanced measures in or before January next year.
Furthermore, the Development Bureau has instructed its departments to review the current acceptance inspection regime. For self-testing and certification work undertaken by contractors or professionals, the review will include examining the need to introduce or enhance spot-checking and auditing arranged by the regulatory authority, and evaluating whether the penalty mechanisms for negligent contractors or professionals provide sufficient deterrence, so as to ensure the relevant duties are performed effectively.
(2) How tenders are invited and subcontracts are awarded for private projects are commercial arrangements. As for public works contracts, we have in place a system to handle tender evaluation, subcontracting and works programme management, etc. We mainly adopt the two-envelope system for public works projects. We will first assess tenderers' technical competence and performance, followed by considering their tender prices; only the tender with the highest overall score will be accepted. Based on the tender results over the past three years, about 40 per cent of public works contracts were not awarded to the lowest bids; whereas for consultancy agreements, over 60 per cent were not awarded to the lowest bids. Furthermore, we have put in place a mechanism to screen out tenders that are regarded as unreasonably low bids.
Contracts for public works prohibit contractors from subcontracting the entire contract, and limit subcontracting of particular categories to a maximum of two tiers. Moreover, prior to tendering, we will conduct systematic assessment on the time required for construction, to ensure that the time for completion of works prescribed in contracts is reasonable.
We are also making good use of technology, such as adopting the Digital Works Supervision System across all public works contracts to digitise works-related inspection and survey procedures. Starting from June this year, resident site supervisory staff and contractors' frontline management staff in all public works are required to be equipped with body-worn video cameras during inspections, with a view to effectively enhancing supervision, safety, quality and progress control.
The Construction Industry Council will set up a task force to holistically review the factors and issues affecting construction quality, and formulate practical solutions, with a view to strengthening quality assurance for construction works.
(3) To strengthen regulation, we will soon amend the Buildings Ordinance and the proposed legislative amendments will be submitted to the Panel on Development for discussion later this month. The parts concerning enhanced penalties and tighter registration regimes include:
(i) substantially raising the maximum fines for offences such as material deviation from approved plans;
(ii) expediting the processing of disciplinary hearing cases, including simplifying the composition of the disciplinary board and increasing the level of fines; and
(iii) tightening the registration regime through legislative amendments, under which the BD may require building professionals to attend interviews for assessment upon renewal of registration, and may grant a shorter renewal period to contractors.
In addition, we are liaising with professional institutions in the construction and engineering-related sectors in Hong Kong to explore how enhanced information sharing can assist the government and professional institutions in initiating disciplinary proceedings against non-compliance and breaches of integrity within their respective purviews, while encouraging them to utilise their disciplinary mechanisms to demonstrate professional self-discipline and compliance, weeding out sub-standard practitioners.
Ends/Wednesday, November 11, 2026
Issued at HKT 17:00
Issued at HKT 17:00
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