Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ4: Progress of designating public transport interchanges as no smoking areas
Following is a question by the Hon Andrew Cheng and a reply by the Secretary for
Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (November 28):
Question:
During the scrutiny of the Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Bill 2005 by this
Council last year, the Government accepted my relevant suggestion and decided to
empower the Director of Health to designate public transport interchanges ("PTIs")
as statutory no smoking areas. However, the Government proposed that the
initiative would not be implemented until it had completed its work on setting
up a fixed penalty system for smoking offence in 12 to 15 months' time following
the enactment of the Bill. In this connection, will the Government inform this
Council:
(a) given that 13 months have lapsed since the enactment of the above Bill, when
the Director of Health will designate PTIs as no smoking areas;
(b) of the latest progress of the Government's work to demarcate the boundaries
of no smoking areas in PTIs, and the respective situations in respect of the
PTIs in covered premises and in the open air; and
(c) whether it will introduce into this Council a bill on setting up a fixed
penalty system for smoking offence within 2007; if not, of the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
I would like to provide a consolidated reply to the question raised by the Hon
Andrew Cheng as follows.
During the committee stage of the Smoking (Public Health)(Amendment) Bill 2005,
we reached a consensus with the Bills Committee to incorporate a provision into
the legislation empowering the Director of Health to designate public transport
interchanges (PTIs) as statutory no-smoking areas.
As I explained at the resumption of the Second Reading debate on the Bill, "in
view of the varying designs of PTIs, the designation of a no-smoking area in
every PTI will require the support of additional resources and manpower. In
accordance with the priorities of resource utilisation, we will first introduce
a fixed penalty system for smoking offences before designating no-smoking areas
in PTIs". The arrangement was also accepted by the Bills Committee.
Our current priority is to prepare for introducing a fixed penalty system for
smoking offences. We have just completed the consultation with the District
Councils on the proposal and the drafting of the principal legislation is well
underway. With the present work progress, we expect to introduce a Bill to the
Legislative Council for scrutiny by early 2008. At the same time, the Department
of Health is also working with other relevant government departments and the
Judiciary to examine and formulate necessary practical procedures and an
information system for the fixed penalty system to support the issuance of fixed
penalty notices and other relevant follow-up actions. We expect that the
practical arrangements to support the fixed penalty system will be put in place
around 10 months after the enactment of the principal legislation.
Depending on the progress of legislation and the successful implementation of
the support arrangement, we are currently aiming to put the fixed penalty system
into operation in 2009. We also plan to take forward the designation of PTIs as
statutory no-smoking areas after the implementation of the fixed penalty system.
Our initial plan is to first designate covered PTIs as statutory no-smoking
areas. Designation of open PTIs as statutory no-smoking areas will be considered
in the next stage.
Ends/Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:26
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