Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ18: Female toilet facilities

Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (May 27):

Question:

A paper provided by the authorities for the meeting of the Panel on Welfare Services of this Council on October 23, 2008 indicates that the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) has, since April 2004, increased the female-to-male WC compartment ratio (F/M toilet compartment ratio) from 1.5:1 to 2:1 in planning its public toilet facilities. Furthermore, the Buildings Department promulgated a new Practice Note in 2005 advising developers to provide female toilet compartments according to the increased F/M toilet compartment ratio in designing shopping arcades, cinemas and places of public entertainment. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:

(a) of the current average F/M toilet compartment ratio of public toilets under FEHD, and the respective numbers of public toilets that have reached the 2:1 ratio and those that have not;

(b) whether they know the number of female toilet compartments that have been added to existing shopping arcades, cinemas and places of public entertainment since the aforesaid Practice Note was issued; whether such figures have met the authorities' expectation; if they have, of the details; if not, how the authorities will follow up; whether they will consult various women's groups on the implementation of the Practice Note; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(c) whether they are aware that some shopping arcades have refused to let members of the public who are not their customers to use their toilets, which exacerbates the problem of shortage of female toilets; if so, of the details; and whether they will urge the shopping arcades concerned to allow the public to use their toilets; and

(d) whether there is any plan to provide in busy districts additional public toilets or single toilets similar to the unisex ones provided for disabled persons at present to improve the situation that male toilets are oversupplied while female ones are insufficient; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,


(a) Since 2004, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) has adopted a male-to-female (M/F) toilet compartment ratio of 1:2 in planning for new public toilets, reprovision or refurbishment of the existing public toilets and conversion of aqua privies into flushing toilets. Subject to the location and size of the public toilets, together with other technical considerations, the FEHD will provide more female toilet compartments to facilitate female users whenever the circumstances permit. At present, there are a total of 854 public toilets (531 flushing toilets and 323 aqua privies) under the management of the FEHD, of which about 120 have reached the M/F toilet compartment ratio of 1:2. The FEHD will continue to adopt this ratio in planning for new public toilets and reprovisioning of the existing public toilets and aqua privies.

(b) Building plans for the provision of sanitary fitments in private premises are approved by the Buildings Department (BD) in accordance with the Building (Standards of Sanitary Fitments, Plumbing, Drainage Works and Latrines) Regulations (the Regulations). In May 2005, the BD issued the Practice Note for Authorised Persons and Registered Structural Engineers (the Practice Note) to recommend raising the ratio for assessing the number of male to female in private shopping arcades, cinemas and places of public entertainment from the statutory standard of 1:1 to 1:1.25 and revising the standard for provision of female toilet facilities accordingly. Since the promulgation of the Practice Note in May 2005, the BD has received, as at end of March 2009, a total of 35 applications for building projects with provision of increased female toilet facilities in accordance with the recommendation of the Practice Note. Among them, 33 are shopping arcades and 2 are cinemas and 14 of them have already been completed.

Prior to the promulgation of the Practice Note, the BD has consulted women groups and other stakeholders. Views collected during the consultation revealed that the revised ratio leading to an increase in female toilet facilities was well received. Many stakeholders also hoped that the relevant standard could be further enhanced. In this connection, the BD, taking the Practice Note as basis, plans to further enhance the provision of female toilet facilities in the premises concerned. The BD is now consulting the industry and relevant stakeholders on the package of proposed amendments to the Regulations and undertaking the preparatory work for the amendment of the Regulations in parallel.

(c) Whether a shopping arcade will open its toilets for public use is a decision resting with the management of individual shopping arcade. The Administration does not have such information. However, if there are complaints, we will convey the request for opening the toilets for public use to the shopping arcades concerned accordingly.

(d) In providing public toilet facilities, the FEHD takes into account a variety of factors such as availability of suitable sites at the proposed location, pedestrian flow at the location and the areas nearby (e.g. whether it is a popular tourist attraction), and whether the provision of public toilets in Government premises (e.g. parks and playgrounds) or shopping arcades in the vicinity is sufficient to meet the needs of local people and visitors. Hong Kong is a small, densely-populated place. There are already a lot of on-street facilities (such as telephone booths, signage, fixed-pitch hawker stalls and electricity meter boxes) and underground services (such as electricity, gas, and water supply as well as drainage) in busy districts. It is therefore difficult to identify suitable sites for providing public toilets (including the single unisex ones). As a matter of fact, upon a decision to build a new public toilet, the FEHD will determine the number of M/F toilet compartments with reference to pedestrian flow and the area of the site, and will also provide single toilets for the disabled. The FEHD will, as far as circumstances permit, provide more female toilet compartments in building new public toilets or reprovisioning the existing public toilets.


Ends/Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:24

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