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Government re-introduces Private Columbaria Bill

The Government has re-introduced into the Legislative Council (LegCo) the Private Columbaria Bill, which aims to regulate private columbaria through a licensing scheme to ensure compliance with statutory and government requirements, enhance protection of consumer interests, and ensure a sustainable mode of operation. The Bill was published in the Gazette today (November 11).

A spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said, "The earlier Bill was submitted to the Fifth LegCo in June 2014. After 35 meetings ending in June 2016, the Government and the Bills Committee of the Fifth LegCo reached agreement on a total of 547 Committee Stage Amendments (CSAs) that would, by refining the regulatory regime, make the Bill better suited for the purpose. The resumption of the second reading debate of the Bill was, however, derailed by filibustering on another bill preceding it.

"The re-introduced Bill adopts the framework supported by the Bills Committee of the Fifth Legco, and includes all the CSAs over which consensus has already been reached."

Under the Bill, a Private Columbaria Licensing Board (Licensing Board) will be established to regulate the operation and management of private columbaria.

A private columbarium has to obtain a licence, an exemption or a temporary suspension of liability (TSOL) in order to be able to operate. Only a licence authorises the operator to sell interment rights. A columbarium will be licensed only if it complies with specified requirements, including planning-related, land-related and building-related requirements. A columbarium's eligibility for a licence will also depend on meeting the following requirements:

(a) the columbarium premises being held directly from the Government under a lease;

(b) a management plan in respect of the columbarium having been approved by the Licensing Board; and

(c) if a deed of mutual covenant is in force in respect of the columbarium premises - written legal advice from a legal practitioner confirming that there is no express restrictive covenant as prescribed in the Bill.

The Bill states that the cut-off time for grandfathering pre-cut-off columbaria, which do not meet all the statutory and government requirements, is 8am on June 18, 2014 (the announcement time of the earlier Bill).

A sensitive and pragmatic approach is endorsed for dealing with these pre-cut-off columbaria, which includes adopting a pragmatic threshold that allows pre-cut-off columbaria with prospects for regularisation to qualify for a TSOL, adopting commencement of operation before January 1, 1990 as the basis for pre-cut-off columbaria's eligibility to apply for an exemption subject to the columbaria ceasing the sale of interment rights after the cut-off time and fulfilling certain conditions, adopting a risk-based approach to building-related requirements, and providing for certain enforcement provisions under other ordinances not applicable in these pre-cut-off columbaria that fulfil certain prescribed conditions.

Riding on the provisions of the earlier Bill, CSAs are incorporated in the Bill to enhance the measures further to better protect the interest of purchasers of private niches and ensuring proper disposal of ashes.

"While it is acknowledged that the Bill might not provide the panacea that would at one stroke put right the historical legacy inherited from the past, the longer it takes to enact the bill, the higher the prospects that the transitional issues might become so unwieldy as to defeat our endeavours to freeze the historical legacy as at the announcement of the earlier Bill. The Government will endeavour to secure an early enactment of the Bill," the spokesman said.

First reading and commencement of second reading debate of the Bill in LegCo is scheduled to take place on November 23.

Ends/Friday, November 11, 2016
Issued at HKT 12:25
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