Police yesterday (April 29) held the Regional Traffic Day on the Hong Kong Island to raise public awareness of road safety through stringent enforcement actions.

     A total of 341 officers from Traffic Hong Kong Island and District Traffic Teams of Eastern, Wan Chai, Central and Western Districts were deployed to take enforcement actions at traffic black spots on the Hong Kong Island.

     The operation resulted in the issue of 1,334 fixed penalty tickets and 57 summonses. Among the fixed penalty tickets and summonses issued, a total of 1,196 fixed penalty tickets were issued for illegal parking and the rest were for other traffic offences.

     Police figures revealed that a total of 693 traffic accidents involving casualties occurred on the Hong Kong Island in the first three months of 2019, of which involved 201 pedestrian injuries.

     Police will continue to take regular enforcement actions to ensure road safety.

     The Rating and Valuation Department today (April 30) released online the Hong Kong Property Review 2019, which contains statistics and commentaries on the local property market in 2018, as well as forecast completions in 2019 and 2020.
 
     The full contents of the publication are available for free viewing and downloading through www.rvd.gov.hk/en/publications/index.html#statistics.
 
     Further enquiries can be directed to the department by contacting the Technical Secretary (Information) at 2150 8807.

     The Social Welfare Department (SWD) reminds charitable organisations wishing to hold flag days from April 2020 to March 2021 that the deadline for related applications is 6pm on May 15 this year.

     The application form for flag days together with the explanatory notes can be downloaded from the SWD's website at www.swd.gov.hk. The completed application form together with the required documents should reach the Lotteries Fund Projects Section of the SWD at Rooms 3601-02, 36/F, Sunlight Tower, 248 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong by 6pm on May 15 this year. Late applications will not be considered.

     Enquiries can be made by telephone to 2832 4318 or 2832 4301; by fax to 2838 0441; or by email to eolf2@swd.gov.hk.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     During the service demand surge, the Hospital Authority is closely monitoring the service demand of Accident and Emergency Departments and the occupancy rate in public hospitals. Key service statistics are being issued daily for public information. Details are in the appended table.

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, at a media session at the Hong Kong International Airport this afternoon (April 29):
 
Reporter: Mrs Lam, what will you do if the amendment is not passed during the current legislative term? Would you consider using a sunset clause to deal with the Chan Tong-kai case on a one-off basis? And do you care about the opposition from almost 100 000 of people who protested yesterday?
 
Chief Executive: The so-called "sunset clause" will not achieve the two objectives that I have just mentioned and repeatedly mentioned in public about doing this particular amendment exercise – that's point number one. Point number two is I realised at the very outset that this is not an easy task, it is going to be controversial and contentious, and that's why we have taken up this task with very serious attention, very comprehensive analysis before we present the legislative amendments to the Legislative Council. The third point I want to say is Hong Kong is a very free society. We respect the expression of opinions by the people of Hong Kong in an orderly manner, and we are always willing to listen to opinions in Hong Kong and see whether we could do more, explain more, to allay those concerns and anxieties. At the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves whether we will continue to tolerate this loophole in our system on the return of fugitive offenders to the extent that we will be making Hong Kong a haven for all these offenders of serious crimes from all over the world. We remain very convinced and committed to doing this not-easy task and I hope that we will have the support of society and the understanding and co-operation of members of the Legislative Council.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)