Following is a question by the Hon Wu Chi-wai and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative Council today (June 27):

Question:

     An incessant increase in the number of new referrals (including suspected cases of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to the Child Assessment Service (CAS) under the Department of Health (DH) in recent years, coupled with the high turnover rate of doctors, has resulted in the failure of CAS last year to fulfill its performance pledge that 90 per cent of new cases are assessed within six months. In addition, in 2017-2018 (as at December 31, 2017), the longest median waiting time of the new cases of child and adolescent psychiatric specialist outpatient (CAPSO) among various hospital clusters was 119 weeks. On the other hand, the Government will regularise the Pilot Scheme on On-site Pre-school Rehabilitation Services (On-site Services Scheme) starting from the 2018-2019 school year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) as some psychiatrists have pointed out that the incidence rate of ADHD among school-age children is 5 per cent to 9 per cent, whether the authorities have estimated the current number of ADHD children in the territory and, among them, the number of those who are undiagnosed; if so, of the details; of the authorities' new measures to identify hidden cases as early as possible;
 
(2) whether the authorities have compiled statistics on the respective current numbers of child psychiatrists serving in DH, public hospitals and private hospitals, and the number of those in private practice;
 
(3) whether DH has specific measures to increase the doctor manpower of CAS, with a view to shortening the service waiting time and fulfilling the aforesaid performance pledge; if so, of the details;   
 
(4) among the members of the interdisciplinary teams of the On-site Services Scheme, of the types of professionals who may prescribe psychiatric medications; the time when the Scheme will be open for application, and the anticipated impact of the regularisation of the Scheme on the waiting time for CAPSO services;
 
(5) as some non-profit-making organisations currently conduct assessments and provide therapies to low-income families' children with suspected ADHD, whether the authorities have plans to collaborate with such organisations in order to shorten the waiting time for the relevant public services; and
 
(6) whether the Government, the Hospital Authority and local universities studied in the past three years the causes of ADHD (including its relationship with genetic inheritance), with a view to identifying the causes of ADHD and formulating specific preventive measures as early as possible?

Reply:
 
President,
 
     Having consulted the Labour and Welfare Bureau, my reply to Hon Wu Chi-wai's question is as follows:
 
(1) As at December 2017, the total number of patients under 18 years of age being treated at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service under the Hospital Authority (HA) which were diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) was 13 630. The Government does not have the statistics of all AD/HD patients in Hong Kong.
 
(2), (3) and (5) Currently, there are 31 Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) under the Department of Health (DH) which provide a range of health promotion and disease prevention services to children from birth to five years. The child health services include immunisation, health and developmental surveillance, and parenting education. Children with developmental concerns identified during developmental surveillance will be arranged for a MCHC doctor's preliminary developmental assessment. After being assessed by doctors of MCHCs, children with suspected developmental problems would be referred to Child Assessment Service under DH/HA for further assessment.
 
     The Child Assessment Service under DH (CAS) adopts a multi-disciplinary team approach for assessment. The assessment team comprises paediatricians, nurses, clinical psychologists, speech therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, audiologists, optometrists and medical social workers. The team will seek information from the parent on the development, behaviour and learning of the child, and, with the application of assessment tools and clinical observation appropriate to the child's age and condition, conduct assessments on various developmental aspects of the child such as physical, cognition, language and communication, self-care and behaviour. The team will also arrange and coordinate follow-up and rehabilitation services in accordance with the child's individual needs and the family's circumstances.
 
     In the past few years, the number of new referrals to the CAS has been on an increasing trend. Nearly all new cases in CAS were seen within three weeks after registration. The assessment service will then be arranged according to needs. Due to the continuous increase in the demand for assessment service and the high turnover rate and difficulties in recruiting doctors, the target for completion of assessment for 90 per cent of the new cases in CAS within six months in 2017 was unable to be met. A triage system has been adopted in CAS to ensure that children with urgent and more serious conditions are accorded with higher priority in assessment. To meet increasing service demands, additional resources have been allocated to CAS in the past few years to recruit additional manpower. In order to shorten the waiting time and to strengthen the assessment service provided, we are planning to recruit additional nurses and allied health professionals for the CAS. Moreover, DH will continue its effort in filling the vacancies through recruitment of new doctors and internal re-deployment.
 
     On the other hand, DH is planning to establish a new Child Assessment Centre (CAC) with a view to strengthening the manpower support and enhancing service capacity to meet the rising number of referred cases. To meet the demand during the construction period, DH has opened a temporary CAC in an existing clinic in Ngau Tau Kok in January 2018.
 
     Furthermore, the Government is looking into ways to provide mental health services to children in a more effective manner, with a view to shortening the waiting time for assessment. At the same time, DH will strengthen its nursing and allied health manpower to provide support services for children and their parents during the waiting period.
 
     Currently, there are 23 officers in the Medical and Health Officer grade in DH who are Fellows of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in Paediatrics, and they are working in the CAS, Clinical Genetic Service, Family Health Service and Student Health Service. At present, the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine does not have a subspecialty in child psychiatry.
 
     On the HA front, HA delivers mental health services using an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach involving psychiatric doctors, psychiatric nurses, clinical psychologists, medical social workers, and occupational therapists. The adoption of a multi-disciplinary team approach allows flexible deployment of staff to cope with service needs and operational requirements. As at December 31, 2017, there were 351 psychiatric doctors working in the psychiatric stream of HA. As healthcare professionals providing child and adolescent (C&A) psychiatric services in HA also support other psychiatric services, HA does not have the breakdown on the manpower for supporting C&A psychiatric services only.
 
(4) The Social Welfare Department (SWD) launched the Pilot Scheme on On-site Pre-school Rehabilitation Services (the Pilot Scheme) by phases in November 2015. The Pilot Scheme aims to provide rehabilitation services, including training in gross and fine motor skills development, speech development, cognitive and social skills development, through multi-disciplinary teams arranged by non-governmental organisations, for children with special needs at participating kindergartens (KGs)/kindergarten-cum-child care centres. The Pilot Scheme also provides professional advice and assistance for KG teachers/child care workers who are responsible for looking after children with special needs, and renders support to parents. Given the nature of the services, the multi-disciplinary team comprises occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, clinical/educational psychologists, social workers and special child care workers. Professionals who are permitted to prescribe psychiatric drugs are not included.
 
     The Government has announced that the Pilot Scheme will be regularised from the 2018/19 school year onward. Upon service regularisation, family members/carers of children with special needs may make application via social workers or staff of rehabilitation service units who will refer them to SWD's Central Referral System for Rehabilitation Services.
 
(6) In the past three years, there was no commissioned research or investigator-initiated research projects funded by the Food and Health Bureau or HA on the relationship between AD/HD and genetics.

     The Government today (June 27) announced the appointment of the Chairperson and members of the Advisory Committee on Admission of Quality Migrants and Professionals for a two-year term from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2020.

     The Committee advises the Director of Immigration on applications received under the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme and the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals.
          
     The Committee will be chaired by Mr Chow Chung-kong and comprise 18 non-official members. The non-official membership is (in alphabetical order) as follows:
     
Mr Chow Chung-kong (Chairperson)
Dr Daniel Chan Ching-yan*
Ms Rainy Chan Nor-ka
Professor Anthony Chan Tak-cheung
Professor Cheng Shuk-han
Mr Human Cheung*
Professor Cheung Siu-yin
Mr Chong Man-keung
Dr Hung Keung
Mr Ko Tin-lung
Mr Matthew Lam Kin-hong*
Mr Edmund Lam Siu-chung
Mr Anthony Leung Ming-tim*
Dr Liu Yuk-shing*
Ms Anthea Lo Wing-sze*
Ms Malina Ngai Man-lin
Mrs Lillian Okusako Chan Pui-shan
Ms So Ching
Ms Ellen Tsang Fung-chu
 
* Newly appointed
 
      Ex-officio members on the Committee are representatives from the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the Security Bureau and the Labour Department.

      "We are grateful to the Committee for the service over the past two years and have benefited from their wise counsel. We look forward to the valuable advice from the Chairperson, Mr Chow Chung-kong, and re-appointed members as well as the new members," a government spokesman said.

     The effective exchange rate index for the Hong Kong dollar on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 is 101.9 (up 0.5 against yesterday's index).

     Following is a question by the Hon Kenneth Leung and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative Council today (June 27):
 
Question:
 
     In December 2016, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) launched a six-month pilot scheme on installation of Internet Protocol (IP) cameras (the Scheme) to step up combating acts of illegal refuse deposits. Extended since the 6th of this month, the Scheme will gradually cover the various districts across the territory, with the number of illegal refuse deposit blackspots to be installed with cameras increasing to 80. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) whether, in the past two years, the FEHD (i) deployed staff to step up patrols at the aforesaid 80 blackspots and investigated the peak hours for illegal refuse deposits, as well as (ii) took other measures to combat acts of illegal refuse deposits at such places; if patrols were stepped up, of the number of such patrols and the number of prosecutions instituted; if other measures were taken, of the details and the manpower involved;
 
(2) of (i) the costs and unit cost to be incurred as well as the cost breakdown, and (ii) the manpower to be deployed, for the Scheme in the current financial year;
 
(3) of the anticipated completion time for installing the cameras; the resolution of the cameras and how many pixels the recorded footage has; whether the recording system is equipped with face recognition function; whether the cameras are operated on a round-the-clock basis; of the methods for storage and transmission of the footage recorded and whether encryption has been made; if encryption has been made, of the standard applied;
 
(4) whether any staff members from outsourced service contractors are involved in the operation of the Scheme; if so, of the measures put in place to prevent such staff members from intruding on the privacy of members of the public; whether the FEHD has deployed staff to conduct real-time surveillance of the images captured by the cameras; of the measures put in place to ensure that the Scheme is operated in compliance with the six data protection principles set out in Schedule 1 to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486); the reasons why the FEHD has not consulted the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data on the implementation of the Scheme; 
 
(5) given that, at present, any footage recorded by police officers using their body worn video cameras, which does not carry any investigative or evidential value or is not suitable for training or review purposes, must be deleted after 31 days from the date it was produced, of the justifications for the FEHD to keep its recorded footage for as long as six months;
 
(6) as the FEHD has stated that the information collected from the footage is for the purpose of identifying the patterns of the acts of illegal refuse deposits with a view to formulating more effective law enforcement actions, whether the same purpose can be achieved through FEHD deploying staff to conduct on-site surveillance; if so, whether it has assessed if the collection of personal data through the Scheme complies with the following provisions under Principle 1 of the Data Protection Principles: (i) the data is adequate but not excessive in relation to the purpose, and (ii) subject to the said provision, the collection of the data is necessary for the purpose;
 
(7) of the number of prosecutions instituted by the FEHD since December 2016 using the footage recorded under the Scheme as evidence against people who had illegally deposited refuse and, among such cases, the number of convictions; and
 
(8) of the respective numbers of occasions since December 2016 on which the FEHD has (i) provided the footage recorded under the Scheme to other government departments, and (ii) approved staff members from other government departments to conduct real-time surveillance of the blackspots through the Scheme (broken down by name of department and reason for making such a request), as well as the procedure for vetting and approval of such requests?

Reply:
 
President,
 
     The staff of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) pay special attention to the situation of illegal refuse deposit blackspots during their routine work. Illegal deposit of refuse or feeding of wild birds by some people are often found at these blackspots, thereby causing environmental hygiene problems and affecting streetscape. The FEHD has to arrange clean-ups and conduct blitz operations and take enforcement actions, which requires enormous manpower resources and affects FEHD's daily operation, but lacks significant and long-lasting effects. In view of the above, the FEHD launched a six-month pilot scheme on installation of Internet Protocol (IP) cameras at a total of six refuse deposit blackspots in Central and Western, Sham Shui Po and Yuen Long districts in late December 2016, which has effectively curbed illegal deposits of refuse through targeted surveillance and enforcement actions. Given the encouraging results, the FEHD has, after consulting all District Councils, extended the scheme to cover some 80 refuse deposit blackspots in the territory for a trial period of one year.
 
     My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
 
(1) The FEHD often reviews its enforcement approach in tackling illegal refuse deposit blackspots in various districts. To address the environmental hygiene problems caused by frequent illegal deposits of refuse and waste at individual blackspots at midnight or in early morning, the FEHD has stepped up publicity, education, scavenging and enforcement efforts. Among the some 80 target blackspots under the scheme, the FEHD instituted 153 and 248 prosecutions in 2016 and 2017 respectively. As this is part of the day to day work of the FEHD, it is not possible to give a breakdown on the manpower involved.
 
(2) The total cost of the one-year service contract for the installation of IP cameras is about $12.7 million. As the implementation of the IP camera system is part of the day to day work of the FEHD, it is not possible to give a breakdown on the manpower involved.
 
(3) IP cameras will be installed in two phases at some 80 refuse deposit blackspots over the territory. Phase I started on June 6, 2018 with cameras installed at 46 blackspots, while phase II is anticipated to commence in early October with cameras to be installed at more than 30 other blackspots. The IP camera system mainly records the situation at illegal refuse deposit blackspots and does not have any facial recognition function. The IP cameras operate on a round-the-clock basis. The storage and transmission of data are all encrypted and comply with the Government's requirements on information technology security.
 
(4) Rental, installation and maintenance services of the IP cameras are provided by the FEHD contractor. According to the service contract, the contractor shall observe and comply with the requirements specified in the contract regarding protection of personal data, operation, physical security and information technology security. Only authorised staff of the contractor are allowed to handle the video recordings. They have to sign an undertaking for compliance with and execution of the contract requirements. FEHD staff will conduct regular checks at the contractor’s offices and server rooms storing the video recordings to ensure the contractor and its staff's observance and compliance with the contract requirements. Before implementation of the scheme, the FEHD has sought advice from the Department of Justice (DoJ) regarding the implementation details to ensure that the operation is in compliance with the laws of Hong Kong, including the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) (the Ordinance) and the data protection principles.
 
(5) Footage without suspected cases being captured will normally be deleted forthwith after random checking (approximately within one month). For cases that prosecution may be instituted, staff of the FEHD may take some time to conduct investigation basing on the images captured. Since the statutory time limit for prosecution is generally six months from the date of the incident, the video recordings may be retained for a maximum period of six months or until the completion of investigation. In the event that the recordings shall be produced as evidence in court, the FEHD is required to retain them until the conclusion of the case.
 
(6) Although the FEHD has stepped up publicity, education, scavenging and enforcement efforts, illegal deposits of refuse has worsened, which has aroused dissatisfaction among the public. Therefore, the FEHD installed IP cameras at the refuse deposit blackspots to enhance the monitoring of the time and patterns of the offences, based on which more effective enforcement actions could be planned.
 
     On-site surveillance at the blackspots to collect information and take enforcement actions requires a lot of manpower resources. Moreover, the effects are not significant and long-lasting. The installation of IP cameras can facilitate FEHD's work to combat illegal deposit of refuse and enhance deterrence. In addition, staff of the FEHD may apply the real-time surveillance function of IP cameras in blitz operations at blackspots and initiate on-the-spot enforcement against the offenders at high time of illegal activities.
 
     The main aim of installing IP cameras is to record the situation of the blackspots rather than to collect information of the persons identified.  Before extending the scheme to all districts, the FEHD has sought DoJ's advice again on the implementation details to ensure that the implementation of the scheme is in compliance with the laws of Hong Kong, including the Ordinance, and the data protection principles.
 
(7) As at May 31, 2018, the FEHD has used the footage recorded under the scheme to analyse the patterns of offences and/or as evidence against people who had illegally deposited refuse in 79 cases, among which convictions were secured in 72 cases.
 
(8) The FEHD has provided the Hong Kong Police Force with four video recordings and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department with one video recording in response to their requests for enforcement and investigation purposes. If other Government departments would like to obtain the footage taken by the FEHD for enforcement actions and prosecutions, the FEHD will consider the requests in accordance with section 58 of the Ordinance.

     Following is a question by the Hon Tommy Cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative Council today (June 27):

Question:

     Under the existing legislation, liquor licences may be issued only to natural persons but not body corporates and companies. For trade facilitation, the Government has implemented since March last year a Reserve Licensee Mechanism (RLM), allowing a liquor licensee to identify and nominate at an early stage a suitable person as a reserve licensee to take over the duty of the licensee within a short period in case of sudden departure of the licensee. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the respective numbers of applications for nomination of a reserve licensee received and approved by the authorities since the implementation of RLM; among the bars and other types of restaurants which have been issued with liquor licences, the respective current numbers and percentages of those that have a reserve licensee;

(2) as some members of the catering industry have relayed that under the existing requirements, an application for nomination of a reserve licensee may only be submitted together with an application for new issue, transfer or renewal of liquor licence, whether the authorities will consider permitting liquor licensees to submit applications for nomination of a reserve licensee at any time during the licence period, with a view to enhancing the flexibility of RLM; if so, of the implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that;

(3) of the number of applications, received by the authorities since the implementation of RLM, for authorisation of a reserve licensee to manage a liquor-licensed premises (together with a breakdown by whether the liquor-licensed premises were bars or other types of restaurants), as well as the average time taken for processing those applications; and

(4) whether it has reviewed the effectiveness of RLM; if it has reviewed and the outcome is that RLM is ineffective, whether the authorities will consider afresh the proposal of permitting liquor licences to be held by body corporates or companies; if so, of the implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     The Liquor Licensing Board (LLB) implemented the Reserve Licensee Mechanism (RLM) on March 28, 2017, under which a liquor licensee can identify and nominate at an early stage a suitable person as a reserve licensee. The reserve licensee can take over the role of the licensee as soon as possible in case of his/her departure under predictable or unforeseen circumstances, so as to avoid disruption to the liquor selling business and allay the concern of the trade over the sudden departure of the "natural person". At present, an application for nomination of reserve licensee can be submitted together with the application for new issue, renewal or transfer of liquor licence. Should there be a sudden departure of the liquor licensee, the business owner or operator can apply for authorisation of the nominated reserve licensee to temporarily manage the liquor-licensed premises, and the owner or operator can meanwhile formally apply to the LLB for transfer or new issue of liquor licence.

     My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:

(1) From March 28, 2017 to May 31 this year, the LLB received 2 733 applications for nomination of reserve licensee, of which 1 652 were approved.  As at May 31 this year, the numbers and percentages of liquor-licensed premises where their applications for nomination of reserve licensee have been approved, with a breakdown by the type of liquor licence (with or without bar endorsement), are set out as follows:
 

Note 1: It means a bar operates on the particular premises.  According to section 2 of the Dutiable Commodities (Liquor) Regulations (Cap. 109B), a "bar" means any place exclusively or mainly used for the sale and consumption of intoxicating liquor.  

Note 2: As at May 31, 2018, a total of 2 733 applications for nomination of reserve licensee were received. Among them, 1 652 applications were approved, one was rejected and 205 required no further actions due to withdrawal by the applicants or other reasons, such as applicants failing to provide relevant documents before the deadline. The remaining 875 applications were being processed.

(2) At the initial stage of the implementation of RLM, to avoid delay in processing the applications caused by a sudden surge in workload of the departments concerned, the LLB only accepted applications for nomination of reserve licensee submitted by the applicants (including existing licensees) together with their applications for new issue, renewal or transfer of liquor licence. The LLB will monitor the implementation of the RLM from time to time and conduct timely reviews. For instance, it will look into the feasibility of relaxing the arrangement to allow the licensees to submit nomination applications separately, and increasing the number of reserve licensees to be nominated with a view to facilitating the trade. In addition, to further minimise the disruption to business operation in case of sudden departure of the licensee, since July last year, the LLB has started to accept applications for transfer of liquor licence from liquor licenced business owners or operators even without consent of the current liquor licensees. Overall speaking, we believe that the two trade facilitation initiatives mentioned above could further minimise the impact of sudden departure of the licensee on the trade. 

(3) From March 28, 2017 to May 31, 2018, the LLB received 21 applications for authorisation of reserve licensee, of which 14 were approved. The numbers of applications for authorisation of reserve licensee received and approved, with a breakdown by the type of liquor licence (with or without bar endorsement), are set out as follows:
 

Note 3: As at May 31, 2018, a total of 21 applications for authorisation of reserve licensee were received. Among them, 14 applications were approved and the remaining seven were being processed.
 
     Under normal circumstances, the LLB Secretariat may grant approval-in-principle to the authorisation of reserve licensee within four working days after receiving the application. The application will then be circulated to the Police for comment. Upon receiving the comments of the Police, the LLB will consider whether or not to formally approve the authorisation. At present, it takes an average of 25 working days to process an application.
 
(4) According to the Dutiable Commodities (Liquor) Regulations (Cap. 109B), a liquor licence should only be issued to a "fit and proper person". The legislative intent of this provision is to make a natural person instead of a company the holder of a liquor licence. As the regulatory work relies heavily on the licensees' fulfilment of their legal and administrative responsibilities, it is a licensing condition that the licensee must personally supervise the operation of the premises. As for the trade's suggestion of allowing a body corporate to be issued with a liquor licence for the purpose of facilitating business operation, the Government is conducting preliminary studies on it. 
 
     Moreover, some trade members suggest that consideration should be given to classifying liquor licences into different categories in accordance with the types of risks involved, in a bid to strengthen the risk management of various types of liquor-selling premises. The Government will consider making use of the risk assessment principles to set the criteria for classifying liquor-licensed premises into different risk types. The criteria may include the term of the liquor licence, past records of the liquor-licensed premises (e.g. whether the premises had caused any noise nuisance to nearby residents or received complaints during the licence period), records of contravention of licensing conditions, location and operation mode of the premises, and liquor-selling hours. Specific criteria will also be followed when considering the feasibility of allowing a body corporate to be issued with a liquor licence.