WK LO's LegCo Express
April 2025
1. Elected Chairman of the Buildings Energy Efficiency (Amendment) Bill 2025
At the Buildings Energy Efficiency (Amendment) Bill 2025 meeting on 14 April, I was elected Chairman of the Bills Committee. The Bill seeks to amend the Buildings Energy Efficiency Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation to extend the scope of regulation to more types of buildings; to provide for the publication of certain technical information in energy audit reports; and to shorten the intervals of energy audit to be carried out in respect of specified buildings.
2. Joined the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2025
At present, all driving licences are issued in physical form. The Government has been striving for innovation in licence management in tandem with the vision of developing Hong Kong into a smart city. The Bill is introduced to amend Cap. 374 and its subsidiary legislation to provide for the use of electronic driving licence and electronic driving instructor’s licence in Hong Kong; and make the forgery of such an electronic representation an offence. Members finished the scrutiny of the Bill at the meeting of 28 April. I joined the Bills Committee in April.
3. Joined Housing (Amendment) Bill 2025
The Bill seeks to amend the Housing Ordinance (Cap. 283) to criminalize the unauthorized letting, occupation, or use for trade or business, of rental residential flats of the Housing Authority’s estates; to empower authorized officers to require persons believed to be trespassers or to contravene Cap. 283 to furnish identity information, and make it an offence for estate tenants or members of their households to refuse to furnish information regarding their total income and assets; to extend the limitation of time for prosecuting an offence relating to unlawful alienations of land; to empower the Director of Housing to specify certain forms of notices for the payment and recovery of fixed penalties for the contravention of bylaws relating to vehicles within the estates; and to make related and miscellaneous amendments to Cap. 283 and the Housing (Traffic Contraventions) (Fixed Penalty) Bylaw (Cap. 283C). I joined the Bills Committee in April.
4. Joined the Promotion of Recycling and Proper Disposal of Products (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2025
The Bill seeks to amend the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (Cap. 603) and its subsidiary legislation to introduce producer responsibility schemes for various products under which suppliers, retailers or scheme operators are required to make arrangements for the recovery of those products; to replace the use of prescribed forms by specified forms for notices and certificates issued under the existing PR scheme for plastic shopping bags; to revise the power to make regulations for the purposes of that existing scheme; and to amend the Waste Disposal Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation to regulate the disposal of certain products. I joined the Bills Committee in April.
5. Funding projects approved in the FC and the PWSC
At the PWSC meeting on 16 April, the funding project of HK$24.8 million was approved for carrying out the works to revitalise Fong Yuen Study Hall into an experiential learning centre to be named as “Fong Yuen Study Hall – Experiential Learning Centre”. Another funding project of HK$70.2 million was also approved for carrying out the works to revitalise Homi Villa into a learning centre to be named as “CNHE Youyou Villa”. On the same day, another project of HK$1.15 billion was approved for the construction of fire station-cumambulance depot with departmental quarters and facilities at Anderson Road Quarry Site, Sai Kung. These projects, along with others, will be submitted to the FC for further approval.
At the FC meeting of 25 April, members approved the direct use of principal by the following funds for meeting their cash flow requirements: Research Endowment Fund; Hospital Authority Public-Private Partnership Fund; Language Fund; Student Activities Support Fund; Qualifications Framework Fund; and Gifted Education Fund. To enable the Government to make more flexible and effective use of public financial resources, the unspent balance of the six funds above in the next five years will be brought back to the Government’s accounts. The financial arrangements of these funds need to be revised to ensure the sustainable operation of the funds after the transfers of their balance.
