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MR. CHAN YING-LUN (in Cantonese): Sir, according to
statistics given by
the Secretary for Security, in the last one and a half years there were 22,700 people given non-custodial sentences and half of those could be given counselling.
Does the Administration
services?
have
plans
to extend such
SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND WELFARE: Sir, I think the problem is that there are 22,000 people being given non-custodial sentences, many for quite minor offences. It would be quite impracticable simply to make compulsory arrangements for
counselling.
The difficulty is to sort out the people who
That, of course, is often done by
would benefit from it.
the Magistrate who, having heard the circumstances of the case, considers that the offender would benefit from advice from a
social worker. I think it will have to continue on this. sort of basis rather than moving onto any kind of compulsory arrangements. But the scheme operated by the Society of Rehabilitation of Offenders is a very interesting measure which I think will give us some idea of the practicability of bringing in a scheme of this sort to try and make counselling more widely available to offenders of this sort.