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the Section suggests and that the Department has already proposed that the Section should be renamed the "Hawker Liaison Section". In addition to the licensing of the various categories of hawkers, the Section is responsible for the detailed planning of new bazaars, for the allocation and demarcation of pitches, for collecting information and statistics on hawkers, for liaison on hawker matters with other Government departments such as the Traffic Office, the Police, the Public Works Department and the Fire Services Department, for resiting operations and for handling all matters affecting individual hawkers.
The third part of the question concerns the gathering of information from hawkers when they renew their licences. I understand that Mr. Hu has in mind the gathering of information required by the Council and the Department for planning purposes. The answer is that such information as we think we need could be collected from hawkers at the time they renew their licences, even though this would inevitably mean some delay for each hawker providing information to the office staff. At present, only some 30,000 of the 60,000 estimated number of hawkers are licensed. By this method therefore, we would collect information from only half the number of hawkers. And it must also be borne in mind that while Hong Kong hawkers renew their licences in October, Kowloon hawkers do so in April, and that the sifting and collating of information from 30,000 hawkers would be no little task. Information regarding licensed stallholders is already on record, as their original application forms provide details of the individual applicants':
Sex Age
marital status
address
type of goods sold
pitch
length of time in Hong Kong
dependent children
other dependants
other employment
physical defects
other licences held by members of family
With reference to the last part of the question, it is considered that the present strength of the Hawker Licensing Section is not adequate even for its present duties. Detailed recommendations for a larger and stronger section have already been submitted to the Colonial Secretariat, but are unlikely to be fully dealt with until the Council has clarified its hawker policy on agreed lines. Once this has been done, I understand that Government will give priority to providing the necessary resources to put the policy into effect, and the Department would then be in a much better position to collect the necessary information regarding hawkers.
MR. HU:-Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your very good and very comprehensive answer to my question. But I would like to say that what I really had in my mind was to get the fullest information about hawkers as we can. I would like to ask you, Mr. Chairman, could anything be done to collect information concerning unlicensed hawkers?
CHAIRMAN:-I think, Mr. Hu, that once the policy has been agreed and once we get more staff, we will try and cope with the unlicensed hawkers as well as the licensed.
MR. HU:-Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would also like to ask you, with regard to the detailed recommendations you have made to the Colonial Secretariat, would they be sufficient to cope with getting additional information from the licensed hawkers and from unlicensed hawkers?
CHAIRMAN:-We would like to think that, as a first step, they would be sufficient. Only time will tell, Mr. Hu.
MR. HU: The third supplementary, Mr. Chairman, I would ask you. On page 2 of your answer you listed the various items of information you already get from the hawkers. Have we made any study, analysis or classification of the information which we have in our hands?
CHAIRMAN:-Not as far as I am aware,
MR. HU: Mr. Chairman, do you think it would be useful to analyse the information we have already got in our hands?
CHAIRMAN:-I think again, Mr. Hu, it would be best to check that the information was up-to-date before we start collating it.
MR. HU: So, Mr. Chairman, you think that it would be very useful from now on, when the hawkers come to our office to renew their licences that, we should renew our efforts to get useful information from them?
CHAIRMAN:-We will certainly look into your suggestion, Mr. Hu.