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MR. BERNACCHI (in English):-In fact, yes, by approximately $18 million, but how that is met will be a policy decision of the Standing Committee for the Whole Council.
(2) MR. TSIN SAI-NIN asked the following question (in Cantonese):-
Does the Council have any long term programmes for the local and overseas training of Health Inspectors to meet the growing needs of the Community?
MR. JOHN MACKENZIE, CHAIRMAN OF THE ADMINISTRATION SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):-
Appendix I
MR. TSIN'S question concerns long term programmes for the local and overseas training of Health Inspectors. I am pleased to assure Mr. TSIN that the Council is very conscious of the need for a highly trained Health Inspectorate under Hong Kong conditions and is promoting a positive policy of training and expansion in this service area.
At present the Council employs over 500 Health Inspectorate personnel who are engaged in the various areas of cleansing, hygiene, pest control, licensing, food import sampling at testing, meat inspection at health education. To meet growing commitments an expansion of the Inspectorate is planned from the present base to a total establishment of 762 or an increase of over 38%, by 1981.
The departmental Training Unit is responsible for the training of Health Inspectors and details are given in the schedule which I lay on the table separately. It will be seen from this that a large number of officers will receive formal training in various fields, locally and overseas, over the next few years.
An Urban Council noise laboratory is also being set up and, when specialist officers return from advanced training overseas in noise abatement, the Training Unit will provide local courses for Health Inspectors in place of the short basic course now conducted by the Extra-Mural Department of the University of Hong Kong.
From the foregoing paragraphs, Mr. TSIN and the Council will see that the Council is constantly planning and revising long term programmes for local and overseas training of Health Inspectors to meet the growing needs of the community in this area.
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long term programmes for local and overseas training of Health Inspectors to meet the growing needs of the community in this area.
MR. TSIN (in Cantonese):--Mr. Chairman, where will the Health Inspectors be trained? Where overseas?
MR. MACKENZIE (in English):-Mr. Chairman, the table I have laid shows various centres of training for the Inspectors at overseas locations. There are training centres in fact in several countries but the majority, for reasons of continuity of training processes and because standards and specifications are based to a great degree on U.K. established standards, most of our current overseas training is done in the U.K., but we are conscious also of the need to develop local training and we are using overseas trained officers as much as possible to develop our local facilities.
(3) MRS. E. ELLIOTT asked the following question (in English):-
(a) Kwun Tong is one of the most heavily populated of the new towns of Hong Kong. Its main shopping centre has scarcely expanded in the past 20 years because its main artery is limited to the length of Yue Man Square. What market and bazaar facilities exist to make up for the deficiency in shops?
(b) What is the per head proportion of licensed hawker sites to population?
(c) What plans are there to serve the needs of the population in view of the blitz being carried out on hawkers in the area?
(d) Why are long-term hawkers not being licensed and resited to serve the needs of the population?
MISS CECILIA L. Y. YEUNG, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF HAWKERS SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in Cantonese):—
Mr. Chairman, I would like to reply to Mrs. ELLIOTT's question on behalf of Dr. Hu.
In the first part of this question Mrs. ELLIOTT asks what market and bazaar facilities exist in Kwun Tong. From the wording of the question I assume that she is referring to the central part of Kwun Tong rather than to public
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