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worse especially during the night time. So I hope that Mr. CHAN can respond as to what short term measures can be taken to solve or reduce illegal cooked food hawkers problem in Kwun Tong district?
MR. CHAN TAK-CHOR (in Cantonese):-Thank you for Mr. Li for raising the two questions. When I received this reply from the Department concerning the number of illegal hawkers, in fact I doubted the reliability of the figures. So I confirmed with the Department with regard to these figures. In fact the USD has carried out the headcounts at several times every year to assess the illegal hawking problem and situation on street every year. The Department carries out four headcounts in March, June, September and December. Headcounts are carried out in each district if possible on the same day, and are carried out on the week-days. Usually they will not be carried out near festivals or on rainy days when there are few illegal hawkers. District staff will divide the districts into sectors. All sectors will be covered by a team of counting officers at the rank of overseers or above. I think the figures are not so important, because the USD only wished to determine the trend by carrying out the headcounts. We should be aware that headcounts are different from registration exercises which figures are reliable, but for headcounts, there are many objective factors affecting the accuracy of the figures. Yet we cannot register unlicensed hawkers or else they will be led to believe that we will be issuing licences to them. As a result, we can only carry out headcounts over the year, the trend is that the number has been on the decrease. The second question raised by Mr. LI Wah-ming is the problem concerning illegal cooked food hawkers at the night time in Kwun Tong. In fact, this is a problem caused by the congregation of illegal hawkers in Kwun Tong, Mong Kok and even Wan Chai and other districts. These are blackspot areas because illegal hawkers congregate to do business. In Kwun Tong, as far as I can remember since last year, this Council had been discussing the problem. The Department has mounted more joint operations with the Police from one to two or three times. We are now reviewing on some suggestions that we should set up a strong central GDT to carry out raiding work. All these suggestions have been referred to the Department for consideration and we hope that the suggestions can be discussed by the Working Party chaired by Dr. Tu in due course. I dare not say that we can achieve a lot in the short term but I can assure members that the Select Committee is very concerned about the night time illegal cooked food hawkers.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI (in English):—Mr. Chairman, to control illegal hawkers, is it not really a question of the number of GDTs available. For instance, in Chai Wan only, I have it on reliable assurances that we are short of at least two GDTs.
MR. CHAN TAK-CHOR (In Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I share part of the view of Mr. BERNACCHI. Concerning GDTs, of course with more GDTs hawker control can be strengthened. As I have stated in my reply that if we can permanently station in some blackspots, a deterrent effect can be achieved. Yet
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on the other hand, we have to look at the economic effectiveness. Concerning hawker control in general, our expenditure in this regard has been increasing every year. So we have to consider how we can solve this problem most effectively. Recently, also the Government has implemented the zero-growth policy which has prevented us from increasing the number of GDTs. We, however, hope to convey Mr. BERNACCHI's suggestion to the Department to see whether we can try to remedy the situation in Chai Wan.
MR. WONG SHUI-LAI (in Cantonese):—I would like to follow up on Mr. CHAN'S reply. I have a few questions to ask. Firstly, in the reply, it is said that concerning convictions, there are 64,500 cases. I would like to know whether the number of convictions are 10 times of the total number of hawkers, i.e. all hawkers were convicted once last year or 64,500 cases do not just include 6,500 illegal hawkers because these conviction figures are very accurate and reliable. By analysing these figures, we will be able to assess the number of illegal hawkers. Can Mr. CHAN please supplement more on the number of illegal hawkers? I would like to also know the number of unlicensed hawkers in the Central and Western District and the number of unlicensed cooked food hawkers in the Central and Western District? Also I would like to ask does the Council or the Department employ the publicity vehicles, for instance those carry the staff of GDTs to carry out duties. Can we have some PA systems on those vehicles to tell the illegal hawkers and the customers that customers should not patronise the illegal hawkers because tax payers have to spend a lot of money on hawker control. Has the Department or the Council thought about such education or publicity measures?
MR. CHAN TAK-CHOR (in Cantonese):-Thank you Mr. WONG. Mr. WONG'S question can be divided into three parts. The first part concerns the conviction figures. The 64,500 convictions do not mean that all 6,500 illegal hawkers were convicted. The Department has not given me any analysis of the figures. If Mr. WONG wants the figures, I hope that the Department can after the meeting give us an analysis. However, I can tell Mr. WONG that I believe that it is impossible that all 6,500 hawkers were convicted. As to how many times each hawker was convicted, I cannot tell you now. Concerning the headcount in the different District, the Department has not provided me with a detailed breakdown of the number of illegal hawkers in different districts because in the urban area there are 10 districts. If Mr. WONG is interested in the figures, I am sure that the Department can provide the figures to Mr. WONG. I can tell Mr. WONG that in the Central and Western District, the illegal hawking situation is not as serious as in other districts especially with regard to illegal cooked food hawkers. The problem is not very serious in Central and Western District. The third part of the question is about the publicity vehicles and I think this suggestion should be further pursued by the Health Education Sub-committee.
MR. STEPHEN M. L. LAU (in Cantonese):-Mr. Chairman, I would like to follow up on a question raised by Mr. WONG. In the past year, 64,500 convictions were recorded on unlicensed hawkers. I would like to ask Mr. CHAN some questions.
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