HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Mr. Joseph CHAN Yeuk-Sut, Chairman OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SELECT Committee, replied as follows (in Cantonese):-This three-part question concerns hygienic problems of bringing dogs into food premises.
By-law 10B of the Food Business (UC) Bylaws prohibiting the presence of dogs on food premises was enacted by the Council in October 1994. The enactment was not made because there was any major problem or that dogs posed a serious health risk. This enactment was no more than part of normal updating of the law. Health Inspectors of the Department regularly inspect licensed food premises at frequencies ranging from two weeks to eight weeks to ensure compliance with all aspects of laws pertaining to environmental hygiene. When dogs are found on licensed food premises, the Health Inspector will give warnings to dog owners and the licensee for immediate rectification. Prosecution will be taken out when the warning is ignored. According to the departmental records, this problem occurs very infrequently. No prosecutions have been found necessary over the past twelve months and only one complaint has been received so far. The maximum penalties for contravening this bylaw are currently a fine of $5,000 and imprisonment for three months, although an overall review is being made by the Attorney General's Chamber on the levels of fines in order to bring these in line with inflation. As a result, it is anticipated that the maximum fine for this offence would be raised to $10,000 as part of this general review.
On the second part of the question, there is no provision under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap. 132 prohibiting and penalising customers using food utensils to feed dogs and cats in food premises. However, such occurrences would be rare and there are adequate licensing conditions and codes of practice to deal with any such instances.
On the third part of the question, wide publicity was made by the Department when the bylaw was first introduced. Moreover, stickers carrying the message not to bring dogs into food premises have been distributed to all licensed food premises for display. Although it is not a legal obligation, most of the operators, in their own interest, choose to display the stickers at conspicuous places to avoid possible conflict with their customers.
Ms. Jennifer Chow Kit-bing (in Cantonese):—With regard to the first part of the answer. I query the effective enforcement of existing bylaws, in particular after I have been given to know that there was only one complaint case. My question is whether there are in fact difficulties in prosecution and whether it was because of the difficulties that Departmental staff did not prosecute for fear of trouble, hence only one complaint was recorded. Before prosecution can be taken, there must be evidence and it is necessary to have people and exhibits as evidence. So we can see there are certain difficulties as far as prosecution is concerned. Would the Department review the difficulties in enforcement and make amendments in this area for a better deterrent effect?
Page 11 of 498
Page 11 of 498