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As to whether there will be a review, a report will be submitted to the meeting of the Markets and Street Traders Select Committee this month. At the meeting, it will be decided whether there is a need for a review. So, I cannot give Mr. CHEUNG a reply today as to whether there will be a review. That is to be decided by the Committee. As the Chairman of Markets and Street Traders Select Committee, I am in no position to make a decision at this point.
The third question is concerned with liaison. If we decide to change the policy in certain aspects or continue with our present policy, we will liaise with people of the trade and notify them of our plans, or we will explain to them about the stand or the new policy. Again, that can only be decided after we have decided on whether a review will be conducted.
MR. ALBERT LAI WING-LIN (in Cantonese):—From paragraph 4 of the reply, I see that on average, there are 50,000 cases of arrests each year. From paragraph 8, according to an informal survey, the number of unlicensed hawkers stands at around 5,000. In other words, each unlicensed hawker was arrested 10 times a year. I don't know if those are accurate figures and from where the figures come from?
Mr. Ip Kwok-Chung (in Cantonese):—I can assure you that the figures are accurate. We could not have fabricated the figure of 50,000 cases. As to whether it means each hawker being arrested ten times a year, it's simple arithmetic and I don't think Mr. LAI can be wrong. It's just simple arithmetic. I can only say that the fact remains that we make 50,000 arrests each year on average.
Mr. Lee Kwok-KEUNG (in Cantonese):—I beg your pardon, Mr. Chairman. I would like to follow up. I am not trying to make it difficult for Mr. IP, but I don't quite understand. Let me ask the question in another way. As stated in paragraph 8, the number of unlicensed hawkers is expected to drop in the next few years. If that is the case, are we going to cut our establishment for this service? If there are fewer hawkers, we don't need so many manpower to manage them. If you treat forecast as guesswork, what is the use of a 5-year plan? I think the plan needs some basic statistics to project the growth of manpower.
MR. IP KWOK-CHUNG (in Cantonese):—On this point, if the number of unlicensed hawkers really drops, we will surely not ask the Department to create more posts for HCTs. However, Mr. LEE has to bear in mind one point. We forecast the need for 1,000 more posts, but not all those posts are for the management of unlicensed hawkers. In fact, some 300 of them are to be responsible for the management of markets. In any case, to ensure that markets are not affected by unlicensed hawkers, we need members of the Hawker Control Officer grade for protection. So overall speaking, the request for additional staff as mentioned in paragraph 8 may not materialize, or the number requested may be slightly reduced. Both scenarios are possible.
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