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"Under the ordinance, the notices may be served to the responsible person of a hotel or guesthouse personally or by registered post. However, serving of these notices would be difficult when the whereabouts or identity of the responsible persons are not known.
"It would assist operationally if these notices could be served by posting them in a conspicuous part of the premises without the need to state the name of the addressee," he said.
Another amendment, the spokesman said, was to allow any person authorised in writing by the Secretary for Home Affairs to enter a hotel or guesthouse to execute remedial works while a closure order was in force.
The spokesman explained that under the ordinance, the premises, once closed by order, might not be re-entered for carrying out the remedial works required. Without these works, the premises cannot be made safe and cannot be reopened as a hotel or guesthouse.
To tackle the time limit problem faced by LA in taking prosecution action against an offender, a new Section was proposed to be added in the ordinance, the spokesman said.
"Under the Magistrates Ordinance, LA is barred from initiating prosecution if an offence has been committed more than six months before the Authority issues the
summons.
"This is unsatisfactory because an offence may occur immediately after an inspection of the premises by LA at the time of renewal of the licence and in these circumstances the offence will not be discovered shortly.
"The new Section will specify that the time bar for prosecution of offences shall be either six months of the commission of the offence or six months of the offence being discovered by or coming to the notice of LA, whichever is the later," he said.
The spokesman said the bill also proposes to amend the definition of "hotel" in the Hotel Accommodation Tax Ordinance and Hotel Proprietors Ordinance.
"As 'hotel' is similarly defined in the Hotel Accommodation Tax Ordinance as in the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance, the definition has also presented problems on the charging of Hotel Accommodation Tax on establishments which are in substance hotels.