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Nurses Registration (Amendment) Bill
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in moving the second reading of the Nurses Registration (Amendment) Bill 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
time.
I move that the Nurses Registration (Amendment) Bill 1996 be read the second
This Bill aims to restrict the use of the title "nurse". The existing Nurses Registration Ordinance does not provide for sanctions against the use of the title "nurse" by unqualified persons. However, since nursing is a recognised profession, we propose to restrict the use of the title to qualified persons only, namely registered nurses and enrolled nurses. Any unauthorised use of the title would therefore be an offence.
End
Immigration (Amendment) (No 2) Bill
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in moving the second reading of the Immigration (Amendment) (No 2) Bill 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move the Second Reading of the Immigration (Amendment) (No 2) Bill 1996. The Bill seeks to amend the definition of a lawfully employable person, and to impose a duty on the employer to inspect the travel document of any person who is not a permanent resident before employing him.
In response to the growing community concern on the impact of illegal employment activities in Hong Kong, the Administration has launched a vigorous campaign against illegal workers and their employers. The strength of the Immigration Task Force deployed to tackle this problem has been doubled. As a result, there have been significant increases in the number of anti-illegal employment operations and arrests. In 1995, a total of 2,160 such operations were conducted, representing an increase of 101% when compared with 1,074 operations carried out in 1994. Also in 1995, 5,833 illegal workers and 2,302 employers were arrested, an increase of 7.9% and 62.6% respectively over the number of 5,404 illegal workers and 1,416 employers arrested in 1994.