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In this connection, on the legislative side,
we amended the Protection of Children and Juveniles Ordinance in November 1993 to extend protection to children suffering from psychological and emotional abuse, in addition to physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect, and introduce a child assessment procedure to enable the Government to intervene effectively at an early stage of suspected child abuse or neglect;
we amended the Criminal Procedure Ordinance and the Evidence Ordinance in July 1995 to afford greater protection to child witnesses in criminal proceedings by minimising the trauma caused to them by repeated questioning about the abuse incident during the investigation process and court proceedings;
as a deterrent to potential abusers, we substantially increased the maximum penalties under the Offences against the Person Ordinance as from September 1995 for offences which expose the lives of children to danger, ill-treating or neglecting children; and
we introduced a Bill into the Legislative Council in June this year to prohibit unsuitable persons from acting as childminders and to facilitate the formation and operation of mutual help child care groups so as to exercise control of child minding activities outside of child care centres and to address the problem of children being left unattended at home.
Various services are provided to combat child abuse. These are reviewed and modified to cope with changing needs and circumstances. For dealing with child
abuse cases,
the Social Welfare Department (SWD) computerised its Child Protection Registry in July 1994 so that more comprehensive data on child abuse cases will be available to facilitate planning of services and early intervention into suspected cases by frontline professionals;
the SWD and the Police established a Child Protection Special Investigation Team in December 1995 to conduct joint investigation into suspected child abuse cases and video-record interviews of child witnesses. A special programme to provide support to child witnesses while they are testifying in court will be introduced by mid-1997;