19.
Some professional organisations have suggested that the EIA Bill should prescribe the minimum qualifications of persons involved in the statutory EIA process, a view shared by some Members of the Bills Committee. While we still consider it more appropriate to control the quality of an EIA through clear and consistently applied guidelines and meticulous vetting of the EIA report, a new Clause 32(1)(aa) is added to provide the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands with the flexibility to set out, if necessary, the qualifications of the personnel involved in an EIA study. We have no intention to set out statutory requirements on qualifications for the time being, but shall review the need to do so in the light of actual experience in implementing the EIA Bill.
Mr Chairman, I beg to move.
End
Complaints against disciplined services about non-payment
Following is a question by the Hon Yum Sin-ling and a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
It was reported recently that some members of the British Forces stationed in the territory refused to pay taxi fares and that some police officers did not pay for their meals in restaurants. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council, in respect of the past three years:
(a)
(b)
(c)
of the numbers of complaints received by the authorities concerned about non-payment of taxi fares by members of the British Forces and the disciplined services respectively;
of the numbers of complaints received by the authorities concerned about non-payment of other fees and charges by members of the British Forces and the disciplined services respectively;
how the authorities concerned handled the complaints against members of the British Forces and the disciplined services committing the above acts; and
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