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Fire Safety (Commercial Premises) Bill
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, at the resumption of the second reading debate of the Fire Safety (Commercial Premises) Bill in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
The Fire Safety (Commercial Premises) Bill aims to provide better protection from the risk of fire in certain kinds of commercial premises where members of the public are likely to be present in significant numbers.
I am grateful to the Honourable James To and members of the Bills Committee for the great care they have taken in scrutinizing the Bill since it was introduced into this Council in May last year. This process has helped the Administration to fine-tune the Bill in a manner which would ensure the purpose of the legislation can be achieved in the most effective manner.
In the course of discussions in the Bills Committee, we have also received comments from the Real Estate Developers Association and Hong Kong Institute of Architects on the implementation of the Bill. We have carefully considered the views of both the Bills Committee and the two organisations in preparing for the committee stage amendments.
The principal amendments in respect of this Bill which I will purpose at the committee stage include -
(a)
To specify in the Schedules the responsibilities of "owner" and "occupier" of prescribed commercial premises in complying with the fire safety requirements under the Bill. This will reflect clearly that owners will be responsible for those improvement works which require structural changes of the premises and the occupier for those involving non-structural changes. There has been some lengthy discussion on the definition of "occupier". Although some members still find it not entirely satisfactory, the proposed definition should ensure that no one will unreasonably be caught by the definition. At the same time, it should enable the relevant enforcement authority to identify a senior staff member responsible for the management of the premises so that necessary enforcement action can be taken to ensure that relevant premises are as far as possible kept free from the risk of fire and the consequences of fire.