XN000022-1995-05-17 — Page 46

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Energy efficiency

Following is a speech by the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands, Mr Bowen Leung, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday) in response to Dr the Hon Samuel Wong's comment on the Code of Practice for the meeting of Building (Energy Efficiency) Regulation:

Mr President,

:

I am grateful for the Honourable Dr Samuel Wong's comment on the Code of Practice which has been published to provide guidance for professionals to meet the Building (Energy Efficiency) Regulation.

Under the Buildings Ordinance, the authorised person (AP), who is a professional, is the coordinator of building works and he is required to certify plans and all documents and submit them to the Building Authority. Requiring a registered professional engineer to certify OTTV forms for submission would cause confusion in terms of the statutory responsibility of the AP.

Whereas an AP may not be directly conversant with all aspects of buildings services design such as lighting installations, air-conditioning systems, lifts and escalators, he is able and expected to consult an appropriate professional engineer where building works or installations beyond his competence are proposed in a building project. Experience indicates that this is generally practised among all APs and has not presented any problem. There is therefore no reason to believe that professionalism in OTTV calculation and form completion cannot be secured in the

same way.

The Administration have consulted widely on the Code of Practice before finalising it for publication. The Building Sub-committee of the Land and Building Advisory Committee and the Authorised Persons and Registered Structural Engineers Committee were also consulted and the general view is that the existing arrangement whereby the AP coordinates and certifies all submissions to the Building Authority is working satisfactorily.

Moreover, adding a mandatory requirement into the Code of Practice, as the Honourable Dr Samuel Wong has suggested, is not legally permissible under the existing primary legislation. We would require additional enabling legislation to do so, but this will inevitably delay the implementation of OTTV control, which is already an "overdue" energy efficiency initiative in the building industry.

JJJ L