XN000022-1995-10-13 — Page 13

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Under the existing schemes, there may, from time to time, be abuses. I don't want to comment on any particular cases which may be being investigated at the moment, but you're entirely correct in saying that we should police those schemes very thoroughly to make sure that people aren't abusing them. It's the job of the Labour Department. It's a job which the Labour Department is taking particularly seriously, not least because of recent accusations and I think all of us have got to recognise that the credibility of any, of any importation scheme, will be damaged if it looks as though employers are abusing it.

You mentioned temporary housing areas. You may have visited quite a few. I've been to ten now and I must confess that once or twice those have been more boisterous occasions than normal and I should also say that on the whole I've learnt most when I've gone on my own. When I've gone unofficially, without a great official entourage and, saving their presence, without about 40 members of the press. It's easier for me to go into people's homes, very inadequate homes, which they're making the best of. It's easier for me to see the very bad conditions in which they sometimes live and it's easier for me to have a sensible discussion with them.

We're committed to a programme under which we reduce the number of temporary housing areas from 55, when I arrived in Hong Kong, to 13 by 1997. We're committed to, and are achieving, three specific pledges:

1) That at least three-quarters of those who are in temporary housing areas in 1992, should have been re-housed by 1997.

2) We're committed to giving everybody who was in a temporary housing area in 1993, at least one offer of re- housing by 1997.

3) We're committed to getting rid of all the 14 oldest temporary housing areas, which are the worst, by 1996.

We've got rid of eight of those so far and there are six still to go.