TNAG-1735-FCO40-2448-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 152

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 18 May 1988

SECRETARY FOR Health and WELFARE: Sir, the planned capacity of the testing centre at Sheung Lok Street is 17 000 vehicles per year. At the moment, the centre is approximately half-staffed which is largely caused by the problem of recruiting sufficient staff to operate the centre but a recruitment programme is under way. At present, it is operating at a capacity of about 600-700 vehicles per month and we hope, will be up to the full capacity as soon as the additional staff have been recruited.

MR. POON CHI-FAI (in Cantonese): Sir, regarding the answer in paragraph 3, will the Government inform this Council why the Government decides that there is a need to review thoroughly the emission standards? Secondly, does the intention to have the review contradict with the earlier comment that the initial results of the vehicle smoke control programme is encouraging?

SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND WELFARE: Sir, we intend to review the standards to see whether they are still appropriate. They were incorporated in legislation some time ago. My comment that the initial results of the present programme are encouraging, means that at the standards as they exist in the legislation at the moment most of the vehicles which are called up do seem able to comply with these standards the first time they come. To that degree, the initial results are satisfactory but we need to look at the standards from time to time to see if they need adjusting themselves.

MRS. CHOW: Sir, with reference to the last sentence of paragraph 2 of the answer, how many excessively smoky vehicles have been issued with fixed penalty tickets or examination orders in the last 12 months, and does this figure indicate an increase or decrease over the previous two years and has such police action been an effective deterrent?

SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND WELFARE: Sir, I have the figures for 1985, 1986 and 1987 which of course were before the new Vehicle Emission Control Section of the Environmental Protection Department came into operation. One thousand five hundred and fifteen fixed penalty tickets were issued in 1985, 3 071 in 1986 and 5 307 in 1987. The numbers of vehicles that were called up for inspection were: 1096 in 1985, 2 853 in 1986 and 3 550 in 1987. With the new centre in operation there should be an increase this year. I think it is a little early with the new system in operation to indicate how satisfactory this is going to be. As I have said, the new Vehicle Emission Control Section of the Environmental Protection Department will be reviewing the position after the first six months; that will be at the end of the next month and we then should have a better indication of the success of the project.

DR. CHIU: Sir, will the Secretary of Health and Welfare inform this Council whether owners of defective vehicles are issued with fixed penalty tickets by the Vehicular Emission Control Section if they fail to pass the test?