1966 — Page 266

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

The stalls goes to those who have the greatest need. Social Welfare Department also assists the Council in carrying out its policy on succession to fixed pitch and cooked food stall licences by investigating the circumstances and making a recommendation.

MR. BERNACCHI:-May I, as chairman of the Hawkers Select Committee, make a point of clarification on your answer Mr. Chairman, and that is that we do, in most cases, seek the advice and assistance of the Social Welfare Department. We are not in statute bound to seek this advice, and in about one or two cases a year the licences are issued direct without reference to the Director of Social Welfare. But that is a very small minority compared with the vast majority that are referred to him.

CHAIRMAN: ---Thank you, Sir.

MR. HU:-Are we bound to accept the advice given to us by the Social Welfare Department?

CHAIRMAN: The relevant passage in the written answer is: "the Hawkers Select Committee decided that new fixed pitch licences should only be issued on compassionate grounds, and on the recommendation of the Director of Social Welfare." I take that to mean that if the Director of Social Welfare states that he does not consider that the compassionate grounds are sufficient, then we do not issue the licence.

MR. HU:-In doing so, would that be against the law?

MR. BERNACCHI:-Again, I think, Mr. Hu, distinction has to be drawn between the law and the practice. In law we are the licensing authority, and as I have just said, we do issue licences in one or two cases a year to new fixed pitch holders, without the recommendation of the Director of Social Welfare. In law we can refuse to accept his negative recommendation and so issue the licence. In practice we very rarely do.

MR. HU: --Thank you very much Mr. BERNACCHI for your explanation. Mr. Chairman, I have another supplementary. Is Section 55 of the Urban Council's Ordinance the only Section which explains the relationship between the Urban Council and Urban Services Department?

CHAIRMAN:-There may be something in the Resettlement Ordinance, but as far as I am aware, Section 55 is the only part of any Ordinance which lays down the relationship between the Urban Services Department and the Council.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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MR. HU:-Mr. Chairman, you will agree with me that Section 55 is only 7 lines?

CHAIRMAN: -I know it is short, Mr. Hu. (The Chairman referred to the Ordinance) 7 lines, yes. (Laughter).

MR. HU: Mr. Chairman, is there nowhere in the Urban Council Ordinance that the relationship between the Urban Council and the Social Welfare Department is explained?

CHAIRMAN:-That is correct, Sir. But the answer I read out stated that there was no statutory connexion.

MR. HU:-Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

(5) MR. HENRY H. L. Hu asked the following question:

Does the Resettlement Department possess statistics on the number of residents in resettlement estates in age groups? Has the Department any plan to co-ordinate with other government departments or agencies to provide young people appropriate training in order to foster better and more useful citizens for Hong Kong?

THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT replied as follows:

Mr. Chairman, I understand from Mr. Hu that, in this question, he is referring particularly to technical or vocational training for young people in resettlement estates.

The answer to the first part of the question is that the Resettlement Department does have material from which it would be possible, at the cost of considerable time and effort, to produce statistics of the number of residents of resettlement estates by age-groups. This material consists of the index cards of each household of which there must be about 125,000 in the urban estates.

The answer to the second part of the question is that the Resettlement Department has co-operated with the Social Welfare Department in providing accommodation in the urban estates for about 25 vocational, pre-vocational and trade training centres, many of which offer various other services in addition to such training in order to foster better and more useful citizens. There are also many other agencies operating in resettlement estates which, while not providing "vocational" training as such, are...

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