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(b) The ultimate goal is still to resettle all the deserving hawkers to low-cost bazaars and markets in such districts in which the residents' buying powers are generally low, e.g., the public housing estates. Many hawkers have indicated that they are prepared to contribute to the initial costs of building such bazaars and markets so that such development and resettlement can be expedited. In the meantime, while we tolerate, without other choices, hawkers trading in streets, we shall charge them licence fees in lieu of rent to lessen, if not alleviate, our burden on managing and controlling them.
(c) The undeserving hawkers will be helped or forced by a joint working team of the Urban Services and the Labour Department to take up other jobs or work.
(d) The streets should then be cleared of hawkers altogether.
(e) To help the Council look for adequate spaces for hawkers pending ultimate resettlement, I wish to draw the Council's attention to the parking facilities in many public housing estates. I am not objecting to people owning cars. However, what surprises me is that the income requirement of the residents in such estates is supposed to be such that they do not have surplus to own and maintain any motor cars. The shops in such estates do not require so many spaces for parking goods vehicles either. Furthermore, during day-time, the spaces are 90% empty. It may therefore be advisable to consider using such spaces to accommodate some of the licensed hawkers during certain hours of the day. Although the space is outside the jurisdiction of the Council, yet the Council can consider renting the spaces from Housing Authority and subletting them to the licensed hawkers at a rate between $100 to $300/month/space, which will yield a very substantial revenue for the Council. It has been argued that the shops in the estates are already sufficient to meet the demand of the residents there. However, one must not forget the fact that sufficiency of shops meeting the demand of residents at the initial stage will reach a limit when the capacity of residents has expanded rapidly in the course of time. This explains why hawkers are needed by residents in some of the older estates, like Ping Shek Estate.
(f) Another point under this heading is about the General Duties Team which is responsible for the control of hawkers. Their salaries are disgracefully low, starting at $1,050 per month without any increments for the first 5 years and with only $5.00 per year increment thereafter until they reach a disgraceful or pitiful maximum of $1,125.00. Therefore, most of them have to do part-time jobs or go to the racecourse to try their luck for extra money to maintain themselves and their families! If they shall fail to find extra work or win extra money, their ultimate recourse is borrowing from financing companies. As a result thereof, they are either overworked or heavily indebted!
(g) In the past, the General Duties Team have been mistakenly thought by the illegal hawkers to have the powers of arrest. As a matter of fact, many of the team have been mistakenly ordered to effect the arrest of hawkers. Since I have clarified their legal position that they have no power of arrest, the General Duties Team have found themselves the declared scarecrows to the hawkers who are no longer afraid of them. The fact remains that with only one or two foremen or overseers per Team having power of arrest and with the General Duties Team strictly doing their duties as labourers, very few arrests can be safely effected in the future. In a recent case, when an overseer tried to effect an arrest by himself alone, he was seriously wounded. In the circumstances, the pay structure and the function of the General Duties Team should be reviewed as soon as possible. Pure increase in the number of overseers may not be sufficient.
3. Food Hygiene
It has been the policy of the Council to suspend the licence of a restaurant or food factory for a certain number of days after a certain number of convictions for offences under the relevant Ordinances. However, it is desirable to review the said policy on the following grounds:
(a) It is the rule of Natural Justice that a person should not be tried twice for the same offence.
(b) Likewise, it is also one of the rules that a person should not be punished twice for the same offence.
(c) Therefore, if a licensee has contravened any of the provisions of the Ordinance, the Licensing Authority may either prosecute the offending licensee and let the court decide on the verdict and the punishment or, the Licensing Authority may use its executive power under the law to use suspension as a punitive measure.
(d) However, if the Licensing Authority has deemed fit to leave the matter to the Court to decide, it is obliged to abide by the verdict as well as the punishment given and imposed by the Court. It is not right to try and punish the offender twice for the same offence for which he has already been tried and punished by the court of law. If the practice of allowing the executive to impose additional punishment to what the judiciary has already done on the ground that the judiciary's punishment is not adequate, we will be walking on a dangerous track. For instance, if the Commissioner of Police shall be allowed to impose a sentence of imprisonment in addition to what the Court has ordered just because the former considers the latter's sentence too light, our Constitutional System will collapse.
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(b) The ultimate goal is still to resettle all the deserving hawkers to low cost bazaars and markets in such districts in which the residents' buying powers are generally low e.g. the public housing estates. Many hawkers have indicated that they are prepared to contribute to the initial costs of building such bazaars and markets so that such development and resettlement can be expedited. In the mean- time, while we tolerate, without other choices, hawkers trading in streets, we shall charge them licence fees in lieu of rent to lessen. if not alleviate, our burden on managing and controlling them. (c) The underserving hawkers will be helped or forced by a joint working team of the Urban Services and the Labour Department to take up other jobs or work.
(d) The streets should then be cleared of hawkers altogether. (e) To help the Council look for adequate spaces for hawkers pending ultimate resettlement, I wish to draw the Council's attention to the parking facilities in many public housing estates. I am not objecting to people owning cars. However, what surprises me is that the income requirement of the residents in such estates is supposed to be such that they do not have surplus to own and maintain any motor cars. The shops in such estates do not require so many spaces for parking goods vehicle either. Furthermore, during day-time, the spaces are 90% empty. It may therefore be advisable to consider using such spaces to accommodate some of the licensed hawkers during certain hours of the day. Although the space is outside the jurisdiction of the Council, yet the Council can consider renting the spaces from Housing Authority and subletting them to the licensed hawkers at a rate between $100 to $300/month/space which will yield a very substantial revenue for the Council. It has been argued that the shops in the estates are already sufficient to meet with the demand of the residents there. However, one must not forget the fact that sufficiency of shops meeting the demand of residents at the initial stage will reach a limit when the capacity of residents has expanded rapidly in the course of time. This explains why hawkers are needed by residents in some of the older estates, like Ping Shek Estate.
(f) Another point under this heading is about the General Duties Team which is responsible for the control of hawkers. Their salaries are disgracefully low, starting at $1,050 per month without any incre ments for the first 5 years and with only $5.00 per year increment thereafter until they reach a disgraceful or pitiful maximum of $1,125.00. Therefore most of them have to do part time job or to go to the race course to try their lucks for extra money to maintain themselves and their families! If they shall fail to find extra work or win extra money, their ultimate recourse is borrowing
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from financing companies. As a result thereof, they are either over- worked or heavily indebted!
(g) In the past, the General Duties Team have been mistakenly thought by the illegal hawkers to have the powers of arrest. As a matter of fact, many of the team have been mistakenly ordered to effect arrest of hawkers. Since I have clarified their legal position that they have no power of arrest, the General Duties Team have found themselves the declared scarecrows to the hawkers who are no longer afraid of them. The fact remains that with only one or two foremen or overseers per Team having power of arrest and with the General Duties Team strictly doing their duties as labourers, very few arrests can be safely effected in the future. In a recent case, when an overseer tried to effect arrest by himself alone, he was seriously wounded. In the circumstances, the pay structure and the function of the General Duties Team should be reviewed as soon as possible. Pure increase in number of overseers may not be sufficient.
3. Food Hygiene
It has been the policy of the Council to suspend the licence of a restaurant or food factory for a certain number of days after certain number of con- victions for offences under the relevant Ordinances. However, it is desirable to review the said policy on the following grounds:-
(a) It is the rule of Natural Justice that a person should not be tried
twice for the same offence.
(b) Likewise, it is also one of the rules that a person should not be
punished twice for the same offence.
(c) Therefore, if a licensee has contravened any of the provisions of the Ordinance, the Licensing Authority may either prosecute the offending licensee and let the court decide on the verdict and the punishment or, the Licensing Authority may use its executive power under the law to use suspension as a punitive measure.
(d) However, if the Licensing Authority has deemed fit to leave the matter to the Court to decide, it is obliged to abide by the verdict as well as the punishment given and imposed by the Court. It is not right to try and punish the offender twice for the same offence for which he has already been tried and punished by the court of law. If the practice of allowing the executive to impose additional punishment to what the judiciary has already done on the ground that the judiciary's punishment is not adequate, we will be walking on dangerous track. For instance, if the Commissioner of Police shall be allowed to impose sentence of imprisonment in addition to what the Court has ordered just because of the former considers the latter's sentence too light, our Constitutional System will collapse
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