1986 — Page 25

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

interesting and challenging since I took over the Chairmanship of the Board six years ago.

In my opinion, the Board must tread a delicate tightrope, because, apart from being a licensing authority, it is also more or less a guardian of morality. Therefore, when considering an application for a liquor licence, the Board must make every effort to weigh all the pros and cons very carefully before any decision is made.

This is never an easy task since, on the one hand, the Board has to take account of the commercial interests of the applicant, and on the other the public's interests, while at the same time considering complicated legal technicalities. That is why the SCC/UC usually attends our meeting to give us advice on legal matters.

Then we had the issue of 'rip-off bars which dominated the headlines for quite a while last August and September. The Board had to handle this thorny problem with the help of the Consumer Council and the Police.

Following public warnings issued to liquor licensees last September and October, the number of complaints concerning over-charging on licensed premises has fallen sharply.

However, the Board has now devised further measures to guard against future rip-off tactics. At its last meeting the Board decided that when the licences of premises involved in these complaints come up for renewal, four special conditions would be imposed.

These include placing in the main entrance of the premises a price list showing the price of all drinks, to be clearly displayed in letters or figures of a size specified by the Board. In fact, some members reminded me that the size of the Chinese characters will have to be of the same size as the English letters.

Furthermore, the Board will continuously monitor these premises and revoke the licence of any found to be over-charging.

The Board is also concerned over the suspected illegal employment of Filipinas in licensed premises, particularly in Wan Chai.

The Immigration Department has already taken action against some licensed premises for employing Filipina overstayers and the Board is now keeping a close watch on the issue with the assistance of the Police and the Immigration Department.

In this connection, I must warn all licensees that to prevent such malpractices the Board, as the licensing authority, has the power to impose a condition on licensed premises to ensure that employees are vetted. In fact, we have imposed such conditions on ten licensees.

The duties of members of the Board are not confined to sittings in this Chamber to hear applications and objections . . . they include also the staging

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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of surprise inspections of licensed premises at regular periods to ensure all licensing conditions are being met by the licensees. In fact, in 2 months' time, we will be visiting some of the licensed premises but it is not appropriate for me to announce the premises we are going to visit in this Chamber.

Summing up, I believe it is fair to say that the Board plays an important role in ensuring that the operation of licensed premises in urban Hong Kong is socially and morally acceptable.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank previous members of the Board for their services and to welcome those new members of the Board whose appointments will be confirmed later today in the Committee Stage of this meeting.

STATEMENT BY MISS CECILIA L. Y. YEUNG, CHAIRMAN OF THE FOOD HYGIENE SELECT COMMITTEE

She said (in Cantonese):---Mr. Chairman, it is coming more and more to the notice of the Food Hygiene Select Committee that unlicensed restaurants are blatantly proliferating throughout Hong Kong. The Food Hygiene Select Committee is paying attention to this in order to take care of public health and we hope that unlicensed premises can be controlled.

Of course the Urban Services Department is quick to take action when these establishments open for business, serving summonses and making sure that the operators are prosecuted in Court, but there can be no doubt that the operators regard the fines imposed on them merely as business expenses which they gladly pay while continuing to thumb their noses at the law.

This cannot go on. The Council, through its legal advisers, is looking at ways of having such unlicensed premises physically boarded up so as to protect the public.

The people who patronise these unlicensed restaurants are putting their health at risk. No controls of any kind exist over such premises; there are no inspections of kitchens and food-preparation rooms to ensure that the health by-laws are being abided by.

We are doing our best to have the law tightened up, but in the meantime I must urge members of the public not to knowingly patronise such unlicensed restaurants. They are risking food poisoning and worse.

Meanwhile, I also wish to report that last month the licences of six food outlets in the urban area were suspended for two to 14 days as a result of serious breach of the Food Business By-laws.

The worst offender was a restaurant in Chung King Mansions, Tsim Sha Tsui, which had a record of nine convictions for breaching the By-Laws within a period of 36 months. Its 14-day suspension in fact ended at midnight last night.

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