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more might be done in this area. May I also take this opportunity to appeal to our fellow citizens not to patronize the illegal cooked food hawkers. We need the full support of the community if we are to be successful in our efforts to drive them all out of illegal business.
MR. MOK YING-FAN (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I have some reservation on paragraph 4 of the reply. I think the Council should consider the suggestion. The reply has denied the effect of plain clothes staff arresting hawkers. The reply has denied that possibility. I would like to ask whether the Council will reconsider the possibility of having plain clothes staff to arrest illegal hawkers because in the Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign, officers in plain clothes are responsible for taking out prosecution actions against litter bugs.
CHAIRMAN (in English):—This is a request for further information. So would you raise this suggestion in the relevant committees.
MR. MOK YING-FAN (in Cantonese):—Yes, I would like to know whether we would reconsider that possibility because for illegal hawkers, it may be not convenient for uniform staff to deal with them.
MR. STEPHEN LAU MAN-LUNG (in Cantonese):—Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Mok for his suggestion. But all along the policy of the Council has been to accommodate hawkers under controllable circumstances. It is because we accept that hawking is a business in itself. We cannot treat hawkers as criminals because in our society of justice if we treat them as criminals it seems that we will be going too far. But I can also tell Mr. Mok that at the MST Select Committee we are very concerned about illegal hawkers and their carts posing potential danger to pedestrians. So we are considering how to minimise the number of illegal hawkers. For the licensed itinerant hawkers, we will try to give a fixed area for them to hawk so that we can minimise the number of hawkers plying on our streets and in turn further safeguard the safety of the pedestrians.
MR. CHAN TAK-CHOR (in Cantonese):—I would like to ask the Chairman of the MST Select Committee about paragraph 5 of his reply. Is the decision of ruling out the possibility of increasing penalty concerning illegal hawkers made on the basis of the previous statistics? Has he discussed with our legal advisor? I have read from newspapers recently that in Yau Ma Tei, some newspaper hawkers were fined with the highest penalty of $2,000 which is much higher than that imposed on illegal cooked food hawkers. I agree with Mr. FUNG that cooked food hawkers should be treated separately from other hawkers. So I hope that the Chairman of MST S/C can answer these two questions.
MR. STEPHEN LAU MAN-LUNG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, which Mr. CHAN mentions is the existing law. I would like to tell you the situation in the past 12 months. The average fine was $300. The difference between the fines of
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more might be done in this area. May I also take this opportunity to appeal to our fellow citizens not to patronize the illegal cooked food hawkers. We need the full support of the community if we are to be successful in our efforts to drive them all out of illegal business.
MR. MOK YING-FAN (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, I have some reservation on paragraph 4 of the reply. I think the Council should consider the suggestion. The reply has denied the effect of plain clothes staff arresting hawkers. The reply has denied that possibility. I would like to ask whether the Council will reconsider the possibility of having plain clothes staff to arrest illegal hawkers because in the Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign, officers in plain clothes are responsible for taking out prosecution actions against litter bugs.
CHAIRMAN (in English):-This is a request for further information. So would you raise this suggestion in the relevant committees.
MR. MOK YING-FAN (in Cantonese):—Yes, I would like to know whether we would reconsider that possibility because for illegal hawkers, it may be not convenient for uniform staff to deal with them.
MR. STEPHEN LAU MAN-LUNG (in Cantonese):-Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Mok for his suggestion. But all along the policy of the Council has been to accommodate hawkers under controllable circumstances. It is because we accept that hawking is a business in itself. We cannot treat hawkers as criminals because in our society of justice if we treat them as criminals it seems that we will be going too far. But I can also tell Mr. Mok that at the MST Select Committee we are very concerned about illegal hawkers and their carts posing potential danger to pedestrians. So we are considering how to minimise the number of illegal hawkers. For the licensed itinerant hawkers, we will try to give a fixed area for them to hawk so that we can minimise the number of hawkers plying on our streets and in turn further safeguard the safety of the pedestrians.
MR. CHAN TAK-CHOR (in Cantonese):-I would like to ask the Chairman of the MST Select Committee about paragraph 5 of his reply. Is the decision of ruling out the possibility of increasing penalty concerning illegal hawkers made on the basis of the previous statistics? Has he discussed with our legal advisor? I have read from newspapers recently that in Yau Ma Tei, some newspaper hawkers were fined with the highest penalty of $2,000 which is much higher than that imposed on illegal cooked food hawkers. I agree with Mr. FUNG that cooked food hawkers should be treated separately from other hawkers. So I hope that the Chairman of MST S/C can answer these two questions.
MR. STEPHEN LAU MAN-LUNG (in Cantonese):—Mr. Chairman, which Mr. CHAN mentions is the existing law. I would like to tell you the situation in the past 12 months. The average fine was $300. The difference between the fines of
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