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venue and sports development system. I hope all of you would regard public interest, which is of utmost importance, as our first concern instead of shirking responsibility because of objection from any of the grades, and solve the problem squarely on the principle of not affecting other staff.
Next, I have three points to raise on public health:
The first one concerns the recent problem of unlicensed restaurants, which has also been mentioned in the speeches of some fellow Members. We have been continuously receiving complaints from the public against the slow licensing process, which has even allegedly resulted in losses to many investors. Therefore, we have introduced the Provisional Licensing System to meet the needs of the trade. Yet unfortunately, many people still keep on expanding their business and operating unlicensed restaurants, taking advantage of the loopholes in our laws and our inefficient law enforcement procedures. Why do I say so? The reason is that to prosecute the operator and suspend the business of an unlicensed restaurant is very time-consuming. I hope that both the issuance of a summons and the application for an injunction can be done at the same time. I also hope that we can urgently consider adopting the system of issuing fixed penalty tickets instead of summonses so as to bring about a greater deterrent effect.
The second point concerns the fire services equipment and the control of hot-pot restaurants which are all the rage today. In recent years, with portable gas stoves becoming popular, many restaurants, including fast-food restaurants and some hot-pot restaurants with limited floor areas, have commenced business one after another. At present, there is no appropriate regulation for the control of this kind of food premises, of which some even do not have any sprinkler system. Nevertheless, we are not at our wits' end. We have been referring our cases to other government departments, such as the Fire Services Department, for prosecution actions. In the interests of the public, the Democratic Party urges the Urban Council to review, as soon as possible, the licensing system for this kind of food premises. To protect the safety of customers, these food premises should be required to obtain a hot-pot food permit in addition to a General Restaurant Licence.
The third point I am going to talk about is the food labelling system. Last year, in view of the practices of the European Communities and World Health Organization, the Department of Health introduced some new regulations concerning labelling and amended the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) Regulations. However, these amendments only deal with the expiry dates of food/drugs, but do not make any references to additives and artificial colourings. Recently, the Department of Health has considered bringing our practices in line with that of the EC countries by incorporating the requirements on artificial colourings and additives into our food regulations. However, a large number of codes would be used to denote the quantities of different additives and harmful substances in food/drugs. The Democratic
Page 384 of 498
Page 384 of 498
Page 384 of 498
423
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
venue and sports development system. I hope all of you would regard public interest, which is of utmost importance, as our first concern instead of shirking responsibility because of objection from any of the grades, and solve the problem squarely on the principle of not affecting other staff.
Next, I have three points to raise on public health:
The first one concerns the recent problem of unlicensed restaurants, which has also been mentioned in the speeches of some fellow Members. We have been continuously receiving complaints from the public against the slow licensing process, which has even allegedly resulted in losses to many investors. Therefore, we have introduced the Provisional Licensing System to meet the needs of the trade. Yet unfortunately, many people still keep on expanding their business and operating unlicensed restaurants, taking advantage of the loopholes in our laws and our inefficient law enforcement procedures. Why do say so? The reason is that to prosecute the operator and suspend the business of an unlicensed restaurant is very time-consuming. I hope that both the issuance of a summons and the application for an injunction can be done at the same time. I also hope that we can urgently consider adopting the system of issuing fixed penalty tickets instead of summonses so as to bring about a greater deterrent effect.
I
The second point concerns the fire services equipment and the control of hot-pot restaurants which are all the rage today. In recent years, with portable gas stoves becoming popular, many restaurants, including fast-food restaurants and some hot-pot restaurants with limited floor areas, have commenced business one after another. At present, there is no appropriate regulation for the control of this kind of food premises, of which some even do not have any sprinkler system. Nevertheless, we are not at our wits' end. We have been referring our cases to other government departments, such as the Fire Services Department, for prosecution actions. In the interests of the public, the Democratic Party urges the Urban Council to review, as soon as possible, the licensing system for this kind of food premises. To protect the safety of customers, these food premises should be required to obtain a hot-pot food permit in addition to a General Restaurant Licence.
The third point I am going to talk about is the food labelling system. Last year, in view of the practices of the European Communities and World Health Organization, the Department of Health introduced some new regulations concerning labelling and amended the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) Regulations. However, these amendments only deal with the expiry dates of food/drugs, but do not make any references to additives and artificial colourings. Recently, the Department of Health has considered bringing our practices in line with that of the EC countries by incorporating the requirements on artificial colourings and additives into our food regulations. However, a large number of codes would be used to denote the quantities of different additives and harmful substances in food/drugs. The Democratic
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