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PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
Finally, the third part of the paper discusses the correct direction for reforms of food safety and environmental hygiene. I feel that the correct direction of the Consultation Document should be to enable the SAR Government to further improve management of food safety and environmental hygiene. That direction should benefit efforts to ensure healthy living and be conducive to the long term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong. We should not conduct a review simply for the sake of review and no restructuring should be implemented for the sake of restructuring.
The result of any review should be beneficial to the community and it should be able to stand the test of time. If there is fragmentation of food safety and environmental hygiene responsibilities and the situations of each department caring only for its own work, many departments responsible for policies, each shifting blame on the other and protecting each other, the root of the problem should be duplication, ambiguity and unclear work delineation among departments responsible for formulating policies on the management of food safety.
In respect of the criticism that the two municipal councils differ in their food safety and environmental hygiene policies, the only example is that PUC bylaws for the control of sashimi and sushi cover meat as well whereas those of the ProRC do not cover raw meat. That is the only difference in food control laws. It is not the cause of recent cases of food incidents and it is not the reason for bringing up the issue of efficiency in handling urgent food poisoning cases. In fact, the select committees of both councils on environmental hygiene already held two joint meetings to rectify the problem of inconsistency. At the Public Health Select Committee of the PUC held on July 8, I asked for a reply from the USD and an example of inconsistency over food policy resulting in a food incident. None of those present, including the Director, Deputy Director and Assistant Director of USD, was able to give me a reply. I hope this will be put on record.
I would like to make a statement here at today's meeting. If anyone can prove that the 12 food hygiene cases within the last 18 months were caused by inconsistency of policies of the PUC and ProRC, I will resign from my position on the Public Health Select Committee of the PUC as an act to shoulder responsibility.
I feel that to tackle and improve management of food safety and environmental hygiene as well as to improve efficiency and protect public health, one must adopt a pragmatic approach. Only by doing so can we hit the nail on the head. If we make up reasons, coin excuses, mislead public opinion, create public opinion and make the two municipal councils swallow facts simply to justify cancellation of food safety and environmental hygiene functions of the PUC, we are just stepping on the councils one more time to smear the Council's contributions towards the two functions. If this happens, the two municipal councils will never be cleared of the accusations. If the
Page 90 of 606
Page 90 of 606
Page 90Page 91
Page 91 of 606
Page 91 of 606
Page 90 of 606
Page 90 of 606
PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
Finally, the third part of the paper discusses the correct direction for reforms of food safety and environmental hygiene. I feel that the correct direction of the Consultation Document should be to enable the SAR Government to further improve management of food safety and environmental hygiene. That direction should benefit efforts to ensure healthy living and be conducive to the long term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong. We should not conduct a review simply for the sake of review and no restructuring should be implemented for the sake of restructuring.
The result of any review should be beneficial to the community and it should be able to stand the test of time. If there is fragmentation of food safety and environmental hygiene responsibilities and the situations of each department caring only for its own work, many departments responsible for policies, each shifting blame on the other and protecting each other, the root of the problem should be duplication. ambiguity and unclear work delineation among departments responsible for formulating policies on the management of food safety.
In respect of the criticism that the two municipal councils differ in their food safety and environmental hygiene policies, the only example is that PUC bylaws for the control of sashimi and sushi cover meat as well whereas those of the ProRC do not cover raw meat. That is the only difference in food control laws. It is not the cause of recent cases of food incidents and it is not the reason for bringing up the issue of efficiency in handling urgent food poisoning cases. In fact, the select committees of both councils on environmental hygiene already held two joint meetings to rectify the problem of inconsistency. At the Public Health Select Committee of the PUC held on July 8, I asked for a reply from the USD and an example of inconsistency over food policy resulting in a food incident. None of those present, including the Director, Deputy Director and Assistant Director of USD, was able to give me a reply. I hope this will be put on record.
I would like to make a statement here at today's meeting. If anyone can prove that the 12 food hygiene cases within the last 18 months were caused by inconsistency of policies of the PUC and ProRC, I will resign from my position on the Public Health Select Committee of the PUC as an act to shoulder responsibility.
I feel that to tackle and improve management of food safety and environmental hygiene as well as to improve efficiency and protect public health, one must adopt a pragmatic approach. Only by doing so can we hit the nail on the head. If we make up reasons, coin excuses, mislead public opinion, create public opinion and make the two municipal councils swallow facts simply to justify cancellation of food safety and environmental hygiene functions of the PUC, we are just stepping on the councils one more time to smear the Council's contributions towards the two functions. If this happens. the two municipal councils will never be cleared of the accusations. If the
Page 90 of 606
Page 90 of 606
Page 90Page 91
Page 91 of 606
Page 91 of 606
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