ENG-2001 — Page 414

PUBLIC ORDER

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appropriate enforcement action against fire hazards identified by the 'Building Fire Safety Inspection Force' that was set up in July 2000.

In order to enrol more members to assist in reporting fire hazards and disseminating fire prevention messages, the Fire Safety Ambassador Scheme has been extended to 112 organisations, including schools, hospitals, public transportation companies and major property management companies. A total of 6 275 people were trained as Fire Safety Ambassadors during the year.

A major fire prevention publicity event was launched on November 25, focusing on improvement of fire safety standards in buildings. A series of publicity activities, including broadcasting of fire safety messages on television and radio, fire station open days as well as fire safety roving exhibitions, was organised.

During the year, Fire Services personnel conducted 51 345 fire safety inspections of all types of premises and issued 21 298 fire hazard abatement notices requiring the removal of fire hazards. These helped to ensure that fire prevention measures met the required standards and enhanced public awareness of fire safety. There were 557 prosecutions in cases of contravention of the Fire Services Ordinance, the Dangerous Goods Ordinance and the Fire Safety (Commercial Premises) Ordinance, with fines amounting to $1,746,683. The total included direct prosecutions for obstructing the means of escape in buildings, which resulted in 116 convictions and fines totalling $543,600.

The Licensing and Control Command was renamed the Licensing and Certification Command in April. It sets fire services requirements for buildings to ensure proper protection for the public. Some 7 556 submissions of building plans were processed during the year. A Bills Committee formed by the Legislative Council continued to scrutinise the Dangerous Goods (Amendment) Bill 2000 which sought to strengthen controls over the storage and conveyance of dangerous goods following a review by the command. The command had also completed a review of the Fire Services Ordinance, with a view to strengthening the enforcement powers against fire hazards, enhancing deterrent effects through revised penalties and to updating the provisions to cope with social changes and actual needs. As a result, the Fire Services (Amendment) Bill 2001 was introduced into the Legislative Council in July.

Since April 2001, the Fire Service Installation Division has been reorganised into two divisions: the Fire Service Installation Division under the Licensing and Certification Command and the Fire Service Installation Task Force under the Fire Safety Command. The former carries out acceptance tests of fire service installations and equipment in new buildings. The latter is tasked to handle complaints, conduct random checks on annual maintenance of fire service installations and equipment in existing buildings, monitor the performance of registered fire service installation. contractors and take enforcement action under the Fire Services Ordinance.

Also in April, two new divisions were set up under the Fire Safety Command: the Theme Park Projects Division and the Railway Development Strategy Division. They are responsible for scrutinising consultancy studies reports, vetting building plans from the fire safety perspective and formulating fire safety requirements and recommendations in respect of the Hong Kong Disneyland project and the new railway infrastructure projects, respectively.

A Fire Protection Information System was commissioned in May to facilitate retrieval of essential information for operational needs; preparation of statistics and