The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, chaired the sixth meeting of the third-term Commission on Poverty (CoP) this afternoon (July 16).

     The CoP endorsed the launch of three proposed new assistance programmes and the proposed extension of two existing assistance programmes of the Community Care Fund (CCF).

New assistance programmes

(1) The CoP agreed to launch the Pilot Scheme on Subsidy for Conversion of School Premises for Transitional Housing – Lok Sin Tong Primary School to facilitate the Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society Kowloon to convert the premises of its primary school in Kowloon City to provide transitional social housing for no less than three years. The pilot scheme, with an overall provision of $13.04 million, is expected to provide about 50 units and benefit around 180 people;

(2) The CoP agreed to launch the Subsidy to Purchase and Construct Modular Housing to enable the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) to implement its Modular Social Housing Pilot Scheme – Yen Chow Street Project. Under the pilot scheme, the HKCSS will purchase and build modular housing in order to provide transitional social housing. The pilot scheme, with an overall provision of $99.92 million, is expected to provide about 205 units and benefit around 420 people; and

(3) The CoP agreed to launch the Digital Terrestrial Television Assistance Programme. HKCSS will be engaged as the overall implementation agent to help analogue television (TV) households with financial difficulties obtain digital TV receivers so that they can continue to access local free TV programmes after the switching off of analogue TV broadcasts on November 30, 2020. The assistance programme, with an overall provision of $456.45 million, is expected to benefit around 160 000 eligible households.

     In addition, the CoP agreed in principle to launch the Assistance Programme to Improve the Living Environment of Low-income Subdivided Unit Households and the overall provision of $287.04 million of the programme. The programme seeks to provide a one-off subsidy for low-income households living in subdivided units (SDU) to improve their living environment through carrying out minor improvement/repair works, purchasing furniture and household goods as well as pest control services. HKCSS will be the overall implementation agent and will partner with various non-governmental organisations to procure the needed goods and services for eligible households. Having regards to members' comments, the Social Welfare Department will review and revise the details of the programme, including the maximum level of allowance eligible for households of different sizes benefitting from the programme. The revised details will be circulated to members after the meeting.
      
Extension of existing assistance programmes
      
     In addition, the CoP endorsed the extension of the Pilot Scheme on Raising the Maximum Level of Disregarded Earnings for Recipients with Disabilities under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme for 12 months till end-September 2020 to continue to raise the maximum level of disregarded earnings for Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients with disabilities to encourage them to secure employment. Under the pilot scheme, the total disregarded earnings of a disabled CSSA recipient from employment is at a maximum of $4,000 per month (i.e. the additional disregarded earnings is up to a maximum of $1,500 per month). The CoP also endorsed an additional funding provision of $6.81 million, making the revised total provision $54.06 million; and
      
     The CoP also endorsed the extension of the Pilot Scheme on Providing Subsidy for Higher Disability Allowance Recipients in Paid Employment to Hire Carers for 12 months till end-September 2020. The extension will continue to provide a monthly subsidy of $5,000 for existing eligible beneficiaries to hire carers to assist them in travelling between their home and workplace (not applicable to persons working from home), thereby encouraging them to sustain employment. No additional funding provision is required for the extension of the pilot scheme.

     At the meeting, members also noted the implementation progress of various assistance programmes and the financial position of the CCF. The CoP endorsed the increase of audit fees of $80,000 under the Elderly Dental Assistance Programme due to its extension. Members also noted the evaluation report on the completed Incentive Scheme to Further Encourage CSSA Recipients of the Integrated Employment Assistance Programme for Self-reliance to Secure Employment, conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong and commissioned by the Social Welfare Department.
      
     To further encourage able-bodied CSSA recipients aged between 60 and 64 to continue entering the labour market, the Government has pledged to review measures to encourage employment under the CSSA Scheme in 2019. The Labour and Welfare Bureau briefed members on the guiding principles and considerations of conducting the review, along with the Government's enhancement measures on CSSA and other cash assistance schemes in recent years. Members expressed views on the direction of the review exercise and made suggestions concerning the review.

     Members were also briefed on the sustainability assessment system of the HKSAR Government.

     Hong Kong Police received a suspect in connection with a murder case from the Mainland authorities at the Lok Ma Chau Boundary Control Point today (July 16).

     A local man, aged 27, was suspected to be in connection with a murder happened in Yuen Long on July 6 this year in which a man was killed. The suspect fled to the Mainland after the case.

     With the information of the suspect, Police sought assistance from the Ministry of Public Security, Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department and Shenzhen Public Security Bureau. The suspect was subsequently arrested in the Mainland.

     Hong Kong Police were grateful for the invaluable assistance rendered by the Ministry of Public Security, Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department and Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, which resulted in the arrest of the suspect. The arrest of the suspect in the Mainland demonstrated the determination of the Police of the two places in combating crimes jointly and to uphold the rule of law.

     Active investigation by District Crime Squad of Yuen Long is underway.

     The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health is today (July 16) investigating a case of severe paediatric influenza A infection, and reminded members of the public who have not yet received a seasonal influenza vaccination in the 2018-19 season that they can still receive it for personal protection against seasonal influenza.
 
     The case involves an 11-year-old boy with an underlying illness, who has presented with a fever, cough and shortness of breath since July 14. He was taken to the Accident and Emergency Department at Kwong Wah Hospital for medical attention yesterday (July 15) and was admitted on the same day. He was subsequently transferred to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit of the hospital for further management today.
 
     His respiratory specimen tested positive for influenza A virus upon laboratory testing. The clinical diagnosis was influenza A infection complicated with severe pneumonia. He is now in serious condition.
 
     Initial enquiries revealed that the patient had received a seasonal influenza vaccination for the current season and had no travel history during the incubation period. Her home contacts have remained asymptomatic so far.
 
     The CHP's investigations are ongoing.
 
     "The latest surveillance data showed that the local seasonal influenza activity in the past few weeks was higher than that in early May. Members of the public aged 6 months or above (except those with known contraindications) who have not yet received seasonal influenza vaccination in the 2018-19 season can still receive it for personal protection against seasonal influenza," a spokesman for the CHP said.
 
     "Meanwhile, the public should continue to adopt strict personal, hand and environmental hygiene practices against respiratory illnesses and other infectious diseases," the spokesman added.
 
     The public may visit the CHP's influenza page and weekly Flu Express for more information. 

     Police today (July 16) appealed to the public for information on a man who went missing in Tin Sum.

     Ng Yau-fung, aged 53, went missing after he left his residence on Fung Shek Street on July 13 morning. His family made a report to Police last night (July 15).

     He is about 1.5 metres tall, 72 kilograms in weight and of medium build. He has a square face with yellow complexion and short black hair. He was last seen wearing a light colored T-shirt, dark colored shorts and dark-colored shoes.

     Anyone who knows the whereabouts of the missing man or may have seen him is urged to contact the Regional Missing Person Unit of New Territories South on 3661 1174 or 6025 6218, or email to rmpu-nts-2@police.gov.hk, or contact any police station.
     

  

     The Assistant Government Chief Information Officer of the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO), Mr Tony Wong, held a technical briefing on multi-functional smart lampposts today (July 16), together with the Senior Engineer of the Highways Department, Mr Cheng Chung Shan, and the Assistant Director of the Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre (LSCM), Mr Martin Lai. An on-site introduction to the operation of smart lampposts was conducted on Sheung Yuet Road after the briefing.
      
     Key points about smart lampposts are:
 

• Provision is made for mobile network operators to install 5G base stations to facilitate the future development of fifth generation (5G) mobile network services in Hong Kong and to offer free Wi-Fi services.
• Smart devices including traffic detectors, panoramic cameras, meteorological sensors and air quality sensors are installed to collect three types of real-time city data, including meteorological data, air quality data and traffic snapshot images with a view to enhancing city and traffic management.
• All data collected will be uploaded as open data to the Public Sector Information (PSI) Portal (data.gov.hk) for sharing and to encourage the development of more innovation applications, thus driving smart city development in Hong Kong.
• Appropriate privacy protection measures are in place, e.g. cameras are set to face and take pictures of public areas only, and notices are put up at prominent locations. Currently, the cameras only take snapshots of road conditions.
• The traffic snapshot images are taken every two minutes. The process of lowering resolution of images is carried out in the lampposts. The images will be deleted immediately after transmission to the PSI Portal.
• The images and videos recorded by the surveillance cameras will only be used by the Transport Department (TD) and the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) for monitoring traffic conditions and assisting law enforcement work against illegal dumping of construction waste. Relevant panels of the Legislative Council (LegCo) were consulted last year. The LegCo panels supported the two specific applications.
• The lampposts do not carry any facial recognition function. Images taken will not be sent to any third party for facial recognition applications.
• The Bluetooth traffic detectors will extract only part of the digits in Media Access Control (MAC) address for matching purposes, in order to assess the average traffic speed and travel time of vehicles passing by. The MAC address data will be deleted from the system right after completion of analytics.
• The community has always had great concerns about privacy. The OGCIO has been in close contact with the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data since the designing stage of the lampposts to ensure all applications fully comply with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.
• The Bluetooth transmitters are only used to offer positioning services such as providing information to citizens and visitors on public facilities nearby.
• The radio frequency identification (RFID) technology used in smart lampposts are developed by the LSCM. It is merely an electronic tag for transmitting signals. The tag does not carry any function of collecting data and cannot read any data in other devices. One of the applications is to pair up with the Blind Cane Navigation System and provide navigation for the visually impaired.

     In view of the public concern over some of the applications which may touch on privacy, some functions of the lampposts will not be activated at this stage. These include the monitoring of illegal dumping with the aid of cameras located near black spots by the EPD, the assessment of road use by different types of vehicles enabled by Bluetooth traffic detectors and cameras collecting car plate numbers by the TD. The OGCIO will conduct more extensive consultation and will only activate the relevant functions upon public consensus.

     The Multi-functional Smart Lampposts pilot scheme is a three-year programme in which some 400 smart lampposts will be installed in phases in four districts with higher pedestrian and traffic flow, namely Central/Admiralty, Causeway Bay/Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui and Kwun Tong/Kai Tak Development Area, with a view to promoting smart city development in Hong Kong and supporting 5G mobile network implementation. Since the end of June, 50 smart lampposts have been put in place on Sheung Yuet Road in Kowloon Bay, Shing Kai Road in Kai Tak and in the Kwun Tong city centre to collect various types of real-time city data such as meteorological data, air quality data and traffic flow. The data collected will be released to the public as open data via data.gov.hk for development of innovative applications.