The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) today (June 6) reminded members of the public again to stay alert to fraudulent calls.
      
     As informed by some patients and families, people have received calls claimed to be calling from the HA and in the form of pre-recorded messages requesting the recipients to provide personal information in order to collect a document. The HA has already reported the matter to the Police.
      
     The HA reiterates that HA staff will contact patients by phone in person, and will provide relevant information to verify the identity of both parties. Members of the public are advised not to disclose personal information during any unidentiftied phone calls, and report any suspected fraudulent calls to the Police.

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, at a media session after attending a radio programme today (June 6):
 
Reporter: With the passage of the National Anthem Law, I mean, what do you mean by Police can be called to the schools, as you just said, if there are signs of insults? I mean, how should schools and teachers deal with that?
 
Secretary for Education: For the National Anthem Law, which has been passed by the Legislative Council on Thursday, I think at the schools our basic work is to teach our students about the national anthem and also to help them develop a sense of respect for our national anthem. But if there are incidents that happen that show disrespect for our national anthem, and the seriousness of the incidents is so big that it will affect the operation of the school and/or affect other students as well, then the schools, if they have no other options, have to call in law enforcement agencies to help them restore order. I believe that is quite exceptional but I think schools will make their decisions when these incidents actually happen.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Justice, Ms Teresa Cheng, SC, at a media session after attending a radio programme today (June 6):

Reporter: You said the Department of Justice (DoJ) is still responsible for future prosecutions if the national security law is in place. Does that mean it will co-operate with the national security agency? Can you explain more on the aspect of retrospectivity? What is the exceptional case?

Secretary for Justice: I will answer the last question first. At the moment, nobody has seen the draft of the legislation, so it is not possible to say what is going to happen there. Insofar as retrospectivity is concerned, as a matter of principle, criminal charges are not to be made retrospectively, and therefore there ought not be retrospective effect when the law is legislated. However, there is always some exception. The exception arises in relation to treaty and customary international law. But there are generally very small amount of situations.

     In respect of the role of the DoJ, under Article 63 of the Basic Law, the DoJ is responsible for all criminal prosecution matters without any interference. Therefore, we will make our decision in relation to prosecution, whether or not to prosecute and ultimately to take charge of the prosecution matter in court, in accordance with evidence, the law and the Prosecution Code. This is how we are going to do it. Relevant law enforcement agencies will pass us the file, and probably the Police will be the law enforcement agency. We will have the file and then we will look at it, just as in any other normal way.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:

     The Legislative Council (LegCo) Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will hold a public hearing on "Management of funding for sports development through the Arts and Sport Development Fund (Sports Portion)" (Chapter 1) of the Director of Audit's Report No.74 next Monday (June 8) at 9am in Conference Room 2 of the LegCo Complex.
 
     Seven witnesses have been invited to appear before the above hearing to respond to points raised in the Report and answer questions asked by the PAC members.
 
     The programme for the public hearing is as follows:
 
Date: June 8 (Monday)
Time: 9am
Venue: Conference Room 2  
 

     The PAC is chaired by Mr Abraham Shek, and its Deputy Chairman is Mr Kenneth Leung. Other members include Mr Paul Tse, Mr Steven Ho, Mr Lam Cheuk-ting, Mr Shiu Ka-fai and Ms Tanya Chan.

     To support the anti-epidemic work of the property management sector, the Government launched the "Anti-epidemic Support Scheme for Property Management Sector" (ASPM) under the "Anti-epidemic Fund" in late February 2020 to subsidise owners' organisations or property management companies of eligible private residential and composite (i.e. commercial cum residential) buildings to provide the "Anti-epidemic Hardship Allowance" ("AHA") to the frontline property management workers. The ASPM also provides the "Anti-epidemic Cleansing Subsidy" to owners' organisations or property management companies to alleviate the costs arising from heightened cleansing efforts and the burden on the owners and tenants.  

     Further to the extension of the coverage of subsidy to industrial and commercial buildings (including shopping malls) in April 2020, considering that the epidemic situation may still be fluctuating, and continuous efforts in epidemic prevention measures and anti-epidemic work will therefore be required, the Government announced the "Enhanced Anti-epidemic Support Scheme for Property Management Sector" (Enhanced ASPM) on May 30, 2020. Under the Enhanced ASPM, the subsidised period will be extended for three more months (i.e. June to August 2020) and the cap of headcounts of the "AHA" will be relaxed to 100 per eligible building block.

     The application deadline for the Enhanced ASPM is July 15, 2020. If property management companies and owners' organisations have submitted applications for the ASPM before the enhancement, they do not need to submit a new application for the Enhanced ASPM. The Home Affairs Department or the Property Management Services Authority (PMSA) will contact the property management companies and owners' organisations concerned direct.

     As of today (June 6), the ASPM has received around 10 600 applications, of which around 8 500 applications have been approved. The approved applications involve subsidies of over 280 million and benefit more than 35 000 building blocks and over 70 000 front-line property management workers. Please refer to the website of the PMSA (aspm.pmsahk.org.hk/?lang=en) for the names of the properties for which applications have been approved.

     For details on the ASPM, please contact the PMSA at 3696 1156 or 3696 1166, or visit the website of the PMSA.