The Government will introduce the Buildings (Amendment) Bill 2003 into the Legislative Council later this month (April).
The Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, said today (April 11) that the Amendment Bill represented the most extensive amendment to the Buildings Ordinance for a long time.
"We will be making significant headway in improving the building control regime, strengthening safety requirements and facilitating law enforcement. This should help bring about a better living environment and is conducive to our long-term sustainability," said Mr Suen.
The Amendment Bill contains a number of proposals. "The most important of these is the introduction of a new concept of minor works. This seeks to better align the degree of control with the nature, scale and complexity of the building works involved," said Mr Suen.
Under the minor works system, relatively simple and small-scale building works will no longer be subject to the full prior approval process. Examples of such works are the erection and removal of light-weight canopies, flower racks and small-scale advertisement signboards. Different levels of professional oversight will be specified for different categories of minor works.
"This will result in time and cost savings for building owners and the industry alike while ensuring safety," said Mr Suen.
"We also propose that minor works may be carried out by a new category of contractors. The qualification and experience requirements of these contractors will be commensurate with the nature of the minor works."
Mr Suen explained that the built-in safeguards in the law plus audit checks by the Buildings Department would contribute to better control of minor works and hence enhanced public safety.
The Buildings (Amendment) Bill 2003 also seeks to clearly specify the person responsible for the removal of unauthorised building works, thus facilitating enforcement against unauthorised building works.
"As an additional measure to encourage owners to remove unauthorised building works voluntarily, the Building Authority may issue warning notices on these works and register the notices in the Land Registry," said Mr Suen. "This will also provide a measure of consumer protection to prospective property buyers."
To better tackle the problem of unauthorised building works, owners who obstruct their owners' corporations in complying with a statutory order for repair works and removal of unauthorised building works may be prosecuted.
Other proposals of the Bill include the registration of geotechnical engineers, the requirement of emergency vehicular access for new buildings and increased fines for contravening the Buildings Ordinance.
The Buildings (Amendment) Bill 2003 will be gazetted on April 17, 2003.
End/Friday, April 11, 2003
NNNN