Following is a question by the Hon Lau Ping-cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (April 21):
Question:
The Lands Department is responsible for land control for unleased Government land and enforcement of lease conditions in respect of leased land. In view of a series of recent revelations about illegal extraction of pebbles from river beds, unlawful occupation of unleased land and construction waste being deposited on private land, etc., will the Government inform this Council of:
(a) the respective establishments and numbers of officers of the Land Executive and Land Inspector grades undertaking the above duties in the Lands Department;
(b) the respective numbers of inspections conducted and prosecutions recommended in the past three years by such officers in their discharge of the above duties, as well as the number of suspected cases of unlawful acts which were still outstanding after six months; and
(c) the review measures to ensure that suspected cases of unlawful acts in this respect have been duly dealt with?
Reply:
Madam President,
Lands Department's land control and lease enforcement work in the New Territories are mainly undertaken by officers of the Land Executive and Land Inspector grades. Similar duties in the urban area are mainly undertaken by the Estate Officer grade. My reply to the three parts of the question is as follows :-
(a) The staffing position in respect of the concerned grades for lease enforcement and land control work is:
| Lease Enforcement | Land Control | |
| Senior Land Executives | 6 | 8 |
| Land Executives | 12 | 24 |
| Land Inspectors | 35 | 75 |
| Total | 53 | 107 |
(b) In the past three years, 52,745 inspections were conducted in respect of land control and lease enforcement work with a total of 26 prosecutions recommended.
Of the cases processed, 91 took more than six months to process. They were lease enforcement cases in which the property owners concerned had applied for a short term waiver and requested deferral of enforcement action by Lands Department during the application processing period.
(c) To ensure that cases of suspected irregularities are properly dealt with, each District Lands Office (DLO) has drawn up a monitoring chart of such cases. A Senior Land Executive is responsible for monitoring progress of the cases. More serious cases will also be handled by the District Lands Officer personally. After the completion of the control action and depending on the circumstances of individual cases, re-inspections will be conducted by DLO staff within three to six months. This is to prevent recurrence of the irregularities. Cases of suspected irregularities are also considered by DLOs' District Review Boards on a regular basis.
Ends/Wednesday, April 21, 2004
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