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Following is a question by the Hon Priscilla Leung Mei-fun and a reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (November 14):
Question:
In the evening of October 1 this year, a vessel collision accident happened in the waters off the northwest of Lamma Island. As a result, a vessel of the Hongkong Electric Company Limited sank and 39 members of the public died, with many others injured. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it has offered emergency financial assistance to the injured and the families of the deceased in the aforesaid maritime disaster; if so, of the amounts; if not, the reasons for that; whether it has formulated other initiatives of a longer term to help those victims of the accident who have financial difficulties; if so, of such initiatives; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) of the number of applications received by the "Emergency Relief Fund" under the Social Welfare Department in the past three years, as well as the total amount of grants made and the respective types of disasters involved; whether the victims of the aforesaid maritime disaster are eligible to apply for the Emergency Relief Fund; if they are not, whether the authorities will consider exercising discretion in this case, in view of the heavy casualties in the maritime disaster; and
(c) whether it will learn from the experience in handling the aftermath in the two fire incidents involving the hawker stalls at Fa Yuen Street and the aforesaid maritime disaster, and consider proactively establishing a standing emergency contingency fund in order to provide emergency financial assistance to victims when major natural or man-made disasters (including air disasters, maritime disasters and accidents of an extremely large scale) happen; if it will not, of the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Immediately after the vessel collision incident near the Lamma Island, the Social Welfare Department has started their relief work by sending more than 100 social workers and clinical psychologists in assisting the victims and their families, and following up the relevant cases on an on-going basis to provide appropriate support and counselling services along with any other forms of assistance.
My reply to Dr Hon Priscilla Leung Mei-fun's question is as follows:
(a) To help the victims of this incident and their families cope with immediate needs, the Government made every effort to assist them immediately after the incident. Many charitable organisations and trust funds promptly provided emergency financial assistance to address the victims' urgent needs.
The Hong Kong Electric Company Limited (HEC) and the Li Ka Shing Foundation have provided relief funds of $200,000 and $750,000 respectively to families of each of the deceased (including HEC staff and non-HEC staff). The Administration and various charitable funds/organisations also provided financial assistance to affected persons and their families. The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust offered financial assistance of $100,000 to each of the 32 families with deceased member(s) (a total of 39 victims) through the Social Welfare Department (SWD). The General Chinese Charities Fund offered emergency financial assistance of $8,000 to each of the 25 eligible families with deceased member(s) (a total of 29 victims), as well as $3,000 to one family with an injured member through the Home Affairs Department (HAD).
SWD has also assisted individual families with pressing financial needs in applying to six other charitable bodies for emergency financial assistance, ie the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Emergency Relief Fund, the Building Homes with Heart Caring Initiative of Sun Hung Kai Properties, the Hong Kong Island Social Services Charitable Foundation, Tung Sin Tan, Li Po Chun Charitable Fund and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-Chi Foundation. In addition, Po Leung Kuk has indicated to offer assistance to families with financial needs, and SWD will recommend the needy families to Po Leung Kuk for consideration.
SWD will continue to review and assess the long-term financial and welfare needs of the affected families.
(b) and (c) Currently, the Administration has put in place the Emergency Relief Fund (ERF) to cope with natural disasters. ERF is a trust fund established under the Emergency Relief Fund Ordinance (Cap. 1103). ERF aims to provide financial assistance to persons who are in need of urgent relief as a result of fire, flood, tempest, landslide, typhoon or other natural disasters. Grants from ERF are intended for relief rather than compensation. During the period from 2009-10 to 2011-12, grants were provided for 4 647 applications, involving a total payment of $12.95 million.
As the vessel collision incident was not a natural disaster, ERF is not applicable for this case. Nevertheless, there are currently a number of charitable funds providing direct and prompt assistance in special and urgent circumstances arising from non-natural disasters. As mentioned above, the Administration has provided the necessary assistance and service to individuals and families in need in this incident, and will follow up with the cases as appropriate.
Ends/Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:09
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