A spokesman for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) said today (June 2) that ex-gratia payment is being made to personnel engaged in recreation and sports programmes organised or subvented by the LCSD, including coaches and instructors, to relieve the impact of the pandemic. The ex-gratia payment is being offered to those directly engaged by the LCSD, or sports coaches and staff hired by National Sports Associations (NSAs) or sports organisations (SOs) subvented under the Sports Subvention Scheme, or sports coaches from NSAs or SOs who were engaged by the LCSD through the Direct Purchase Authority Management System to provide services. The ex-gratia payment is equivalent to the amount of their original remuneration for cancelled programmes scheduled to commence or to be held from January 29 to March 31.
      
     Coaches and personnel benefiting from this subsidy scheme are not required to submit applications. The LCSD will release the ex-gratia payment to the personnel directly or through the relevant NSAs and SOs. Disbursement of the ex-gratia payment began in May and is being carried out in batches.
      
     In addition, the LCSD will make the same arrangement and provide ex-gratia payment to instructors and speakers of seminars, workshops and training courses organised by the Hong Kong Public Libraries and the Music Office whose programmes were cancelled and could not be rescheduled due to venue closure, school suspension or the pandemic.

Ends/Tuesday, June 2, 2020
Issued at HKT 19:10

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