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In response to media enquiries regarding a private columbarium's offer of free niches for 500 members of the public, a spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau gave the following reply today (March 25):
All trades in Hong Kong including private columbaria should comply with statutory town planning, buildings and fire requirements as well as lease conditions and other administrative requirements. The relevant Government departments will take enforcement action against any unauthorised aspects of private columbaria according to the power within their jurisdiction as appropriate.
To enhance consumer protection, the Development Bureau has published information on private columbaria that are known to the Government for customer reference. The information is divided into two parts. Part A sets out the private columbaria compliant with the user restrictions in the land leases and the statutory town planning requirements, and which are not illegally occupying any Government land. Part B sets out the private columbaria which are pending checking for compliance with the relevant conditions for inclusion in Part A, or have been confirmed to be non-compliant with the user restrictions in the land leases and/or statutory town planning requirements and/or are illegally occupying Government land. The private columbarium concerned is located in Kwai Chung, New Territories and is currently listed in Part B of the published information on private columbaria.
The Government would again like to remind members of the public who wish to purchase niches or store cremains of the deceased at private columbaria the importance of obtaining from the operators full and complete information in order to check whether the columbaria are compliant with all the relevant statutory requirements, and land lease and/or town planning requirements. Members of the public are also reminded to ascertain from the operators of private columbaria how such operators would deal with the interests of their customers and users, such as whether and how they would arrange refunding or otherwise compensate their customers as well as handle the interred cremains should the respective private columbarium cease operation. Members of the public should seek independent legal advice on their rights where necessary.
During the public consultation on the review of columbarium policy conducted by the Food and Health Bureau from July to September 2010, the public supported a licensing scheme to enhance regulation of private columbaria. The Government will be reporting back to the Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene next month on some preliminary proposals to strengthen the regulation of private columbaria.
Ends/Friday, March 25, 2011
Issued at HKT 19:16
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