Back-
Ombudsman Chan announced the investigation results
The Ombudsman, Mr Jack Chan, on 24 October announced the completion of a direct investigation operation regarding the enforcement by the Planning Department (“PlanD”) and the Lands Department (“LandsD”) against unauthorised land developments, and made 16 major recommendations for improvement to the two departments.
For the live broadcast of the press conference, please watch the replay on the Office’s YouTube channel.
In the rural New Territories, common unauthorised developments under the Town Planning Ordinance (“TPO”) include filling of pond or land in “Agriculture”, “Green Belt” and conservation zones for storage, workshop and parking uses. For many years, PlanD had not been empowered to take enforcement action in rural areas not previously covered by development permission areas. The Office is pleased to note that with the amended TPO coming into effect in September 2023, the Secretary for Development may designate rural areas in the New Territories with ecological value, which are subject to development pressure and risks of environmental degradation, to be “regulated areas”, so as to plug the loophole by enabling the PlanD’s enforcement action against unauthorised developments in such areas.
From 2018 to 2023, PlanD received an annual average of 1 680 complaints about unauthorised developments. During the same period, combining complaints, proactive inspections and referrals from other departments, PlanD identified an annual average of 425 unauthorised development cases involving private land.
Regarding the unauthorised development cases identified, PlanD issued an annual average of more than 3,000 statutory notices demanding rectification. The compliance rate of such notices ranged from 69 per cent to 88 per cent between 2018 and 2023, reflecting the deterrent effect of PlanD’s existing enforcement measures against most offenders. During the same period, PlanD instigated prosecutions in a total of 475 cases of non-compliance with statutory notices, among which 65 involved repeated prosecutions.
The Office of The Ombudsman’s investigation found that for cases involving repeated breaches of the TPO, PlanD would, depending on whether the unauthorised development recurred within one year, shorten the timeframe for compliance with the Enforcement Notice from the normal three months to a minimum of one month. Given that cases of repeated breaches generally involve irregularities that are easy to rectify and prone to recur (such as storage and parking uses), the existing practice of PlanD might not have a sufficient deterrent effect on some repeated offenders. The Office recommends that, regarding cases of repeated breaches, PlanD should explore considering more factors in setting the timeframe for compliance with statutory notices and progressively shortening the timeframe upon subsequent breaches to raise offenders’ costs of non-compliance proportionately.
To read the full article, kindly click here.
Source: Office of the Ombudsman of Hong Kong, China
