BackThis Office has hosted a press conference this morning to announce two own-motioned investigation reports. One is about the "Rating and Valuation Department’s Regulation of Display of Building Numbers" while the other one is on "Safety Regulation of Eco-friendly Refrigerants ".
Regarding the "Rating and Valuation Department’s Regulation of Display of Building Numbers", the Ombudsman’s direct investigation finds that the Rating and Valuation Department has not been diligent enough to ensure that all buildings in the territory display their correct numbers so as to avoid causing inconvenience to citizens and tourists, and hindering the operations of police officers, firefighters, paramedics and postal officers. There are inadequacies on the part of the Department in detecting buildings not displaying their numbers, following up on such breaches, public education and publicity, etc. The Ombudsman has made seven recommendations to the Rating and Valuation Department for improvement in the aforesaid areas.
The Ombudsman also completed a direct investigation on the safety regulation of eco-friendly refrigerants. The investigation found six areas of inadequacy in respect of the safety regulation of flammable refrigerants, as follows:
- Inadequate regulatory mechanisms;
- Disagreement by Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (“E & MSD”) and Fire Services Department (“FSD”) on jurisdiction;
- Inadequate monitoring of the development of refrigerants and their use in Hong Kong;
- Lack of communication and coordination among departments;
- Inadequate liaison and publicity; and Inadequate training for workers;
The Ombudsman made eight recommendations for improvement to Environmental Protection Department, E & MSD, FSD and Labour Department.
Executive summaries of the two reports can be accessed via the following link.
Source: The Office of the Ombudsman, Hong Kong
