New abuse legislation to be speeded up

Welfare minister brings process forward after concern over spate of cases

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han has pledged to further speed up work on legislation that will make it mandatory for professionals working with children to report abuse, in light of heightened public concern caused by a spate of recent high-profile cases.

Sun told lawmakers during a Legislative Council session yesterday that he planned to begin the consultation process for the proposed legislative changes in November, a month ahead of schedule. The changes are expected to affect teachers, social workers and doctors.

The government at first intended to begin consultation next year, but the process was brought forward to December after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu last month stressed the urgency for tackling the issue.

“In light of the community’s concerns over child abuse cases, we have decided to move our schedule more quickly,” Sun said at Legco’s welfare services panel meeting yesterday.

The latest case involved a mother who was arrested last month on suspicion of murdering her five-year-old son. The boy was found unconscious in their flat, his body covered with bruises and abrasions, and later declared dead in hospital.

Confidence in residential childcare services has also declined, after dozens of staff from two of the city’s major providers – the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children and Po Leung Kuk – were arrested for alleged mistreatment of children.

The incidents have also prompted a review committee set up by the Social Welfare Department to come up with 31 recommendations for improvements.

One of them was the creation of a new unit made up of justices of the peace and other professionals to visit residential childcare homes. Sun revealed yesterday that the unit was expected to be operational by the end of this month, with other initiatives already put in place for reform.

The city has long debated whether professionals such as teachers and social workers should play a bigger role in watching out for child abuse, and the government unveiled its proposed legislative framework last month that laid out liabilities for those who failed to report suspected incidents.

Under the framework, the duty to report would have three categories, with serious cases treated as “must” and less serious and marginal ones set as “encouraged” to report. Failure to report would mean up to three months in jail and a HK$50,000 fine.

Lawmaker Maggie Chan Man-ki of the Election Committee constituency pressed Sun to simplify the proposed reporting mechanism, even before consultation begins in a month’s time.

“The three-tier system is incomprehensible. A report should be made upon the sighting of a case,” she said.

But Sun said the system already required professionals to report serious abuse and they would have sufficient experience to decide whether to report potential cases based on the information they gathered.

For childcare centres, Sun said the two major operators had installed closed-circuit television at their premises and had been required to set up policies to review footage, as part of the 31 recommendations made by the review committee from the Social Welfare Department.

He said the department had also been checking footage in a bid to detect cases.

Legislator Eunice Yung Hoiyan, however, suggested the government should use artificial intelligence to spot abusive behaviour in footage.

Sun said in response that the government had been working with a local university and other developers in the market to explore options.