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“The passage of this legislation has marked an important step for us to weave our child protection network bigger as we will have more than 100,000 professionals working with us to protect our children,” Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said.
Sun said the bill would come into operation 18 months after the date when it was published in the gazette as an ordinance.
He said the government would offer training to the professionals covered under the bill during the time frame, adding that authorities had also set up advisory groups to formulate guidelines on mandatory reporting.
The government introduced the proposed bill into the Legco for scrutiny in June last year, after a string of child abuse scandals sparked public outrage and calls for better protection for youngsters.
Under the bill, the 25 professions who are required to report abuse include childcare workers, social workers, teachers, medical practitioners, therapists, psychologists, pharmacists, midwives, and others.
These professionals must file reports as soon as they are aware of suspected cases where a child is suffering serious harm or at real risk of it during the course of their work.
The bill specifies different types of serious harm, including those endangering physical health or life such as loss of limb, internal organ injuries and bone fractures, or hurting psychological well-being such as mental derangement and prolonged psychological trauma.
Sexual abuse including coercing or enticing a child into rape, incest, buggery, sexual intercourse or any act of gross indecency also constitutes serious harm.
Cases of neglect include failing to offer necessities for maintaining a child’s life or health, or exposing a child to a situation or environment that endangers the youngster’s life or health.
Those who fail to comply with the reporting requirement will be prosecuted under a two-tier penalty system. Under less severe circumstances, prosecution could proceed through summary proceedings with the penalty level limited to a fine of HK$50,000.
For cases with more severe circumstances or consequences, prosecution could be proceeded by way of indictment, allowing the court to impose fines as well as imprisonment of up to three months.
The penalty mechanism also applies to those who inhibit or obstruct making of reports or disclose the identity of specified professionals who made reports.
The bill also allows professionals to use a reasonable excuse for not making a report as a defence.
Lawmakers on Thursday voiced their support for the legislation on mandatory reporting, which they said could improve the protection of children from harm, while the focus of debate centred on the maximum penalty on the offenders.
Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun proposed to raise the maximum sentence from three months to one year.
“A good bill must basically comply with two principles – first, the maximum penalty has a deterrent effect and second, a prison sentence is enough to make a person learn from the experience and reflect deeply to not commit the crime again,” he said.
But several other legislators said an imprisonment of up to three months in jail was a balanced approach and was enough to prompt relevant professionals to report abuse, while a harsher punishment could lead to false or excessive reporting out of fear of breaching the law.
“Increasing the maximum imprisonment to one year is too harsh on professionals … which can lead to a large number of misreports, and increase the burden on law enforcement officers, making it difficult for the legislation to be effectively implemented,” lawmaker Stanley Li Sai-wing said.
Li also called on the government to put in place a series of supporting measures, including offering training on the professionals and increasing emergency childcare respite services.
Hong Kong has seen successive and disturbing child abuse cases in recent years.
Among the latest cases involved a nine-month-old girl allegedly abused by a babysitter in January. The child suffered a blood clot on the brain and fell into a coma, and police arrested the 33-year-old woman, who was recruited under a government-funded “community nanny” childcare scheme.
The Child Protection Registry of the Social Welfare Department recorded a total of 411 new child abuse cases during the first three months of this year. Among them, 164 cases involved physical harm, followed by 146 of sexual abuse, 85 of neglect, 11 of multiple abuse, and five of psychological harm.
A total of 1,457 cases were recorded over the whole of last year.
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