Members of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) met on 14 June 2012 (Thursday) at the 95th EOC Meeting and discussed various matters related to the Commission’s business.

With the aim to enhance the EOC’s transparency and accountability as well as to obtain views from stakeholders to better steer the Commission’s work, EOC Members discussed the plan of organizing an annual public forum. The forum would be a platform for the EOC Board to highlight the EOC’s past performance and introduce new directions and initiatives to the public. As such, all key stakeholders of the EOC such as concerned groups from related constituencies, NGOs, employer organizations and trade unions, etc. would be invited. Tentatively, the public forum would be scheduled for the latter half of September this year.

Members reviewed the retrofitting programmes of the Government and The LINK to rectify the access barriers identified in EOC’s Formal Investigation on Accessibility in Publicly Accessible Premises. Members noted that as at the end of March 2012, 20% of the 47 Government premises / facilities inspected in the Investigation were rectified and over 76% of the work had already been started. Judging from the progress, it remains to be seen whether 100% of the work would be completed by June 2012.

In response to the EOC’s recommendations, the Government had conducted access audit in all its premises / facilities and undertook to improve the barrier-free facilities. This improvement exercise covered about 3,500 premises / facilities and a majority of them belonged to Class A Projects. As at the end of April 2012, improvement works for 73% of Class A Projects had been completed. The remaining items fell into Class B Projects, which were about 400 in total, were mostly footpaths, subways, recreational grounds, post offices, etc. About one-third of these projects were still in site survey or feasibility stage, and the improvement works were expected to be completed by June 2016.

As regards the progress of improvement work by The LINK, Members noted that the deficiencies identified in the nine commercial complexes and two car parks were rectified. The LINK had also launched a five-year programme commencing from 2011/2012 to improve the barrier-free facilities in 160 sites, with revamping works to be conducted in 30 to 35 sites each year. The EOC would ask the LINK to provide more concrete information on the progress of its improvement work.

Members also noted that the EOC had assisted the Government in providing training, seminars and workshops for the Access Co-ordinators (ACs) and Access Officers (AOs) appointed in every bureau and department to co-ordinate and resolve barrier-free issues. 

Members were pleased to note that for the quarter from 1 January to 31 March 2012, 86% of the complaint cases were concluded within six months against EOC’s pledged target of 75%. Besides, the conciliation success rate for this quarter was 85% as compared to around 60-70% in previous quarters. The EOC had attempted fast-track case handling and a simple model for obtaining information for the purpose of investigation, which might have led to the improvement in the timing for concluded cases and the higher successful conciliation rate. The Commission would closely monitor its operational performance to see if the trend would continue.

_______________________

Media enquiries: Ms. Mariana LAW (Tel : 2106-2226)

Equal Opportunities Commission
14 June 2012