LCQ7: Sizes of licensed food premises
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Question:
On January 10, 2007, the authorities replied to my written question on restaurants holding valid general restaurant licences (including full and provisional licences) (licensed restaurants). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that in the aforesaid reply, the authorities provided the number of licensed restaurants as at January 2, 2007 and a breakdown of those restaurants by size (set out in the table below), of the relevant figures as at January 2 this year; and
| Size groups adopted by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department for determining restaurant licence fees |
Number of licensed restaurants (percentage in the total number) |
||
| Exceeding (m²) |
Not exceeding (m²) |
January 2, 2007 | January 2, 2017 |
| 100 | 3 335 (42.0%) | ( %) | |
| 100 | 150 | 1 086 (13.7%) | ( %) |
| 150 | 200 | 698 (8.8%) | ( %) |
| 200 | 250 | 548 (6.9%) | ( %) |
| 250 | 300 | 390 (4.9%) | ( %) |
| 300 | 350 | 300 (3.8%) | ( %) |
| 350 | 400 | 232 (2.9%) | ( %) |
| 400 | 450 | 156 (2.0%) | ( %) |
| 450 | 500 | 127 (1.6%) | ( %) |
| 500 | 600 | 179 (2.3%) | ( %) |
| 600 | 700 | 138 (1.7%) | ( %) |
| 700 | 800 | 108 (1.4%) | ( %) |
| 800 | 900 | 85 (1.1%) | ( %) |
| 900 | 1 000 | 60 (0.8%) | ( %) |
| 1 000 | 2 000 | 377 (4.7%) | ( %) |
| 2 000 | 3 000 | 88 (1.1%) | ( %) |
| 3 000 | 4 000 | 16 (0.2%) | ( %) |
| 4 000 | 5 000 | 9 (0.1%) | ( %) |
| 5 000 | 11 (0.1%) | ( %) | |
| Total | 7 943 (100%) | (100%) | |
(2) given that the authorities indicated in the aforesaid reply that they had not studied the trend of the sizes of licensed restaurants, whether the authorities conducted, in the past 10 years, (i) the relevant study and (ii) an assessment of the correlation between the sizes of licensed restaurants and operating costs, labour force as well as economic situation; if they conducted such study and assessment, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by the Hon Tommy Cheung is as follows:
(1) The numbers of restaurants holding valid general restaurant licences (including full and provisional licences) as at January 2, 2007 and January 2, 2017 were 7 943 and 10 798 respectively. A breakdown of these restaurants by size is set out in the Annex.
(2) As the licensing department for food premises, the main responsibility of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) is to draw up regulatory measures to ensure the hygiene and safety of food premises. On business facilitation, FEHD has also been actively implementing various business-friendly measures, such as streamlining the application procedures for various food business licences and accepting online applications and enquiries about the progress of applications, with a view to enhancing efficiency in licensing. As regards the operation and scale of food businesses, they should be determined by operators having regard to their business needs and development. Hitherto, the Government has not conducted any study on the trend on the sizes of food premises.
Ends/Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:20
Issued at HKT 17:20
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