Press Releases
Members of public reminded to be aware of their rights when choosing niches at private columbaria
In response to media enquiries regarding a private columbarium's offer of
free niches for 500 members of the public, a spokesman for the Food and
Health Bureau gave the following reply today (March 25):
All trades in Hong Kong including private columbaria should comply with
statutory town planning, buildings and fire requirements as well as lease
conditions and other administrative requirements. The relevant Government
departments will take enforcement action against any unauthorised aspects of
private columbaria according to the power within their jurisdiction as
appropriate.
To enhance consumer protection, the Development Bureau has published
information on private columbaria that are known to the Government for
customer reference. The information is divided into two parts. Part A sets
out the private columbaria compliant with the user restrictions in the land
leases and the statutory town planning requirements, and which are not
illegally occupying any Government land. Part B sets out the private
columbaria which are pending checking for compliance with the relevant
conditions for inclusion in Part A, or have been confirmed to be
non-compliant with the user restrictions in the land leases and/or statutory
town planning requirements and/or are illegally occupying Government land.
The private columbarium concerned is located in Kwai Chung, New Territories
and is currently listed in Part B of the published information on private
columbaria.
The Government would again like to remind members of the public who wish to
purchase niches or store cremains of the deceased at private columbaria the
importance of obtaining from the operators full and complete information in
order to check whether the columbaria are compliant with all the relevant
statutory requirements, and land lease and/or town planning requirements.
Members of the public are also reminded to ascertain from the operators of
private columbaria how such operators would deal with the interests of their
customers and users, such as whether and how they would arrange refunding or
otherwise compensate their customers as well as handle the interred cremains
should the respective private columbarium cease operation. Members of the
public should seek independent legal advice on their rights where necessary.
During the public consultation on the review of columbarium policy conducted
by the Food and Health Bureau from July to September 2010, the public
supported a licensing scheme to enhance regulation of private columbaria.
The Government will be reporting back to the Legislative Council Panel on
Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene next month on some preliminary
proposals to strengthen the regulation of private columbaria.
Ends/Friday, March 25, 2011
Issued at HKT 19:16
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