Press Releases
Fishermen Claims Appeal Board appointed
The Government today (November 5) announced the setting up of a Fishermen
Claims Appeal Board (FCAB) for processing appeals regarding applications for
an ex-gratia allowance (EGA) and a one-off grant filed by trawler owners and
local deckhands affected by the trawl ban.
The FCAB comprises one non-official Chairman and four non-official members.
Mrs Tennessy Lee Hui Mei-sheung has been appointed the Chairman of the FCAB.
The non-official members are Miss Nancy Chan, Miss Cindi Hui Ming-ming, Mr
William Lee Ka-chung and Dr Paul Shin Kam-shing. The appointments have taken
effect, and will last until work on all the appeal cases has been completed.
Mrs Tennessy Lee Hui Mei-sheung is a lawyer. She is also one of the chairmen
of the Transport Tribunal and a member of the Advisory Committee on
Agriculture and Fisheries, the Country and Marine Parks Board, the Hong Kong
Advisory Council on AIDS and the Licensing Appeals Board.
Miss Nancy Chan is a lawyer. She is also a member of the Administrative
Appeals Board and the Panel of Witness Protection Review Board.
Miss Cindi Hui Ming-ming is a lawyer. She is also a member of the Appeal
Board Panel (Town Planning), the Board of Review (Film Censorship), the
Security and Guarding Services Industry Authority and the Transport
Tribunal. She is an adjudicator of the Registration of Persons Tribunal.
Mr William Lee Ka-chung is an accountant. He has served on various advisory
committees in the Government.
Dr Paul Shin Kam-shing is an associate professor. His expertise is in the
marine benthos, marine ecology and conservation and environmental management
and impact assessment.
The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, thanked the Chairman and
members for accepting the appointments.
The ban of trawling in Hong Kong waters, under statute, will come into
operation on December 31, 2012. Under a one-off assistance package approved
by the Legislative Council Finance Committee on June 10, 2011, an ex-gratia
allowance (EGA) is payable to eligible trawler owners affected by the trawl
ban, and a one-off grant is payable to each eligible local deckhand employed
by the affected inshore trawler owners who voluntarily surrender their
vessels under a buyout scheme offered by the Agriculture, Fisheries and
Conservation Department or dispose of their vessels through other means.
An Inter-departmental Working Group (IWG) has been set up by the Government
to handle matters relating to applications received from parties affected by
the trawl ban. Applicants who are not satisfied with the decisions of the
IWG on the aforementioned EGA or one-off grant may lodge appeals to the FCAB,
which is a non-statutory body formed on an administrative basis for handling
the relevant appeal cases.
With reference to the EGA and one-off grant under the one-off assistance
package approved by the Finance Committee on June 10, 2011, the terms of
reference of the FCAB are:
* To see that the criteria established by the IWG for processing and/or
vetting applications for the EGA comply with the government policy, and are
fair and reasonable (in the public law sense) to the applicants.
* To see that the IWG's decisions on eligibility and the amount of EGA
granted comply with the government policy and are fair and reasonable (in
the public law sense) to the applicants.
* To examine any new or additional information/evidence provided by the
appellants (or their representatives) who have lodged an appeal against the
IWG's decisions or by the relevant departments, and to consider the
relevance of and the weight to be given to such information/evidence.
* To consider whether to uphold the IWG's decisions on the appellants' cases
or to revise the decisions, and to determine the type and amount of EGA
payable to the appellants, as appropriate.
The secretariat of the FCAB is located at the Food and Health Bureau, 17/F,
East Wing, Central Government Offices, 2 Tim Mei Avenue, Tamar, Hong Kong.
Ends/Monday, November 5, 2012
Issued at HKT 18:09
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