Tip-offs 'helping stub out construction-site smoking'

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun called on the public on Friday to continue to provide information to help enforce the full smoking ban on construction sites and buildings undergoing major renovations. The call came as he revealed that citizen tip-offs had led to a disproportionately high number of successful prosecutions since the new rules took effect three months ago. Sun said the Labour Department has issued 87 fixed-penalty notices since the ban was introduced, of which 27 – about one third – were based on information provided by citizens. There are currently, he pointed out, four contractor cases involving five summonses going through prosecution proceedings. The department has conducted more than 6,900 inspections over the past three months, he said, of which about 430 were triggered by complaints or tip-offs. "The proportion of inspections is certainly not large, but the success rate is very high, because you see, among our fixed-penalty notices, approximately one third of them were issued because some citizens kindly provided us with photos, videos and information, enabling us to conduct inspections promptly," said Sun. He also apologised again over the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire, whose independent report was released by the government on Thursday. Sun pointed out that he had...