The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department will begin a Mobile Printing Fixed Penalty Notice System trial on March 31 in Southern, Wong Tai Sin and Kwai Tsing districts. The system is aimed at enhancing enforcement efficiency and accuracy.

To introduce the mobile printing of fixed penalty notices (FPNs), additional FPN forms under the Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction) Ordinance were gazetted today .

Currently, frontline enforcement officers from the department manually fill in information about contraventions on printed FPNs. Backend officers then check the forms and input the information into a data system. 

The new system enables enforcement officers to scan an offender's Hong Kong identity card through an application on department-issued mobile phones. This instantly imports an offender's identity information. The system also automatically records the date, time, location and data pertaining to the enforcement officer, who can then print the notice on the spot using a portable printer.

The data will be automatically uploaded to the backend system, reducing human errors and improving enforcement efficiency, the Government explained.

The mobile application will not keep images of identity cards, and the data collected for enforcement remains unchanged, the Government added.