The Government will enhance the surveillance and enforcement actions against unauthorised building works in New Territories exempted houses and will review its enforcement strategy.

This was the message from the Housing, Planning & Lands Bureau when it responded to the Ombudsman's report on "Enforcement Action against Unauthorised Building Works in New Territories Exempted Houses".

The Ombudsman concluded that the current enforcement has not been effective enough to contain the problem and the strategy needs to be reviewed so that a more realistic approach could be adopted to tackle the problem.

It recommended that the Government should:

*review the progress made under the current strategy and consider stepping up actions against non-compliance with removal orders through prosecution;

*consider the feasibility of expanding the current unauthorised building works in progress operations to cover newly completed unauthorised building works;

*review the current enforcement strategy and develop a realistic enforcement policy to contain the problem.

Gov't concurred with Ombudsman's recommendations

Welcoming the Ombudsman's recommendations, the bureau said the Government concurred with the Ombudsman's conclusion that enforcement should aim at containing the problem and it should devise alternative measures to tackle the problem in a more effective manner.

In the review of the enforcement strategy, it will identify areas where enforcement efforts should be enhanced, taking into account the need to ensure public safety, optimisation of resources and the impact on affected parties.

The bureau said this will require careful deliberation and it hopes to come up with realistic and practical measures to tackle the problem.

Stakeholders to be consulted

In the review process, the bureau will consult stakeholders on the proposed improvement measures. Once it has decided on the measures to be adopted, it will publicise them to enhance general awareness.

The Government has made ongoing efforts to contain the problem through the enforcement actions taken by the Lands Department and Buildings Department.

One of the measures adopted is to take immediate enforcement action against unauthorised building works in progress in the villages in the New Territories.