Deputy President, the Liberal Party (“LP”) supports the passage of the Private Columbaria (Amendment) Bill 2024 (“the Bill”) proposed by the Administration. 

The key objective of the Bill is to provide a way out for the dozens of pre-cut-off columbaria in existence before 18 June 2014 (i.e. before the cut-off date as specified by the Private Columbaria Ordinance (“the Ordinance”)), so as to avoid the closure of these columbaria and avert the need for large-scale ash disposal if they eventually fail to comply with the conditions set out in law, thereby protecting the interests of families who have purchased niches in these columbaria and had ashes already interred therein.

According to information provided by the Administration, as at 30 November 2024, 59 pre-cut-off columbaria (involving about 490 000 niches of which about 309 000 were sold niches) had submitted applications for licence. Of these 59 columbaria, 11 has also applied for exemption. For the remaining 48 columbaria (involving about 287 000 niches), no application for exemption had been submitted at the same time because they could not meet the conditions stipulated in the Ordinance. In case these 48 pre-cut-off columbaria eventually fail to fulfil all requirements for a licence, they will have to cease operation, triggering ash disposal for some 280 000 niches as stipulated in the Ordinance. Ash disposal of such a massive scale will undoubtedly create a lot of grievances in the community, which is most unsatisfactory. 

Under the Ordinance, a licensed columbarium may engage in all businesses including selling or letting out niches, and the licensing conditions cover requirements in relation to land, town planning and buildings. Frankly, compliance is not easy. 

Under the second best option, for a columbarium granted with exemption, though it cannot sell or newly let out niches, during the validity period of the exemption, ashes interred in a niche before the cut-off time may continue to be kept in that niche, or people who have purchased niches may have the ashes of the deceased interred therein. Among the statutory conditions for the grant of exemption, columbaria may have greater difficulty in meeting two requirements, namely (1) the columbarium concerned should have commenced operation before 1 January 1990; and (2) interment right has ceased to be sold since the cut-off time. As such, many applicants for licence did not submit applications for exemption at the same time. 

To address the above practical difficulties, the Bill proposes to defer the date of commencement of operation to before the cut-off time; and to defer the date on which interment right has ceased to be sold to the commencement date of the Ordinance, so that more pre-cut-off columbaria can comply with the requirements for application for example, thereby allowing them to continue to operate under a confined scale and averting the potential need for ash disposal.

At the same time, the Bill proposes that the columbaria concerned should be subject to additional conditions, i.e. their applications for licence are still under processing; they are not located in any zone or district designated as “Residential (Group A)” on a draft plan; and as at the commencement date of the Bill, these columbaria have no planning application refused by the Town Planning Board (“TPB”). These conditions are meant to minimize the impact of these columbaria on the communities in the vicinity.

In addition, to enhance regulation, the Bill introduces new offences to prohibit private columbaria from overselling niches and over-placing ashes. 

Deputy President, earlier on, the Administration has made available over 16 000 public niches in Wo Hop Shek, Cape Collinson, Shek Mun, etc. for application by the public. However, for families who have paid for private niches and have ashes of the deceased interred therein, their consideration must be to allow the deceased to rest in peace according to their wishes and in their preferred manner; we must respect the families’ decision in this regard. In my view, although the proposals in the Bill are not perfect, they represent a pragmatic way to balance the interests of all parties under the limitations of actual circumstances. On behalf of LP, I express our support for the Bill. However, I would like to call on the relevant authorities to expedite the vetting and approval of applications for licence from private columbaria, so as to respond to the aspirations of the community. 

Deputy President, I so submit.