Registered General Building Contractor and its Authorized Signatory disciplined for negligent or misconduct
The Registered Contractors' Disciplinary Board has completed a disciplinary inquiry under the Buildings Ordinance (BO) and decided that a Registered General Building Contractor (RGBC) and its Authorized Signatory (AS) should be disciplined for having been negligent and/or misconducted themselves in building works (including foundation and superstructure works).
The Board ordered the RGBC to be fined $170,000, and the AS be reprimanded. Also, the RGBC and its AS are to pay $148,200 extra in total, being the costs of the Board and the Buildings Department (BD) for conducting the inquiry.
The Board's written decision and order issued on June 10, was published in the Gazette today (June 20). Details are available at the following link: www.gld.gov.hk/egazette/pdf/20252925/egn202529253644.pdf.
The case involved a construction site at Tai Shu Ha Road West in Yuen Long. Upon investigation by the BD, it was found that the RGBC and its AS had knowledge of the construction of unauthorised concrete walls below the ground floor of all houses and the club house at the site, which deviated from the approved plans in a material way. In view of the investigation results, the BD notified the Board for its consideration of disciplinary action against the RGBC and its AS under the provisions of sections 13(1) and 13(3) of the BO.
A spokesperson for the BD reiterated that any registered contractors who have been negligent or have misconducted themselves in building works may be subject to disciplinary action under the BO.
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25
The Government today (January 8) reminded members of the public that, starting from January 25, all public transport and commercial vehicles' seated passengers must wear seat belts, and all drivers must not place more than two mobile telecommunications devices (MTDs) in front of them during driving, further enhancing road, passenger and driving safety.
All passenger's seats in public and private buses, rear passenger's seats in private light buses and goods vehicles (GVs), and driver's seats and all passenger's seats of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) must be equipped with seat belts in these vehicles first registered on or after January 25. Drivers and passengers occupying the seats of these vehicles (whether newly registered or not), where seat belts are fitted, are required to wear them. Studies show that wearing seat belts will reduce the risk of death and serious injury of drivers and passengers in head-on collisions by about 40 per cent and 70 per cent respectively.
Offending vehicle owners, drivers or passengers will be liable to a maximum fine of $5,000 and imprisonment for up to three months. All passengers occupying seats shall be responsible for wearing seat belts. Among them, any driver who still drives with a passenger aged under 15 seated in the rear seat of a GV or the passenger's seat of an SPV without wearing a seat belt will be subject to a maximum fine of $2,000.
The Government noted that the transport trades are ready for the new requirements. In franchised buses, all seats in newly procured buses have been equipped with seat belts. Together with existing double-deck buses retrofitted with seat belts on the upper-deck seats by operators under government subsidy, to date, around 3500 buses are now equipped with seat belts, representing about 60 per cent of the entire fleet in Hong Kong.
In addition, from the same day onwards, any driver must not place more than two MTDs (i.e. mobile phones, tablet computers or laptop computers) in front of them during driving. The diagonal length of each screen must not exceed 19 centimetres. The MTDs must not obstruct the driver's view of the road and traffic, as well as any mirror, device or camera-monitor fitted for viewing the roads. Offenders will be liable to a maximum fine of $2,000.
The Government has stepped up publicity and public education since November 2025. The Transport Department (TD) has strengthened collaboration with the Police, the Education Bureau, the Information Services Department, the Road Safety Council and the transport trades including public transport operators to introduce the legal requirements through websites, videos, media, social media, the "e-Bulletin for Parents" and publicity posters on traffic signal controllers across various districts. Franchised bus operators have also strengthened publicity and broadcast inside compartments and at bus stops to alert passengers to the new requirement of wearing seat belts.
Members of the public may refer to the TD's webpage on the new requirements on seat belts (www.td.gov.hk/en/road_safety/sb) and placing MTDs during driving (www.td.gov.hk/en/road_safety/mtd) or the Agent T Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AgentT.hk), or call the hotline 28042600 for details.
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25 Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25 Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25 Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
New requirements for mandatory fitting and wearing of seat belts and placing of mobile telecommunications devices while driving to be implemented from January 25 Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
