Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung has defended protections in place for victims of family violence after lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan charged that existing services are inadequate.

He said the District Court and the Magistrates' Courts have a fast track system for the listing of urgent domestic violence cases, which has been working satisfactorily.

Cheung said Family Courts accord priority to ensure timely handling of domestic violence cases. "For urgent applications, the Family Court Registry will make arrangements for the applicant to see a Family Court Duty Judge as soon as practicable," he said, adding Hong Kong's courts covering domestic violence are operating well and the current child support system would be unlikely to benefit from major changes.

"We consider that the setting up of a maintenance board to collect and enforce maintenance payments would unlikely bring to either the maintenance payees or the taxpayers any significant benefits over and above those which could be achieved by improving the existing system," Cheung said.

Helena Wong, who represents Kowloon West, described waiting times for the courts to dispose of cases of family violence as too long and said the city needed an alimony council to help recover maintenance payments from ex-spouses.

Statistics show that while the number of domestic violence cases was down in 2012 compared to the previous four years, the number of non-violent cases rose on a month-by-month basis, halting a four-year slide in overall numbers. The monthly average of 1,261.2 domestic conflict reports were filed last year, compared to 1,212.5 in 2011.

Cheung said police have been providing frontline training and that officers are present at each reported incident to ensure proper investigation and follow-up action.

Victims and their dependants are referred for welfare and medical assistance if appropriate and an Enhanced Central Domestic Violence Database has been set up to record details of all domestic conflict cases for further follow-up and repeat cases, he said.

The force has also adopted a "one-family-one-team" system to match investigation teams with families in which repeated incidents occur. Each Police District has at least one Designated Domestic Violence Investigation Unit which handles serious domestic violence cases, he added.

The administration has made the issuance of income orders more flexible and has also allowed courts to impose interest and surcharges on late-alimony payments.

Cheung said the government is also working on legislative amendments to facilitate challenges to those evading payment, as well as powers to arrest late-maintenance payers pending as well to bar them from leaving the city.

tim@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 01/10/2013 page1)