Following is a question by the Hon Nixie Lam and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan, in the Legislative Council today (April 16):
Question:
The Government plans to implement electronic traffic enforcement in June this year. Fixed penalty notices for traffic offences (e.g. speeding) will be issued by electronic means to substitute serving by traditional post or in person. There are views that despite the Government's commitment to enhancing the digitalisation of traffic enforcement processes, these processes have not yet fully exploited technology to enhance efficiency and reduce costs. On the other hand, it is learnt that Shenzhen Municipality has been actively using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to optimise public service processes in recent years. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has assessed how electronic traffic enforcement will enhance administrative efficiency and cost-effectiveness; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(2) whether it will, by drawing reference from the experience of the Futian District of Shenzhen Municipality in adopting AI technology in government services, optimise the process of handling traffic offences (e.g. speeding); if so, of the relevant plan and timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and
(3) whether it will consider further digitalising other public service processes and introducing more AI tools to enhance the overall quality of public services?
Reply:
President,
In respect of the questions raised by the Hon Nixie Lam, having consulted the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF), my reply is as follows.
(1) The aim of digitalisation of traffic fixed penalty tickets (FPTs) is, in line with the direction of developing Hong Kong into a smart city, to increase the overall efficiency of traffic enforcement through the application of technology, improving the accuracy and speeding up the turnaround in the process of inputting, recording and retrieving information in relation to traffic offences or contraventions committed by offenders.
The HKPF plans to implement the electronic FPT regime on June 15, 2025, and introduce a new thematic portal and mobile application for electronic traffic enforcement purpose, providing vehicle owners and drivers with a convenient platform to verify and view their electronic FPTs on the platform, and make payment for penalties via electronic means (such as online credit card and Faster Payment System, etc), offering a more convenient public service.
The full implementation of the aforementioned measure will reduce processing time for paper-based FPTs and enhance work efficiency; and optimise manpower allocation through more flexible resource deployment for other traffic management duties. According to the estimate in the funding application for development of the relevant system in 2021, upon the full commissioning of the electronic FPT regime, it is estimated that there will be an annual saving of about $12.4 million being the staff cost of the supporting clerical staff who are currently responsible for handling paper-based FPTs and inputting prosecution data manually into related systems as well as about $232 million notional savings in manpower though redeployment of staff to other traffic management duties.
(2) and (3) The HKPF has been collaborating with relevant departments to study the application of technology in assisting traffic enforcement, continually optimise traffic enforcement procedures, drawing on experiences from the Mainland and overseas jurisdictions. The Transport Department (TD) and the HKPF have been working together to test an Automatic Traffic Enforcement System (ATES) at two road sections, namely Queen's Road Central in Central and Hoi Yuen Road in Kwun Tong. Based on artificial intelligence, video analytics and automatic license plate recognition, the ATES analyses the dynamics of vehicles in real time, identifies traffic offences and records traffic contraventions and the license plate numbers of the offending vehicles. In addition, the HKPF is collaborating with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to set up and test the first Smart Traffic Management System in Hong Kong in the Kwun Tong Business Area. The system installed closed-circuit television cameras for real-time detection and collection of traffic flow data to analyse the causes of traffic congestion (e.g. occurrence of illegal parking or traffic incidents, etc), and, after computing, automatically provides the HKPF with traffic diversion suggestions to facilitate targeted enforcement actions by the HKPF as well as consideration of traffic improvement measures by the TD to alleviate traffic congestion in the district and further enhance the safety of road users.
The HKPF and the TD will review the effectiveness of the trials for enhancement, including more accurate identification of offences under different circumstances, etc as well as consult the Department of Justice on future prosecution options for further study; and will map out the way forward taking into account the maturity and reliability of the relevant technology, its cost-effectiveness, and the traffic congestion situation at the scene.
Ends/Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Issued at HKT 11:25