The Hong Kong Bar Association has proposed criminalising bid-rigging by introducing a “double-track” approach to the Competition Ordinance, describing it as a quick fix to increase deterrence and encourage more whistle-blowers to expose industry malpractice following the city’s deadliest fire in decades. Under the current civil regime established in 2015, the ordinance only punishes individuals…
Stories filled with tragic bravery, outrage at heedless officials and horror as loved ones perished were among those shared by 24 residents of the fire-ravaged Wang Fuk Court estate, as they testified at a public hearing investigating Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades. Over multiple sessions that began on March 19, some told the presiding…
Over the past year, retired economist Thomas Yuen Wai-kee has used shared bikes operated by Locobike and Helloride a few times each month to go on leisure rides in Hong Kong. So far the 62-year-old, a former assistant economics professor with Hong Kong Shue Yan University, has enjoyed their services, saying the two dockless shared…
The South China Morning Post has taken home three honours at the International News Media Association’s 2026 Global Media Awards, with its infographic on Hong Kong’s deadly Tai Po fire winning first place for the best use of visual journalism. The awards were announced and presented in Berlin on Thursday, with the SCMP being the…
The “mechanical mindset” of Hong Kong building authorities has come under scrutiny at a hearing into the city’s deadliest fire in decades, with a former inspection director conceding his team had “blindly” followed outdated guidelines when deciding not to conduct on-site audits of renovation works at the housing estate ravaged in the blaze. Rudolf Lau…
A Hong Kong building inspector mistook illegal alterations to emergency staircases at a housing estate ravaged in a deadly fire for protective measures on “broken” windows, because he based his assessment solely on documents and did not carry out a site visit, a public inquiry has heard. Senior maintenance surveyor Nick Yung Siu-lun, the head…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. The second of three witnesses from the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) is set to testify on Thursday at a hearing into Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades. The government-appointed independent committee will…
The government-appointed administrator of Wang Fuk Court, the Hong Kong estate devastated by a deadly fire last November, will hold two online meetings with displaced residents this month after 240 flat owners threatened legal action in a petition. Hop On Management Company announced on Wednesday that the Zoom meetings will take place from 7pm to…
Government inspectors did not foresee engineering firms colluding to deceive authorities over the use of substandard renovation materials at a Hong Kong residential estate devastated in the city’s deadliest fire in decades, a public inquiry has heard. Andy Ku Siu-ping, a senior maintenance surveyor of the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit, on Wednesday blamed “systemic…
This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. All eyes are on the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU), whose officers are scheduled to testify before a judge-led panel on Wednesday about their role in Hong Kong’s Tai Po blaze. Senior maintenance…