Hong Kong govt reports no breaches of heatstroke prevention plans in outsourced contracts
Hong Kong's four major procurement departments reported no violations of mandatory heatstroke prevention work plans by outsourced service contractors over the past three years. The government also detailed enforcement actions, scoring criteria, and plans to adjust wage and hour evaluation weights.
Hong Kong's four major procurement departments – the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), the Housing Authority, and the Government Property Agency – have reported no breaches of mandatory heatstroke prevention work plans by outsourced non-technical service contractors in the past three years up to August 2026, according to a LegCo written reply published on 7 October 2026.
In response to a lawmaker's question, the government said that for contracts involving outdoor or non-air-conditioned work, bidders must submit a heatstroke prevention work plan certified by a registered safety officer. The plan must include heat stress risk assessments and corresponding work-rest arrangements as per the Labour Department's guidelines. Failure to submit a plan disqualifies the bid, and violations can lead to deductions under the penalty-point system. However, no violations were found across all four departments during the reporting period.
Regarding enforcement actions for non-compliance with contract terms, the departments provided a breakdown of oral warnings, warning letters, notices of default, service fee deductions, and contract terminations by service type (security, cleaning, and others) for the past three years. The data was included in an annex to the reply.
On the scoring system for awarding outsourced contracts, the government said that under current policy, “wages” must account for at least 25 per cent of the technical score, while “working hours” has no minimum weight. The departments adjust the weightings based on contract nature, balancing worker protection with effective use of public funds. The specific technical and price evaluation weightings for each department were provided in a separate annex.
Asked whether the departments plan to gradually increase the weight of wages and working hours to encourage better treatment for non-technical workers, the government said it continues to safeguard workers' pay and labour rights under existing policies but did not announce any specific plans to raise the weighting thresholds.