29th October 2026 – (Hong Kong) Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said the government agrees with the independent committee’s call to amend the law against bid-rigging, with a Competition Ordinance overhaul that would treat serious anti-competitive conduct as criminal.
Speaking after Chief Executive John Lee released the Wang Fuk Court fire report, Mr Lam said the reforms would criminalise bid-rigging and related hard-core practices such as price-fixing. Suggested maxima include imprisonment of up to 10 years, a fine of HK$10 million, three times the gains from the offence, or 50 per cent of the offender’s local turnover. The package is meant to put sharper teeth into rules that have long struggled to deter collusion in building maintenance tenders.
The Tai Po No. 5 alarm blaze on 26th November 2025 killed 168 people and affected 1,984 families. Mr Lee said the administration was deeply saddened and apologised to survivors and the wider public. He then led seven other principal officials in a bow: Chief Secretary for Administration Chan Kwok-ki, Financial Secretary Paul Chan, Mr Lam, Security Secretary Tang Ping-keung, Labour and Welfare Secretary Chris Sun, Development Secretary Bernadette Linn and Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong.
Mr Lee announced that Housing Secretary Winnie Ho had tendered her resignation yesterday to take political responsibility. He said he had accepted it. Although the failings involved the Housing Bureau, he stressed they did not personally implicate Ms Ho, yet she still offered to step down when they met. Her duties cease from today. Mr Wong will concurrently serve as Secretary for Housing, and the Central People’s Government has been asked to relieve Ms Ho of her post.
On administrative accountability, Mr Lee said a departmental-head responsibility probe would examine the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit, the Buildings Department, the Fire Services Department and the Labour Department, with findings due within three months on whether named officers had been negligent. Broader reforms include legislating a ban on bid-rigging in maintenance works, forming a joint task force to pursue offenders, creating a building maintenance support and services body, and restructuring parts of the Buildings Department.
The independent panel sat for about nine months and held 30 hearings before submitting a report of more than ten chapters — some 800 to 900 pages and about 330,000 words — covering how the fire started and grew, regulatory gaps in four departments, construction-material standards and bid-rigging. The government plans Buildings Ordinance amendments before year-end to shift from industry self-regulation towards active approval, inspection and oversight, with higher maximum fines. A steering committee led by Mr Chan will review the panel’s recommendations, drive implementation and supervise the reform programme.