Private Markets Regulation
[1 July 1963]
(Format changes—E.R. 6 of 2021)
(Repealed 78 of 1999 s. 7)
(Repealed 78 of 1999 s. 7)
In this Regulation, unless the context otherwise requires— (78 of 1999 s. 7)
commodity (商品) includes live stock; Director (署長) means the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene; (78 of 1999 s. 7) licensed stallholder (持牌檔主) means a person licensed under section 22 to carry on business from a stall in a private market; (78 of 1999 s. 7) owner (擁有人), in relation to a private market, means the person by whom the market place is operated; private market (私營街市) includes any building, shop, stall, shed, pen, or standing and any drainage or latrine accommodation appurtenant thereto, which comprise or form part of the market place; stall (攤檔) includes any pen or cage.No private market shall be carried on unless it is registered by the Director.
No private market shall be registered by the Director unless—
plans of the market place, including plans of all buildings, stalls, sheds, pens, storerooms, latrine accommodation and drainage works appurtenant to the market place have been approved by the Director; and
at the time of registration such plans are accurate.
Notwithstanding anything contained in subsection (2), the Director may refuse to register any private market if he considers the registration thereof not to be in the public interest.
For the purposes of first registration of any private market, the application therefor shall be submitted to the Director accompanied by 2 copies of the plans referred to in subsection (2).
Every plan, or any modification thereof, submitted to the Director for the purposes of an application for the registration of a private market shall, when it is approved by the Director, be endorsed to that effect, and one copy thereof shall be returned to the applicant.
Every registration of a private market shall be renewable annually on 1 July.
The registration or the renewal of the registration of a private market shall be subject to the payment in advance to the Director of a fee calculated at the rate of $10 per stall (whether or not any stall is occupied) up to a maximum fee of $1,000:Provided that, where a private market is first registered in the second half of any year of registration, the fee payable in respect of the grant of registration shall be one-half of the prescribed fee.
No alteration or addition shall be made to any private market or to any structure, or stall or any latrine or drainage works comprising any part of the market place otherwise than in accordance with plans approved by the Director.
If in the opinion of the Director any part of a private market is in such a state by reason of dilapidation or lack of repair as to be unfit or unsuitable for the purpose of a private market, the Director, by notice served upon the owner of such market, may require him within such period, not being less than 30 days after the service of the notice, as shall be specified in the notice, to remedy such dilapidation or carry out such repairs to the satisfaction of the Director as shall be specified in the notice.
If the owner of a private market fails to comply with the requirements of any notice served upon him in accordance with the provisions of subsection (1), the Director may enter upon the premises in which the market is carried on and may carry out or cause to be carried out all such work as may be necessary for compliance with the notice and may recover the cost thereof from the owner of the market.
Before first registration of any private market, the owner thereof shall allot a consecutive number to each stall, which shall be clearly indicated thereon in permanent form, and shall inform the Director of the nature of the commodities which will be sold therefrom. (10 of 1986 s. 32(2))
The Director may by notice served upon the owner of any private market, either before first registration or at any time thereafter, prohibit the sale of any specified commodity from any stall at which any other specified commodity is sold, and a copy of such notice shall be kept posted by the owner of the market in a conspicuous place in the market during the currency of such notice. (10 of 1986 s. 32(2))
Any owner of a private market who fails to post a copy of any notice served upon him in accordance with subsection (2) and any person who after the posting of such copy fails to comply with the terms thereof shall be guilty of an offence.
No commodity other than fresh meat, fresh fish, poultry, fresh vegetables or fruit or such other commodity as the Director may from time to time permit, either generally or in any particular case, shall be sold in a private market. (10 of 1986 s. 32(2))
No commodity shall be sold in a private market otherwise than from a stall in that part of the market place set aside by the Director as the part in which such commodity may be sold.
No commodity shall be sold in a private market otherwise than by retail.
The owner of every private market shall cause to be prepared for every period of 12 months ending on 31 March in each year an income and expenditure account, which shall be delivered, not later than 14 April next following the end of the period covered by the account, to the Director for inspection and return.
Every account referred to in subsection (1) shall be in such form as the Director may require, either generally or in any particular case, and, immediately after the return thereof by the Director the owner of the market to which such account relates shall cause the account, together with any report by the Director thereon, to be posted in a conspicuous place in the market place and there to remain posted for not less than 7 consecutive days.
The owner of any private market shall cause one copy of this Regulation in the English language and one copy thereof in the Chinese language to be kept posted at all times in a conspicuous position in every private market place.
The Director may prescribe the hours during which a private market shall be closed to the public.
Where the Director has prescribed the hours during which a private market shall be closed to the public, he shall cause a notice specifying such hours to be posted in a conspicuous position in the market place.
Save with the permission in writing of the Director, no person shall be in a private market during the hours prescribed by the Director as the hours during which the market shall be closed to the public.
Every private market shall at all times be maintained by the owner thereof in a clean and sanitary condition.
If at any time the Director is of the opinion that a private market is not in a clean and sanitary condition it may, after serving upon the owner thereof 24 hours’ notice of intention, carry out, or cause to be carried out, such work as may be necessary to render the market clean and sanitary and, for that purpose, may, by notice in writing served on any licensed stallholder of such market, require him, at a time to be specified in the notice, to remove from his stall all articles of what kind so ever during such time as may be required to cleanse the stall and such part of the market as is adjacent thereto. (10 of 1986 s. 32(2))
Any expenses incurred by the carrying out under subsection (2) of any work may be recovered by the Director from the owner of the market. (10 of 1986 s. 32(2))
No person shall erect any structure or place any article or vehicle in a private market so as to cause thereby obstruction in any passageway or open space therein intended for access by the public.
No person shall hawk or cry for sale in a private market any goods or wares whatsoever.
No hawker shall deposit or store in a private market any goods or wares or other articles whatsoever.
No person in a private market shall cleave a carcass, or any part of a carcass, except upon a cleaving block, a chopping board or hooks provided for the purpose.
No person in a private market shall kill, bleed, pluck, scald or clean any poultry or game otherwise than in a place approved for that purpose by the Director. (10 of 1986 s. 32(2); 78 of 1999 s. 7)
No person shall throw or deposit any filth or refuse of any kind whatsoever in any passageway, surface channel or thoroughfare in a private market.
No person shall transport through a private market any goods or wares intended for sale elsewhere than in the market.
No person in a private market shall beg or gather alms or, for the purpose of gathering alms, expose or exhibit any sores, wounds or bodily ailment or deformity.
No person shall cause or suffer any dog that belongs to him or is in his charge to enter or remain in a private market.
No person in a private market shall behave in a disorderly manner.
Save under and in accordance with a licence granted by the Director, no person shall carry on business from a stall of a private market.
Every such licence shall be renewable annually on 1 July.
The grant or renewal of such a licence shall be subject to the payment in advance to the Director of a fee of $5:Provided that, where the licence is issued in the second half of any year of licence, the fee payable in respect of the grant thereof shall be one-half of the fee prescribed.
Where the Director is satisfied that any such licence has been lost or destroyed, he may upon payment of a fee of $1 issue a duplicate thereof.
If it appears to the Director that no or no appreciable business has been carried on from any stall for a period of 30 consecutive days, the Director may in his discretion, after serving upon the licensee of such stall 7 days’ notice in writing of his intention, cancel the licence therefor.
A licensed stallholder shall at all times keep posted in a conspicuous position on his stall a stall card to be issued by the Director to the stallholder upon application therefor.
Every application to the Director for a stall card shall be accompanied by 2 photographs of the licensed stallholder.
A licensed stallholder shall at all times keep at his stall a register in a form to be prescribed by the Director containing the name and a photograph of each person for the time being employed by him at the stall.
Every such register shall at all times be kept up to date and shall be produced for inspection upon demand by any police officer or health officer or officers of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.
Every licensed stallholder shall at all times keep his stall in a clean and sanitary condition and shall provide and use thereat a dustbin of a type approved by the Director.
No licensed stallholder shall deposit or store any of his goods or wares or any other article belonging to him in any part of the market outside his stall or permit or suffer any of his goods or wares or any such other article to be so placed or stored or to project outside his stall.
In the event of a contravention of section 4(1) or 5, the person by whom the private market is being carried on and any person taking any part in the management thereof shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine at level 3 and to imprisonment for 3 months and shall be liable in addition to a fine of $450 for each day during which it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that the offence has continued.
Any person who contravenes section 22(1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine at level 3 and to imprisonment for 3 months and shall be liable in addition to a fine of $450 for each day during which it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that the offence has continued.
In the event of a contravention of section 7, 9, 10, 12(1) or 13, the owner of the private market and any person taking any part in the management thereof shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine at level 3.
Any licensed stallholder who contravenes section 8, 23(1), 25 or 26 shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine at level 3.
Any person who—
contravenes section 11(3), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 or 24; or
fails to comply with a requirement made by the Director under section 12(2),
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine at level 2.
(10 of 1986 s. 32(2); L.N. 306 of 1987; L.N. 177 of 1996; 78 of 1999 s. 7)
Without prejudice to the provisions of any enactment relating to the prosecution of criminal offences and without prejudice to the powers of the Secretary for Justice in relation to the prosecution of such offences, prosecutions for an offence under this Regulation may be brought in the name of the Director.