Hong Kong minister defends social worker regulator shake-up, raises concerns over vetting of candidates with criminal pasts
- Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun says Social Workers Registration Board in urgent need of reform, with body already given chances to improve in recent years
- Authorities aim to implement proposals to raise number of members on board from 15 to 27 to increase proportion of government appointees
Hong Kong’s welfare chief has defended plans to reform the local regulator for social workers, pointing to cases where the organisation has allowed candidates with past drug possession and trafficking convictions to register as members of the profession.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said on Wednesday the Social Workers Registration Board needed urgent reform, noting authorities had called on the body to improve over the past two years but without success.
“In the application process to become a social worker or to extend their registration, there were some obvious cases where the public might think the board has deviated from their original purpose,” he told a radio programme.
“For instance, some people had previously committed offences such as possessing or trafficking narcotics, but were allowed to carry on renewing their registration.”
The minister expressed concerns about those candidates being approved without issue, given board members had strong opinions about the applicants.
