The independent committee investigating the Wang Fuk Court fire will not be elevated to a statutory commission with subpoena powers, the committee chairman David Lok Kai-hong said on Monday during the fifth round of hearings.
Lok said the committee had weighed the pros and cons but would not recommend to the Chief Executive that it be turned into a Commission of Inquiry with powers to compel witnesses. He stressed the decision was not based on political or public relations considerations.
Lok explained that the committee has obtained over one million documents and possesses sufficient information to conduct its work. Even if statutory powers were granted to summon involved parties to give evidence, there would still be no guarantee against evasive or irrelevant testimony.
Lok emphasized that the primary objective of the hearings is to uncover how and why the fire happened, rather than to assign individual blame. Upgrading to a statutory body would trigger lengthy legal procedures, potentially delaying the investigation until the second quarter of 2027, which Lok said would hinder both accountability and government reforms while prolonging the community’s grief.
Lok said he did not want the hearings to still be ongoing a year from now. The inquiry is now entering its final stages and will proceed to closing submissions from all involved parties after hearing from expert witnesses.
Meanwhile, Monday’s hearing was scheduled to receive evidence from both government and committee-appointed experts on the cause of the fire and its rapid spread.
Witness testimonies will be heard from Lam Kin-kwan, deputy head of the inter-departmental investigation task force and deputy chief fire officer, Lee Wing-man, chief chemist of the Forensic Science Division at the Government Laboratory, and Richard Yuen Kwok-kit, a government-appointed fire engineering expert and chair professor of architectural engineering at the City University of Hong Kong.
The session marks the first of three hearings scheduled for the fifth round, with the remaining two set to take place this Wednesday and Thursday.
In response to inquiries regarding the fire investigation will not be converted to Commission of Inquiry, chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association Jose-Antonio Maurellet said the Commission has already obtained a lot of information and gained sufficient knowledge over the relevant systematic issues.
He noted that a COI is a formal legal process and “converting” into a COI would likely cause delays as the parties who may be compelled to give evidence may request a longer time to consider the relevant issues.
Maurellet added that there will also be an impact on ongoing criminal or civil proceedings and result in delays.
He stressed that the Commission has arguably greater flexibility in its procedure, including on reporting restrictions and on how members of the public may or may not comment on the evidence given at the hearing.
(updated at 4.31pm)
