Environmental Protection Department
| 環境保護署 | |
 |
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1986 |
| Headquarters | 15 to 16/F Central Government Offices, 4-6 Tim Mei Avenue, Admiralty, Hong Kong |
| Employees | 1,620 (March 2008) [1] |
| Annual budget | 3,349.4m HKD (2008-09) [2] |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Environment Bureau |
| Website | www.epd.gov.hk |
Environmental Protection Department (Chinese: 環境保護署) is a department of Hong Kong Government concerning the issues of environmental protection in Hong Kong.
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) was created in 1986 to co-ordinate and carry out pollution prevention and control activities.
Staff and resources from six government departments were deployed to the EPD. The EPD replaced the Environmental Protection Agency (which had been created in 1981 to replace the Environmental Protection Unit, created in 1977) as the main government body charged with tackling pollution. Between 1986 and 31 March 2005 it functioned mainly as an executive department enforcing environmental laws and implementing environmental policies, the latter having been determined by the relevant policy bureau, most recently the then Environment, Transport and Works Bureau.
On 1 April 2005 however the environmental policy-making function carried out by the then Bureau was subsumed within the EPD and the head of the Environment Branch of the policy bureau took up the dual role of Permanent Secretary for the Environment and Director of Environmental Protection. This significant development has placed the EPD in the position of both determining and implementing environmental policy. Subsequent to the re-organisation of government bureaux on 1 July 2007, a new Environment Bureau was formed overseeing the formulation and implementation of environmental policies.
Following the re-organisation on 1 July 2007 the EPD has adopted a new structure based on three operational divisions, four policy divisions, a cross-boundary division, and a corporate affairs division.
The department employs about 1 600 staff, about one-quarter of whom are professional staff, half are technical-grade staff and the remainder are administrative and support staff.
Starting from July 2007, the Director of the department is Miss Anissa Wong Sean-yee JP, who also the Permanent Secretary for the Environment in the Environment Bureau.
Air quality monitoring by the Department are carried out by 11 general stations and three roadside stations. On 8 March 2012, the Department started reporting data on fine suspended particulates in the air on an hourly basis, that are a leading component of smog. It began regular monitoring of PM2.5 levels, which measure 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less, at three stations since 2005, but the data were never publicized.
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