'Social workers may be banned for life by convictions'
The government on Thursday said social workers could in future be banned from the profession for life, if they were convicted of a crime which could warrant a prison sentence. It is among a series of proposed legal changes the administration said would improve the statutory body overseeing the profession, as it accused the body of deviating from the spirit of the law.  Officials want to reform the Social Workers Registration Board such that there'd be more appointed members than elected ones, while in future, all 27 board members would need to take an oath of allegiance to the SAR.  Under the plan, social workers convicted of lesser offences that may be considered to harm the reputation of the profession would also be subject to a permanent expulsion, or a ban of no more than five years as decided by the board. The person concerned could write to the board within 28 days to oppose the decision. As for more serious crimes such as national security offences, murder, sex offences and child abuse, the board would promptly expel the social worker unless the whole board votes otherwise. Labour and welfare minister Chris Sun on Thursday described the proposals as nothing major, stressing that deregistration decisions would continue to be made by the board. "We're not amending such broad principles [over deregistration]. What we're saying is that we mustn't and shouldn't wait, and there's a new provision to allow for the prompt removal," he told lawmakers at a special Legco panel meeting on the matter. Sun also accused the current board of dereliction of duty for not taking any steps to implement legal changes related to national security.  He said it should have actively gathered information on whether social workers seeking to renew their licences "may have committed security-related crimes". Still, New People's Party's Judy Chan expressed concern that social services would be under affected after the changes, saying there might be a scenario where a group of social workers were disqualified. The minister dismissed this, saying he thinks most social workers shouldn't have a problem getting their licences renewed. Sun also stressed the legal amendments only require future board members to take an oath, rather than all registered social workers.