Hong Kong’s development minister has vowed to tighten monitoring of contractors and explore harsher penalties for industry misconduct following criticisms that the government’s reliance on their self-supervision was partly to blame for the deadly Tai Po blaze.
But Bernadette Linn Hon-ho also defended the current regulatory system, stressing that violations were penalised.
“The monitoring system has never been designed to allow the professionals to do whatever they like unchecked. But the...