Serious accidents in swimming pools and even drownings are not being reported to the government, the Ombudsman said on Tuesday, even though the city's hundreds of licensed pools are regulated by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).

Announcing a direct investigation into the matter, Ombudsman Winnie Chiu said although the FEHD conducts routine inspections of some 1,370 pools – to check water and equipment quality as well as the number of lifeguards on duty – there is no notification mechanism in place for serious incidents.

"Unless an accident has been reported by the media or made known through other means, the FEHD would not learn of a serious accident in a swimming pool under its regulation," Chiu's office said in a statement.

"If the FEHD has no idea about whether a serious accident has occurred in a licensed swimming pool, it can hardly conduct investigation or take follow-up actions to find out if the licensee has breached the regulation and rectified the problem(s), and to review whether the licensing conditions are appropriate," the statement said.

The watchdog said between 2017 and June 2022, the FEHD received 470 complaints related to licensed swimming pools.

It said its direct investigation will probe the FEHD's regulation of pools, including the mechanism for approving new licences, procedures for inspecting pools, complaint handling, and whether measures to ensure hygiene and protect swimmer's safety are adequate.

From 2019 to 2021, two people drowned in public swimming pools. But a study by the Centre for Health Protection suggests the number of deaths in other swimming pools would be higher. It says in the four years up to 2016, 24 people drowned in Hong Kong's pools.