Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun on Sunday said it is reasonable for a newly passed law to make reporting of child abuse mandatory to come into effect 18 months after it is gazetted.

Speaking on a TVB programme, Sun said given the complexity and scale of the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Bill – which requires certain professionals to report to the authorities when they suspect serious child abuse cases – a year and a half is a reasonable timeframe.

"We need to understand that this involves 25 different professions and there are over 100,000 people involved. There’s a lot to work on,” Sun said.

“So what needs to be done? First, we need to create detailed guidelines. We need to train these 100,000 people and make sure they understand. On the other hand, we need to prepare for the aftermath. We expect an increase in reported cases, so that we need to have enough staff, facilities, and emergency resources. Everything needs to be in place before we can proceed."

Sun added the administration will provide 96 extra foster beds during the 18-month period, which will be used to temporarily accommodate about 300 abused children.

Regarding the Social Workers Registration Board, which saw seven of eight elected members of the current term resign, Sun said he is confident that other social workers would be willing to join the board when the next election takes place at the end of the year.

In the TVB interview, the minister also said he did not think it was too harsh to permanently revoke the licences of social workers who have been convicted of national security offences.

He stressed that it does not mean the administration is not giving a second chance to social workers who have committed other crimes.

“Our judgement is the mainstream view of the society and the Legislative Council, is that social workers who have committed crimes against national security are out of the question. This is a lifetime suspension arrangement. But for social workers who have committed other crimes, I want to be very clear, we are very tolerant, as long as the circumstances allow and everyone thinks it's appropriate, they can still be social workers."