Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn said on Saturday that a proposal to bring back the mechanism for voluntary reporting of unauthorised building works in village houses in the New Territories doesn't equate to granting them amnesty.

The previous reporting period lasted for eight months in 2012.

Property owners who reported unauthorised building works that were built on or before June 28 2011 and imposed less risk didn’t have to fix them immediately, but had to conduct regular safety inspections every five years.

Linn said that the department doesn’t have enough staff to deal with all the cases at present, but stressed that the scheme does not mean property owners don't need to do anything.

“It’s not like we won’t prosecute you for the unauthorised works even if you have find someone to conduct regular inspections,” she said on an RTHK radio programme.

Linn said it may take until 2030 for the department to complete other more urgent matters in urban areas, and then they'll look at how to handle the village house situations.

The development minister noted that the Buildings Department has so far checked roughly 60,000 village houses, out of about 99,000, and found that around half had unauthorised building work.

There could be over 100,000 unauthorised building works among all village houses in total, she added.

Separately, Linn reiterated plans to toughen fines for unauthorised building works isn’t about punishing people, but about getting them to take the issue seriously.

The government hopes to amend the Buildings Ordinance, including raising the maximum fine for unauthorised building works from HK$400,000 to HK$2 million, alongside the existing risk of a two-year prison term.

Authorities are also proposing a fixed penalty of HK$6,000 for owners who ignore statutory building inspection notices, which apply to premises that are 30 years old or more.

“The government's intention is not to punish our property owners or citizens. What we hope is that through our legislation, we can establish rigorous provisions that encourage and urge everyone to comply with the law,” she said.

"We have many ageing buildings. We want to prompt everyone to take the requirement for building inspections seriously."

She said officials will seek input from the public and professional groups when the two-month consultation on the proposal begins later this month.