Hong Kong probe uncovers ‘deficiencies,’ possible illegal acts in Queen Mary Hospital lift scandal

The contractor, subcontractor, consultants and professionals involved in the lift scandal at Queen Mary Hospital’s new clinical block displayed “deficiencies” and may have committed illegal acts, while two government departments also exhibited oversight lapses, an investigation has found.

The Development Bureau submitted a 116-page report to the Legislative Council on Thursday night regarding the faulty construction work that resulted in tilted lift shafts at Queen Mary Hospital’s new building. The problem had led to over 230 reports of elevator failures between September 2025 and January 2026 and only came to light in August following media reports.

The report identified four main causes of the frequent lift malfunctions, including “discrepancies” in lift shaft dimensions and verticality as well as in the lifts’ guide rails, imbalanced lift cars, and “unsatisfactory” installation workmanship.

Discrepancies in four lift shafts were “comparatively serious” and in the range of 62 to 82 millimetres in the 32-storey building, the investigation found.

“In summary, all the 28 lifts have problems of varying severity which have led to the lift cars not operating smoothly, thus requiring temporary suspension of service for following up the problems,” the Development Bureau said in a paper submitted to LegCo.

The report identified various parties involved in the project as responsible for the faults, with Able Engineering, the main contractor, bearing the “sole responsibility for the inaccuracy in the lift shaft construction.”

Subcontractor Anlev Elex Elevator failed to properly install the guide rails and lift cars as required by law, and its engineers did not conduct “thorough examination” of the lift works before issuing safety certificates.

A number of professionals appointed to oversee and sign off various parts of the project also failed to properly conduct their duties, the report said.

Authorities will impose penalties against the parties at fault, the Development Bureau said. “Depending on the severity of the deficiencies, the punitive actions may include suspension of eligibility to tender, downgrading, or removal,” the bureau said.

The bureau also said that the investigation revealed that the scandal may involve illegal acts, without elaborating. Law enforcement agencies will further investigate the incident, the bureau added.

Government deficiencies

The report also named the Architectural Services Department (ASD) and the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) as having deficiencies in their oversight of the project and the issuing of lift use permits.

The ASD had not strictly followed internal guidelines and issued the Certificate of Completion for the new clinical block in January 2025, when the lifts had yet to be granted use permits, the report said.

At least 10 ASD staff members had “deficiencies of varying degrees” in the scandal and are now subject to disciplinary proceedings under the Civil Service Regulations.

Meanwhile, the EMSD had relied on registered lift contractors and only examined a limited set of stability and operational issues during on-site inspections, the report said. The department will issue advisory letters to relevant personnel over the matter.

Multiple lawmakers levelled criticism at the authorities for the scandal during a LegCo panel meeting on Friday. Jody Kwok of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong called the incident “unbelievable,” while Mark Chong of Roundtable said it was serious that the current oversight mechanism failed to spot the issue early on.

But Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn defended the system, saying that the incident only involved “executional shortcomings” by individual government employees.

Lawmaker Rebecca Chan also criticised the government’s late disclosure of the incident, noting that the ASD was aware of various degrees of concrete scabbling work inside the lift shafts as early as February 2025.

Linn said in response that the Development Bureau had not been aware of the exact causes of the frequent lift malfunctions when the media began reporting on the issue in August, and that it would have been “irresponsible” to disclose the matter at that stage and dampen public confidence in the new clinical block.

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Hans Tse is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in local politics, academia, and media transformation. He was previously a social science researcher, with writing published in the Social Movement Studies and Social Transformation of Chinese Societies journals. He holds an M.Phil in communication from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Before joining HKFP, he also worked as a freelance reporter for Initium between 2019 and 2021, where he covered the height - and aftermath - of the 2019 protests, as well as the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.