Security minister Chris Tang on Thursday said it was undesirable that the owners of a building where a fire killed five people last week had failed to follow orders to improve safety measures for 16 years.

Another 40 people were injured in the blaze at New Lucky House in Jordan, several of them critically.

At a special finance committee meeting in the legislature on this year's budget, a number of lawmakers pressed Tang on the issue.

Councillor So Cheung-wing, of the Election Committee, asked why the building's owners had not been prosecuted despite not improving facilities such as fire safety doors, or using fire resistant materials to wrap power cables.

Lawmaker Ambrose Lam asked why guesthouses in New Lucky House were given licences despite the building owners failing to follow fire safety orders.

Tang said in response that officials had followed up on the matter over the years, but the building owners had set the issue aside after forming an owners' corporation.

He added that buildings without fire safety facilities that meet modern standards aren't necessarily dangerous.

"Through legislative amendments, we've enhanced the standard of fire safety of these buildings to a modern standard," Tang told lawmakers.

"But it doesn't mean that these old buildings are too dangerous for residents to live in. It just means that the fire safety standard is not up to the modern standard and we are requiring them to catch up."

The minister noted that officials are working on changing relevant laws so that if owners do not carry out improvement works as ordered, the government could do the work for them and then bill them for the cost.

Another amendment, Tang said, involves raising the maximum fine for violating fire safety laws by four times to HK$100,000, with offenders also risking bigger daily fines for non-compliance.

Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien asked if further penalties would be levied besides a fine, noting that of nearly 300,000 notices issued to homeowners by the Fire Services Department, nearly two thirds had not been complied with.

The minister said in response that it's difficult to single out the individual responsible for fire hazard issues such as problems with fire safety doors and blocked fire escape routes.