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particular, to keep under annual review the necessity, if any, for strengthening these provisions, especially with regard to the desirability of compulsory insurance. Because there was general satisfactory com- pliance with the Ordinance, a strict enforcement of regulation 8 became unnecessary over the succeeding years.
With regard to the three questions which my honourable Friend has asked and bearing in mind my preliminary remarks, the answers are as follows.
With the recent extension of the scope of the Workmen's Com- pensation Ordinance a wider range of employers became liable to pay compensation for their employees. No publicity was given or will be given to regulation 8 because the department has not insisted for many years on returns from employers. However, I have recently called for returns in the appropriate form from all the 184 insurers known to be operating in Hong Kong at present. These insurers will be expected to complete statutory returns.
The returns required are specified in the Second Schedule to the Workmen's Compensation Regulations. It would be in accordance with common practice for the department to issue printed forms for the convenience of the public in making such returns but, for the reasons which I have already given, this has never been done. If returns were, in future, required from the public, printed forms would be provided.
Since the enactment of the amending Ordinance last year, I have been considering how statistics relating to workmen's compensation can and ought to be improved in the interests of all those who are concerned with industrial accidents, compensation for accidents, and the prevention of accidents. Regulation 8 has been under considera- tion. The amended Ordinance has applied to domestic servants and their employers only since the 1st January 1970 and it is not con- sidered necessary that these employers should be required to make returns, under regulation 8, in respect of 1969. Before any possible obligation could arise in respect of 1970, I hope to recommend that a new regulation should replace regulation 8. This would set out more precisely such statistical information as may be required from employers. I cannot commit the Government but, as far as I can see at present, it is most unlikely that I would advise that it should be necessary to collect annual returns from employers of domestic
servants.
MR WOO:-Sir, as section 41 of the Workmen's Compensation Ordinance provides that any persons who are in breach of regulation 8 can be fined $100 per day until the default is remedied, may I take it by my honourable Friend's answer that he will not insist strictly on the provision of section 41?
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