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Measures to improve industrial safety
Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau Wai-hing and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
In view of the recent spate of industrial accidents, will the Administration inform this Council:
Reply:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Mr President,
(a)
of the number of persons killed or injured in industrial accidents in the past 24 months, with a breakdown by the categories of such accidents;
whether there is a policy to debar contractors on the Lists of Approved Contractors for Public Works which have poor industrial safety records from tendering for Government projects; if so, how the policy is implemented and the number of contractors which have been so debarred in the past 24 months; if not, whether the Government will actively consider formulating such a policy; and
of the names of contractors currently engaged in the Airport Core Programme (ACP) and non-ACP projects which have a record of violating industrial safety laws?
According to the latest available statistics, a total of 142 persons were killed and 89,651 persons injured in industrial accidents during the 24- month period between 1 July 1994 and 30 June 1996.
A breakdown of fatal and non-fatal industrial accidents by major industries for the same period is at Annexes 1 and 2 respectively. It can be seen that the total number of industrial accidents for the first half of 1996 has declined by 10.6% as compared with that for the same period in 1995.
A similar breakdown of fatal and non-fatal industrial accidents by cause is at Annexes 3 and 4 respectively.