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New Legislative measures for building safety proposed

New legislative measures for site safety and registration of professionals and contractors will be gazetted on Friday (May 19) and introduced into the Legislative Council on May 31, the Director of Buildings, Mrs Helen Yu, said today (Wednesday).

"The Buildings (Amendment)(No 2) Bill 1995 proposes to strengthen safety assurance at work sites and to implement self-regulation by building professionals," Mrs Yu said.

Following the collapse of a part of a wall under demolition in Nathan road in September last year, the Government announced a comprehensive action plan to improve safety on work sites.

"The action plan outlined immediate, interim and long range measures to tighten control including legislative review.

"The Bill is the result of this review," Mrs Yu said.

The Buildings Ordinance and subsidiary Regulations will be strengthened in three areas:

* The Building Authority's powers to impose conditions and to require information to ensure safety;

* The system for registration of contractors; and

* Offences and penalties, including those for not providing proper supervision of building works.

"The parties concerned are building owners, registered contractors, site agents, works supervisors, building professionals and any persons carrying out building works.

"Their responsibilities will be defined. Our proposals in the Bill accommodate practically all the recommendations of the Coroner's Court which recently completed an inquest into the deaths at the demolition site at Nathan Road," she said.

"For the new system of contractor registration," Mrs Yu said, "we propose two types of contractors, general building contractors and specialists contractors.