The Occupational Safety and Health Branch is responsible for the promotion and regulation of safety and health at work. The objective of the Programme of Safety and Health at Work is to ensure that risks to people's safety and health at work are properly managed and reduced to the minimum by legislation, education and promotion. More specifically, we achieve the objective by:

• providing a legislative framework to safeguard safety and health at work;
  
• ensuring compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance (OSHO), the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance (FIUO), the Boilers and Pressure Vessels Ordinance (BPVO) and their subsidiary regulations by conducting inspections and taking out regulatory actions;
  
• investigating accidents and occupational health problems at workplaces;
  
• improving the knowledge and understanding of employers, employees and the general public on occupational safety and health by providing them with appropriate information and advice; and
  
• organising promotional programmes and training courses to improve safety awareness of the workforce.

The principal legislation for safety and health at work includes the OSHO, the FIUO, and the BPVO.

With few exceptions, the OSHO protects employees' safety and health at work in practically all branches of economic activities. It is basically an enabling legislation that empowers the Commissioner for Labour to make regulations prescribing standards for general working environment as well as specific safety and health aspects at work.

The FIUO regulates safety and health at work in industrial undertakings, which include factories, construction sites, cargo and container handling areas, as well as catering establishments.

The BPVO aims at regulating the standards and operation of equipment such as boilers, pressure vessels, including thermal oil heaters, steam receivers, steam containers, air receivers and pressurised cement tanks mounted on trucks or trailers.

Through the concerted efforts of all parties concerned, including employers, employees, contractors, safety practitioners and the Government, Hong Kong's work safety performance has been improving since 1998, with the number of occupational accidents and the accident rate per thousand workers falling steadily.

This pattern, however, changed somewhat in 2004. The overall number and rate of work accidents rose slightly as compared to 2003. The increase was largely attributed to the rebound of the local economy in the period that generated more economic and business activities as compared with the severe economic downturn brought about by the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in early 2003. As a result, the year of 2003 provided a significantly lower base for comparison. Nonetheless, comparing the figures of 2004 to those of 2002, which was a normal year, there was sustained improvement in the overall performance. It is particularly noteworthy that despite a slight increase in occupational injuries in 2004, the safety performance of the construction industry continued to make noticeable improvements.

The number of occupational injuries in all workplaces in 2004 stood at 44 025, an increase of 4.8 per cent over 2003, while the injury rate per 1 000 employees increased slightly from 17.7 to 18.1, up by 2.6 per cent. However, compared to 2002, the number of occupational injuries fell by 6.4 per cent and the injury rate dropped by 5.7 per cent.

The safety performance of the high-risk construction industry continued to improve. However, it still had the highest number of fatalities and accident rate. The number of industrial accidents in the construction industry decreased from 4 367 in 2003 to 3 833 in 2004, down by 12.2 per cent. The accident rate per 1 000 workers dropped from 68.1 in 2003 to 60.3 in 2004, down by 11.4 per cent. Compared to 2002, the number of accidents showed a hefty drop of 38.6 per cent whilst the injury rate went down by 29.2 per cent.

For more statistics on occupational safety and health, please visit the following webpage: http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/osh/content10.htm.

Some key indicators of work of this programme area are shown in Figure 4.1.

In January 2004, the Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Safety Officers and Safety Supervisors) Regulation was extended to the container handling industry and the minimum qualification and working experience required for registration as a safety officer were raised. In March 2004, the Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Gas Welding and Flame Cutting) Regulation has also come into full operation. Any person who performs gas welding and flame cutting work must hold a valid certificate after completing a recognised training course.

To secure safety and health at work, we inspect workplaces, monitor health hazards, investigate work accidents and occupational diseases, register and inspect boilers and pressure equipment and advise on measures to control hazards or prevent recurrences.

A key element in enforcement is to advise on prevention of accidents. We conducted special promotional visits to encourage employers to adopt a self-regulatory approach in managing risks at the workplace. A number of special blitz operations were also organised on safety of working-at-height, scaffold, lift and escalator, container handling and storage, gas welding and flame cutting, fire and chemical, and plant and machinery. The operations on safety of working-at-height and scaffold focused on the external renovation work of buildings. These operations were also carried out after normal office hours and on holidays to monitor the safety performance of building renovation works. Through these operations, renovation contractors were urged to take adequate safety precautions to ensure work safety of their workers.

We continued to target at establishments with poor safety performance for close surveillance. Improvement notices or suspension notices were issued when necessary to secure a speedy rectification of irregularities, or to remove imminent risk to lives and limbs. Many of these companies, especially those in the construction industry, have shown significant improvements in their safety performance. In the light of the SARS epidemic in 2003, we enhanced the inspection of high-risk workplaces including hospitals, clinics and elderly homes to ensure adequate provision of personal protective equipment and proper training in the use of the equipment.

The Commissioner for Labour, as the Boilers and Pressure Vessels Authority, recognises competent inspection bodies to assess and inspect new pressure equipment during manufacturing. As at the end of 2004, there were 31 appointed examiners and seven recognised inspection bodies. We also conduct examinations, monitor courses for training of competent persons and issue certificates of competency to qualified candidates as competent persons for various types of boilers and steam receivers. In 2004, 414 candidates were examined, of whom 368 were awarded certificates of competency. We also advise the Fire Services Department on approval and preliminary inspections of pressurised cylinders and storage installations for compressed gas.

We provide training-related services to help industry reduce occupational injuries. Such services are divided into three broad categories, namely provision of training courses, accreditation of external training providers and registration of safety officers and safety auditors.

In 2004, we conducted 533 training courses on safety legislation for 4 530 participants and 305 tailor-made safety briefing sessions for 8 832 employees. We also accredited 18 mandatory basic safety training courses for the construction and container-handling industries. As at the end of 2004, more than 699 000 persons have completed the training. We also accredited 13 confined spaces safety training courses, nine loadshifting machinery safety training courses and four gas welding and flame cutting safety training courses.

In 2004, 157 applicants were registered as safety officers while 84 applicants were registered as safety auditors. As at the end of 2004, there were 2 677 persons on the register of safety officers and 706 persons on the register of safety auditors.

Occupational health education is an important strategy for the control of occupational health hazards and prevention of occupational diseases. Apart from the conventional way of organising health talks at our own premises, we have also developed outreaching services for occupational health education by delivering talks at the venues of individual companies or organisations. In 2004, we delivered a total of 1 746 health talks.

Under the Customer Service Teams Project, volunteers visited over 15 000 small and medium-sized enterprises to introduce the OSHO and promote the safety management concept to employers and employees.