Hong Kong Housing Authority and Housing Department

Jointly organised with the Labour Department as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Council (OSHC), the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) held a Site Safety Seminar for Capital Works New Works Contracts on 28 October to promote safety on construction sites. The seminar attracted more than 110 participants, including works contractors, service contractors and HA staff.

Mr Timothy Lau, Senior Manager (Safety and Health) of the Housing Department (HD), said in his opening speech that the HA Occupational Injury and Disease Surveillance System would be launched in early 2016 and training be arranged for contractors before the launch. Moreover, after discussion and review with the industry stakeholders for almost a year, the current HA Safety Auditing System (HASAS) Version 1.5 has been streamlined through simplification of document submission for low-risk activities. The HA Safety Auditing Checklist for Building Services Contractors has also been reviewed and revised. The representative from OSHC also presented the posters about Pointing and Calling to reduce human errors for high-risk activities.

The seminar covered an array of topics, including:

1. HASAS Version 1.5 (For Building and Engineering Contracts) – Findings in Q2 and Q3 of 2015;
2. HA Lift and Escalator Nominated Sub-contracts Safety Auditing System (HALENSAS) Version 1.0 – Findings in Q2 and Q3 of 2015;
3. Surprise Safety Inspection Programme (SSIP) – Findings in Q2 and Q3 of 2015;
4. Latest Progress of Developing the HA Occupational Injury and Disease Surveillance System;
5. Safety Measures for Working at Height;
6. Review of HASAS Version 1.5;
7. Revision of HA Safety Auditing Checklist for Building Services Contractors;
8. Issuing Posters of Applying Pointing and Calling to Reduce Human Errors for High Risk Activities; and
9. Key Audit Findings of Site Safety by HA.

A video on the seminar and the related information, except for item (5), will soon be uploaded to the e-Learning Portal of the HD and the HA Site Safety website for experience sharing.