Insurers' role in preventing accidents at work to be clarified

The Ministry of Emergency Management is clarifying the responsibility of work safety liability insurers to provide technical services aimed at preventing accidents.

It has drafted specifications for such technical services that will be implemented from Feb 1, Wang Shijie, a senior official with the ministry, told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

In a guideline issued three years ago, the State Council, China's Cabinet, suggested it should be compulsory for companies in eight high-risk industries, including mining and hazardous chemicals, to contribute to work safety liability insurance, hoping to encourage insurers to play a role in risk assessment and accident prevention, Wang said.

He said the former State Administration of Work Safety, which was integrated into the Ministry of Emergency Management last year, and two other central government bodies adopted a regulation based on the guideline two years ago to implement work safety liability insurance.

"The ultimate goal of the work safety liability insurance is to prevent accidents from happening," Wang said, but many work safety liability insurers had failed to help clients remove safety hazards.

Some insurers did not offer any risk assessment or accident prevention services, he said.

Wang said the specifications were drafted based on problems that had been exposed and would help ensure work safety liability insurance plays its "due role".