【正文】 and ? government support. Sixty pleted questionnaires have been received, a response rate of 30%, an average response rate for the construction industry as construction firms are normally found not helpful in pleting questionnaires. In addition, interviews were conducted with government officials of the construction departments in charge of construction safety, focusing on safety policies and procedures issued by the government, safety standards, and factors affecting safety on construction sites. In the survey, all the 200 construction firms are ISO 9000 certified, representing a better picture of safety management than in the average pany as described above. Among the 60 responded, they fall into two categories of ownership: 52 stateowned (87%) and eight publiclisted sharingholding enterprises (13%). Out of all the responding firms, 52 firms (87%) employ over 1001 people, four firms (%) between 501 and 1000, and four firms (%) below 500. 5. Results and discussion . Safety manual and procedures The purpose of the safety manual is to municate a firm_s safety policy, identify the safety factors, define responsibility and control the safety management system. As the backbone of the management system, the manual defines the safety procedures and instructions and identifies the specific requirements. The respondents were asked whether they have a safety manual and safety procedures. 62% of the respondents claimed that they did not have documented safety manuals, while 38% had. With respect to the safety procedure, all the respondents said that they 。 ? impact of site accidents on panies。 wherever the site exceeds 50,000 m2, the main contractor has to establish a safety management team. . Construction project supervisors’ inspection on safety Since 1989 China has begun adopting the Construction Supervision Scheme_. One of the projectsupervisor engineer_s responsibilities is to monitor construction safety. Since the issuance of the Regulation on Construction Project Supervision in 1996, the construction supervision scheme has been extensively practiced in China. According to the system, the role of the supervisors is to enhance construction supervision by introducing checks and control at various construction stages on behalf of the clients. Under clause 32 of the current Construction Law issued in 1997, the supervisors_ duties are to ensure construction works in pliance with the construction regulations, to supervise execution of the work, to monitor construction safety, to prepare supervision plans and to notify the government in the case of any violation of the relevant statutory legislations. . Types of ownership of construction firms In China, all large construction firms were stateowned establishments under the traditional planned economy system. Since the adoption of the reform and opening policies in 1978, the traditional planned economy system has been gradually replaced by the market economy in China. A great number of peasants were liberated from traditional cultivation and farming works and anized themselves into ruralvillage enterprises and rural construction teams (RCT). This was closely associated with the rapid economic expansion, which results in high volumes of construction activities and renders China the largest construction market in the world. As at 1999, the proportion of RCT has reached 51%, with that of stateowned enterprises (SOE) at 10%, urban collectiveowned (UCO) at 26%, and others (including publiclisted sharingholding, foreignfunded enterprises) at 13% (see Fig. 2), which represents a great change in the form of ownership of construction enterprises in China. Previous research has revealed that there is a relationship between sizes of firms and accident rates (Hinze and Raboud, 1988). A study by McVittie et al. (1997) indicated that accident rates decrease as the sizes of firms increase. The underlying factors include the degree of planning and anization in large firms versus that of small firms, the presence of inhouse health and safety expertise or resources