BEIJING - China's top legislature found in its inspections that notable progress was made in improving people's welfare in fields like labor rights and food safety, said top legislator Wu Bangguo on Friday.

When delivering a work report of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the ongoing parliamentary session, Wu said the NPC Standing Committee carried out the second round of investigations on the enforcement of the Labor Contract Law and the Food Safety Law in 2011.

Investigations showed that the number of labor contracts signed in 2011 increased substantially and 97 percent of employees at large enterprises nationwide have signed labor contracts, he said.

Collective bargaining for wages was carried out in order while 114 million employees were covered in 2011 by collective contracts, an increase of 76.5 percent over 2007, he added.

Concerning food safety, lawmakers found that a national mechanism for coordinating efforts to ensure food safety began to take shape and the government enhanced its capacity to monitor and give early warnings on food safety risks.

Authorities also conducted campaigns to stop the illegal use and misuse of food additives and clenobuterol hydrochloride, while a number of prominent cases were exposed and the offenders were brought to justice, Wu said.

However, lawmakers also suggested that the key to solving serious problems in food safety is to effectively raise manufacturers' awareness of the law so as to ensure strict self-discipline and lawful, honest business practices, Wu said.

The government should effectively improve food safety supervision and make sure that responsibilities are clear, watchdog officials serve their duty and the law is strictly enforced, he said.

As defined by the Constitution, the NPC and its Standing Committee have the power of supervising the enforcement of the Constitution and laws and supervising the work of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

The power is to impose restrictions on other national organs of state power and ensure that the government should be run in accordance with the will of the people.