Second Reading Speech by Minister of State, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Transport, Murali Pillai on Statutes (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Bill

14 OCT 2024

14 October 2024 Posted in Parliamentary speeches and responses

Mr Speaker, on behalf of the Minister for Law, I beg to move, “That the Bill be now read a Second time”.

I. Introduction

Sir, this Bill makes miscellaneous amendments across 12 Acts. These amendments broadly fall within the following three buckets:

(a) making legislative provisions clearer;

(b) updating legislative provisions in light of revised terminology and definitions; and

Let me now take Honourable Members through the amendments in this Bill.

II. Amendment to the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act 2004

First, clause 2 of the Bill amends section 92(4)(b) of the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act 2024 to update the term “interrogatories” to “discovery of facts”.

The amendment updates the terminology, in line with the Rules of Court 2021. It does not change the underlying substance of the provision.

III. Amendment to the Copyright Act 2021

Next, clause 3 makes minor and technical amendments to the Copyright Act 2021 (“CA”).

First, it makes typographical corrections to sections 61(1)(c) and 313 of the CA.

Second, it splits the offence on causing protected performances to be seen or heard in public, under the current section 450(2) of the CA, into two separate offences:

(a) one in relation to live performances; and

(b) another in relation to recordings of performances.

The split is necessary to restore the original intention with respect to the offence relating to recordings, which carries a different condition from the offence relating to live performances. These offences were inadvertently conflated when the CA was revised in 2021 in plain English.

IV. Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code 2010

I now come to the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code 2010 (“CPC”) under clause 4 of the Bill.

First, clause 4(a) and (b) update the definition of a “juvenile” in section 2(1) of the CPC to refer to a person who is 10 years of age or older, but below 18 years of age.

This is to align with other related legislation, namely:

(a) section 25 of the Criminal Law Reform Act 2019 – which raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility in the Penal Code 1871 from 7 years of age to 10 years of age; and

(b) section 2 of the Children and Young Persons (Amendment) Act 2019 – which increased the maximum age of a “juvenile” under the Children and Young Persons Act 1993 from 16 years of age to below 18 years of age.

Second, there are clarificatory and technical amendments to sections 319 and 360 of the CPC, which relate to fines and compensation.

(a) These amendments provide that a person, who is serving imprisonment imposed in default of payment of a fine or compensation sum, must be released “as soon as reasonably practicable” after the unpaid fine or compensation sum is paid.

(b) This is already the practice today and the proposed amendments make this clear in statute.

In addition, the proposed amendments make clear that fines must be paid using a designated mode of payment and within the time designated in a payment advice issued by the court to the offender, in line with existing practice.

V. Amendments to the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018

Next, clause 5 of the Bill makes technical amendments to the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (“IRDA”).

First, it amends the definition of “relevant company” in section 250(7) of the IRDA to delete a reference to a Registered Fund Management Company. This follows MAS’ recent repeal of the regulatory regime for these companies on 1 August 2024.

The second amendment is to section 327(4)(a) of the IRDA, to extend the period within which a secured creditor has to notify the Official Assignee of the secured creditor’s intention to claim interest on the secured debt, from 30 days after a bankruptcy order is made against the debtor to 60 days. This would give secured creditors more time to consider whether to and make a claim.

Finally, the proposed amendment to section 368(4) of the IRDA will make clear that the 14-day time limit mentioned in section 368(3) only applies to serving the Sheriff with notice of a bankruptcy application made against or by the debtor, and not to the making of a bankruptcy order.

VI. Amendments to the Interpretation Act 1965

Turning to the next amendment, clause 6 of the Bill amends section 2(1) of the Interpretation Act 1965:

(a) to insert a definition for “His Majesty”, “Her Majesty”, “King”, “Queen”, “Sovereign”, “His Britannic Majesty” and “Her Britannic Majesty”, in relation to the United Kingdom, so that they can refer to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, regardless of whether that Sovereign is a King or a Queen.

VII. Amendments to the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1995

Next, I will address the various amendments to the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1995 (“LAAA”).

First, clause 7(b) introduces a new section 4A to provide protection from personal liability to individuals carrying out certain functions and duties under the LAAA.

(a) This is similar to the position in section 7 of the Public Defenders Act 2022.

Second, a new section 6A ensures that when a volunteer steps forward to help a mentally incapacitated person who:

(a) qualifies for legal aid; and

(b) does not have suitable family members to be appointed as that person's deputy, the volunteer will not be means-tested. The volunteer would not be paid for his work as a deputy for the mentally incapacitated person.

The volunteer here refers to a person who is registered as a professional deputy under the Mental Capacity Act 2008, or a person who meets certain criteria to be prescribed in the subsidiary legislation.

These criteria would be similar to those required for registration as a professional deputy under the Mental Capacity Act 2008, for example the volunteer must be a citizen or permanent resident of Singapore, must not be a bankrupt, and must be 21 years of age or older.

This section applies when a volunteer applies for legal aid for a proceeding to be appointed as deputy in relation to a person who lacks capacity, or to vary an order made in relation to such a person under the Mental Capacity Act 2008.

In such a situation, the means test would be applied on the person who lacks mental capacity, rather than the volunteer who is the applicant.

With this amendment, the volunteer, who is stepping forward to help a mentally incapacitated person, would not need to incur costs to hire a private lawyer, if the mentally incapacitated person meets the means test criteria.

Third, the proposed amendment to section 16 of the LAAA will provide that costs owed by an aided person to the Director of Legal Aid, in connection with that aided person’s application for legal aid, may be waived either partially or completely.

This aims to provide a more equitable outcome for aided persons, in cases where the costs owed by them are equal to or greater than the settlement or judgment sums they may receive at the completion of their legally aided matters.

Finally, clause 8 effects an administrative move for the Legal Aid Bureau’s financial requirements to be met directly through MinLaw’s regular budget provision going forward. Hence, the clause provides for the transition from the current Legal Aid Fund, which will no longer be needed.

The Government’s commitment to the provision of civil legal aid through the Legal Aid Bureau remains unchanged.

VIII. Amendments to the Moneylenders Act 2008

Next, I will move on to clause 9, which amends the Moneylenders Act 2008 (“MLA”).

First, it clarifies that all pawnbrokers regulated under the Pawnbrokers Act 2015 (“PBA”) are “excluded moneylenders” for the purposes of the MLA. As such pawnbrokers are already regulated under the PBA, this will ensure that these pawnbrokers are subject to only one regulatory framework.

In addition, it amends section 66(1) of the MLA such that a licensed moneylender must obtain from a body corporate loan applicant the same information as other loan applicants that are business entities.

This will ensure consistency in the information collected by licensed moneylenders from all non-personal loan applicants.

Finally, proposed amendments to section 66A(2)(a) will require a licensed moneylender to inform each surety of the loan applicant in writing, when the surety’s information is submitted to a designated credit bureau for the purpose of producing a credit report in relation to the surety.

This amendment achieves parity in treatment between loan applicants and sureties – by notifying them when their information is submitted to a designated credit bureau.

IX. Amendments to the the Pawnbrokers Act 2015

I now come to clause 10, which makes technical amendments to the PBA.

First, it deals with whether fees are refundable.

(a) It introduces a new section 9A that specifically deals with fees for the grant or renewal of a pawnbroking licence. This provision prescribes when such fees are not refundable, as well as the Registrar of Pawnbrokers’ discretion to deviate from this position.

(b) Clause 10 also clarifies that other types of fees for making various applications are not refundable.

The second amendment is to section 2(1) of the PBA, to allow the use of an individual’s foreign identification number, or “FIN”, as an alternative to their foreign passport number, for identification purposes.

(a) As the FIN does not change over time, permitting pawnbrokers to collect the FIN as an alternative identification information will better meet their operational needs.

Third, proposed amendments to sections 10 and 13 of the PBA will provide that the Registrar of Pawnbrokers may refuse to grant or renew a licence, or approve substantial shareholding, on the ground that a substantial shareholder of the applicant or licensee is not of good character or is not a fit and proper person.

(a) This is in line with our intent to prevent individuals with a wider range of criminal antecedents from being involved in the business of pawnbroking.

Fourth, proposed amendments to sections 38 and 39 of the PBA will streamline the process for licensees to make representations and appeals, before the Registrar of Pawnbrokers takes action to:

(a) vary their licence conditions,

(b) suspend or revoke their licence or

These amendments will provide clarity to pawnbrokers who wish to make representations or appeals before the above administrative sanctions are imposed.

Finally, there are proposed amendments to paragraph 4 of the Second Schedule to clarify that pawnbrokers may charge fees lower than $2, for the issuance of a pawn ticket.

(a) It also clarifies that pawnbrokers may charge the fee only if they offer any mode of payment as specified.

(b) These amendments make clear that pawnbrokers have the discretion to offer customers more competitive fees for the issuance of pawn tickets.

X. Amendments to the Public Defenders Act 2022

Next, I come to amendments to the Public Defenders Act 2022 (“PDA”). Clause 11 makes clarificatory amendments to the PDA.

Currently, section 12 of the PDA requires the merits of applications involving offences that carry a maximum prescribed sentence of more than 7 years imprisonment to be assessed by a Board.

(a) This board consists of the Chief Public Defender and at least 2 solicitors appointed to the Public Defender’s Office’s panel of solicitors established under section 4 of the PDA.

(b) The proposed amendment to section 12(1) will clarify that such applications are determined by a majority of the Board’s members, and this is consistent with our policy intent.

Second, the Schedule under PBA on excluded offences and excluded classes of offences is re-formatted for clarity and to improve readability. Clause 11 and Clause 14 of this Bill contain proposed updates:

(a) to include Regulatory offences under:

i. the Pawnbrokers Act 2015,

ii. the Bankruptcy Act (Chapter 20, 2009 Revised Edition) before its repeal,

iii. the Sale of Drugs Act 1914 (as in force before its repeal),

iv. the Town Councils Act 1988; and

(b) to retain the existing reference to regulatory offences under the Medicines (Advertisement and Sale) Act 1955.

This is consistent with the policy intent to exclude regulatory offences from criminal defence aid coverage.

XI. Amendments to the Revised Edition of the Laws Act 1983

I now turn to clause 12, which amends the Revised Edition of the Laws Act 1983 (“RELA”).

The last universal revision of Acts under the RELA was completed on 31 December 2021, when the 2020 Revised Edition of Acts came into force. The Law Revision Commissioners (“LRCs”) will be revising subsidiary legislation (“SL”) to ensure coherence and consistency between SL and the revised Acts.

For instance, when revising the Acts, certain provisions were re-numbered and the language was modernised.

As at 26 June 2024, there are about 4,900 pieces of SL under around 349 Acts to be revised. This comes to almost 50,000 pages of SL. Given the sheer volume, the amendment in clause 12(e) is needed to allow SL to be revised in batches, rather than on a single date. This will allow batches of updated SL that are ready to be published earlier, as compared to holding back until all SL are ready at a later date.

The amendments by clauses 12(e) and 12(i) also give the LRCs discretion not to revise certain types of SL, for instance, SL that applies to certain time periods. Clause 12(l) also allows SL to be revised on an ad hoc basis, not necessarily every year.

Clause 12(h) allows a consolidated SL to be amended. Sometimes, when revising SL, the LRCs consolidate 2 or more pieces of SL. An example is the Infrastructure Protection (Protected Areas) Orders. When combined, a single SL will list the protected areas that were previously in separate SL.

The amendment by clause 12(h) allows this consolidated SL to be amended to accommodate changes to the contents of the SL in the future.

As a whole, the amendments in clause 12 help the LRCs’ work in keeping our Statute Book coherent and comprehensible, furthering the rule of law.

XII. Amendments to the Women’s Charter 1961

Finally, Sir, I come to the amendment relating to the Women’s Charter 1961 (“WC”).

Clause 13 amends the WC to make a minor drafting adjustment to the new section 126B, which was inserted by section 35 of the Women’s Charter (Amendment) Act 2022, and is yet to be commenced.

The amendment clarifies that the new measures to enhance the enforcement of child access orders apply to all access orders made under section 126 of the WC.

XIII. Conclusion

In conclusion, Sir, this Bill makes miscellaneous and minor amendments in the manner that I have just described.

Sir, I beg to move.

Last updated on 14 October 2024