OPENING SPEECH BY MADAM RAHAYU MAHZAM, MINISTER OF STATE, FOR THE SECOND READING OF THE STATUTES (MISCELLANEOUS AMENDMENTS) BILL

Mr Speaker,

1.          On behalf of the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies and Minister for Health, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time".

Introduction

2.          Sir, this Bill contains 29 clauses and makes miscellaneous amendments to several Acts. The majority of the amendments fall within the following five groups. First, amendments to update the service provisions under various legislation. Second, amendments arising from the repeal of the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act 1980. Third, amendment of provisions to provide for the payment of financial penalties into the Consolidated Fund. Fourth, amendments to common terms used in various legislation for alignment and consistency, and fifth, the deletion of superseded amendments. The rest of the amendments make changes to individual Acts, which I will also take Members through.

Amendments to the service provisions under various legislation

3.          Clauses 2, 5, 8, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25 and 27 of the Bill amend various legislation, namely, the Allied Health Professions Act 2011, the Dental Registration Act 1999, the Health Products Act 2007, the Medical Registration Act 1997, the Nurses and Midwives Act 1999, the Optometrists and Opticians Act 2007, the Pharmacists Registration Act 2007, the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act 1993, and the Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners Act 2000.

4.          These amendments relate to the manner in which service of documents may be effected on a person and updates it in view of technology, such as email which is widely used today. This allows for greater flexibility in effecting such service.

Amendments arising from the repeal of the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act 1980

5.          Clauses 3, 4, 10, 11, 16, 18, 22, 24, and 28 amend various legislation, namely, the CareShield Life and Long Term Care Act 2019, the Criminal Procedure Code 2010, the Human Biomedical Research Act 2015, the Human Organ Transplant Act 1987, the Medical and Elderly Care Endowment Schemes Act 2000, the National Registry of Diseases Act 2007, the Personal Data Protection Act 2012, the Termination of Pregnancy Act 1974, and the Voluntary Sterilisation Act 1974.

6.          These are to update the definitions or remove obsolete references as a consequence of the repeal of the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act 1980, or PHMCA, and the enactment of the Healthcare Services Act 2020, or HCSA, which replaces it.

Amendment of Provisions which provide for payment of financial penalties into Consolidated Fund

7.          Clauses 8, 19 and 27 of the Bill amend section 65(3) of the Health Products Act 2007, sections 42 and 43A of the Nurses and Midwives Act 1999 and sections 63 and 69(4) of the Pharmacists Registration Act 2007 to channel penalties and composition sums collected under those Acts into the Consolidated Fund.

Amendments aligning terminology for consistency

8.          Clause 13 amends section 41D of the Interpretation Act 1965 to align with the amendments made by the Family Justice Reform Act 2023 and the expressions used in the Family Justice Rules 2024 and Family Justice (Probate and Other Matters) Rules 2024. The amendment provides for the retention of old expressions for proceedings commenced before 15 October 2024 in the Family Justice Courts. Clause 13 also replaces references to commencement dates in sections 41A, 41D and 41E of the Interpretation Act 1965 with actual dates for clarity.

9.          Clause 14 updates section 4(1) of the Legitimacy Act 1934 to replace the reference to "originating summons" with "an originating application" so that the procedure for making an application under section 4(1) is consistent with the procedure adopted in probate proceedings.

Deletion of superseded amendments

10.      Clause 29 repeals superseded amendments in 11 Acts. These provisions have since been superseded by subsequent amendments, revisions or repeals, and for good order, these provisions will be deleted.

Amendment to the Development Fund Act 1959

11.      I now come to Clause 6, which amends section 6 of the Development Fund Act to require that advances from the Contingencies Fund for the Development Fund must be authorised by a warrant issued under the authority of the Minister for Finance. This aligns with similar requirements for advances from the Contingencies Funds for the Consolidated Fund, and formalises what MOF is already doing in practice today.

Amendment to the Employment Act 1968

12.      Moving on, Clause 7 amends section 26 of the Employment Act 1968 (EA) to align the EA with existing provisions under the MediShield Life Scheme Act 2015 (MSHL) and the CSHL, which permits the deductions by employers of defaulters under the respective sections of the MSHL and CSHL to facilitate premium recovery.

Amendment to the Housing and Development Act 1959

13.      Next, Clause 9 makes two amendments to the Housing and Development Act 1959:

(a)  it empowers HDB to make rules allowing the Minister for National Development to designate a Second Minister for his or her Ministry to hear and determine appeals; and

(b)  it deletes section 50(11) which is now obsolete, as the policy regarding purchase of flats by owners of commercial property has been operationalised through the Housing and Development (Exemptions from section 50(1) of Act) Notification 2023.

Amendments to the Immigration Act 1959

14.      Clause 12(1) deletes an uncommenced provision in the Immigration (Amendment) Act 2023 relating to visa requirements. Clause 12(2) makes a technical amendment to section 9B of the Immigration Act 1959 to replace "territory" with "country" for consistency with the terminology used in the rest of the Immigration Act 1959

Amendment to the Maintenance of Parents Act 1995

15.      Moving on, Clause 15 amends the Maintenance of Parents Act 1995 to clarify two amendments that were made through the Maintenance of Parents (Amendment) Act 2023:

(a)  it removes the age limitation in the definition of "child" in section 2 and inserts a new section 3AA to clarify that no claims or applications for maintenance can be made against a child below 21 years of age at the point of the claim or application; and

(b)  it inserts new subsections (2A) and (2B) in section 8 to clarify the Tribunal's powers to give directions and make orders when hearing variation or rescission applications.

Amendments to the Medical Registration Act 1997

16.      Clause 17 amends the Medical Registration Act 1997 as follows:

(a)  First, Clause 17 amends section 10 of the Medical Registration Act 1997 to provide for the appointment of an executive director to the SMC, in addition to the executive secretary and other employees which are presently provided for.

(b)  Second, Clause 17 updates the name of Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore to Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore in section 25(3) of the Medical Registration Act 1997, reflecting the official name change that occurred in 2015.

(c)  Lastly, Clause 17 amends section 59A(11)(a) and section 59U(1) of the Medical Registration Act 1997 to allow applications for extension of time of up to 9 months (per extension) to be granted for matters before the Disciplinary Tribunal, Complaints Committee or Review Committee. Both provisions also confer discretion to grant longer extensions of time exceeding 9 months where there are circumstances beyond the control of the respective tribunal or committee.

Amendment to the Organised Crime Act 2015

17.      The next clause, Clause 21 makes three amendments:

(a)  it amends the definition of "law enforcement agency" to include any department or office of a public body that is similar to the departments or offices in paragraphs (a) to (d) of that definition, prescribed by the Minister for Home Affairs by notification in the Gazette;

(b)  it amends the definition of “law enforcement officer” to include any officer or class of officers of a public body authorised in writing by the Minister; and

(c)  it introduces a definition for “public body” to mean a body corporate established by a public Act for the purposes of a public function but excludes Town Councils.

Amendment to the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act 1993

18.        Clause 25 amends section 29(7) of the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act 1993 (TCASA) by providing that forfeited items may be delivered to an authorised officer appointed under section 19 of that Act.

Amendment to the Town Councils Act 1988

19.      Next, Clause 26 amends section 82(2) of the Town Councils Act 1988 by inserting a reference to “vehicle” to make it clear that the Minister for National Development has the power to prescribe model by-laws that confer power on Town Councils for the storage and disposal of goods left on common property extends to vehicles, such as bicycles and personal mobility devices.

Conclusion

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

21.      Sir, I beg to move.