Positive Feeback on Legislating The Handling of Biological Agents and Toxins

06 Jun 2005

The public consultation exercise for the draft Biological Agents and Toxins Bill was held from 11 April to 14 May 2005. The Ministry would like to thank all respondents for their feedback and suggestions.

As part of the exercise, MOH conducted two briefing cum feedback sessions with stakeholders, namely courier service providers and laboratory professionals. The draft Bill was also made available on the MOH website for the public to provide their feedback and comments.

A total of 82 responses on the draft Biological Agents and Toxins Bill were received during the consultation exercise. These have been evaluated by the Ministry and the National Biosafety Committee.

In general, most respondents agreed with the need to regulate the safe handling of biological agents (BAs) and toxins through legislation. The draft Bill will be further fine-tuned based on these feedback and deliberations, and provisions clarified. For example, requirement on the composition of the Biosafety Committee for the laboratories will be specified in the bill.

Summary of Feedback received and follow up action

Most of the respondents were scientists and laboratory professionals working with biological agents and toxins. There were also a small number of feedback received from courier service providers and the general public.

General public & courier service providers

Responses received from the public were positive with the respondents indicating that the move was timely. A point raised was that the proposed Bill would raise the standard of the industry and improve safety.

Concerns by courier service provider were mainly on how the provisions in the draft Bill might affect their business. However, there was general consensus among the courier service providers on the need for drivers to be trained so that they would be able to respond appropriately in cases of accidents and emergencies.

Scientists and laboratory professionals

Feedback received from institutions with laboratory facilities were mainly related to operational issues concerning the implementation of the requirements listed in the draft Bill.

Suggestions to downgrade classification of certain biological agents

Queries related to the classification of biological agents were also received.  In particular, a few researchers suggested that Burkholderia pseudomallei should be downgraded from First Schedule Part 2 to a Fourth Schedule agent so that it could be worked on at a lower containment level. This suggestion was deliberated on by the Technical Working Committee for Biological Agents appointed by the National Biosafety Committee. The Committee determined that the classification of B.pseudomallei should remain as First Schedule Part 2 due to its potential of being weaponised. There was thus a need for the added precautions in its handling in and out of the laboratory environment.

Feedback on severity of penalties

A few researchers also felt that the penalties in the Bill were too harsh. However, after taking their views and feedback into careful consideration, the Ministry has decided that the penalties in the Bill will remain. This is because penalties in the Bill are set at the maximum. The Court of Law will then decide on the severity of the penalties to be meted out to the guilty party based on the evidence presented in court. MOH will work with the Attorney-General's Chambers to allow for the composition of certain offences under the proposed Bill. 

Other responses received

In addition, queries were also received seeking clarification on which activities were to be excluded from the proposed Bill, queries related to certification of facilities handling the scheduled agents and queries on procedures for the import and transport of the Biological Agents/Toxins. To address these concerns and to provide further guidance on the operational issues concerning the draft Biological Agents and Toxins Bill, MOH will conduct briefings for affected agencies.