Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698831229469.pdf (Singapore)
FOURTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF SINGAPORE ___________________ FIRST SESSION ___________________ ORDER PAPER TUESDAY, 1 MARCH 2022 No.

51 11.00 am 1 *1.

*2.

*3.

*4.

QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWER* Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for Manpower what are the penalties for employers who implement attendance-based incentive schemes after the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP) are amended by next year to clarify that such schemes are a breach of the TGFEP.
Mr Yip Hon Weng: To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Ministry has conducted surveys to assess the proficiency of local employers at managing remote work by using technology such as assessment tools and collaboration technology; (b) whether employers have adequate support to help them improve in managing remote and hybrid-work teams; and (c) whether the Ministry is equipped to mediate disagreements over employee assessment due to reduced in-person work and resulting change in assessment criteria.
Ms Mariam Jaafar: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) whether an update can be provided on the current number of HDB rental flats that are vacant (i) in Woodlands and (ii) nationwide; (b) of which, what is the respective number of flats that needs to be spruced up; (c) what are the reasons for flats that does not need sprucing up to be left vacant; and (d) when does the Ministry expect to clear the backlog of flats that need to be spruced up.
Mr Leon Perera: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) for each year over the past five years, how many pet animal abandonment cases have been investigated; (b) how many fines and jail terms have been issued; (c) what proportion of these animals are cats; and (d) whether the Ministry will review and strengthen frameworks for investigations into and sentencing for such cases.

No.

51 1 MARCH 2022 2 *5.

*6.

*7.

*8.

*9.


Ms Joan Pereira: To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what preventive measures are there to reduce the number of fire and gas leakage cases in hawker and food centres; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider installing gas, smoke or fire detectors in these centres.
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs whether technology such as tagging or otherwise can be adopted to alert victims of high- risk or violent ex-offenders when such offenders come within a stipulated radius or are in close proximity to them.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for Manpower for each year between 2016 and 2020, of the employers issued with warnings, composition fines or charged for kickback offences, how many workers have these employers been found to have collected kickbacks from.
Ms Mariam Jaafar: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) to date, what is the number of community gardens and urban farms that have been set up on unutilised HDB multi-storey carparks (MSCP); and (b) in view of Singapore’s “30 by 30” goal, what is being done to facilitate and accelerate the conversion of unutilised HDB MSCP rooftops to community gardens.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for National Development of the cases prosecuted for the illegal import and export of endangered species in the past five years, how many involved (i) the person prosecuted only delivering the endangered species and is not the seller and (ii) the person prosecuted is the seller of the endangered species.

*10.
*10.

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye: To ask the Prime Minister given that special arrangements were made during the 2020 General Election for those on Stay- Home Notice at designated facilities to vote at these facilities away from other voters (a) whether the Government has any plans to provide similar arrangements for other groups of voters at future elections; and (b) whether the Government will also consider mail-in voting for Singaporeans who are overseas.

No.

51 1 MARCH 2022 3 *11.


Mr Leon Perera: To ask the Prime Minister whether the comprehensive data sets of all surveys funded by the Government, including nationwide health surveys such as HELIOS (Health for Life in Singapore), can be published as a default policy stance, with safeguards to remove personal identifiable information and with exceptions for not publishing granted only on the basis of national security or commercial sensitivity considerations.
* Members may postpone their Questions to a later sitting day if their Questions are not reached by the end of Question Time (QT).

For such Questions, Members may email to parl_cop@parl.gov.sg in advance a postponement notice that will be effected after QT.

Members must submit their notices to the Clerk within one hour after the end of QT (SO 22(3)).

Questions will be given a written answer if no such notices are received by the Clerk within the stipulated time.

ORDER OF THE DAY 1.
ORDER OF THE DAY 1.

BUDGET STATEMENT: Resumption of Debate on Question (18 February 2022) (2nd Allotted Day), “That Parliament approves the financial policy of the Government for the financial year 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.”.

– (Minister for Finance).

QUESTIONS FOR WRITTEN ANSWER 1.

2.

3.


Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Prime Minister (a) whether the Government will consider having internal Quality Service Managers within Ministries and statutory boards to follow-up on feedback given by public servants; and (b) if not, how does the Government close the loop for feedback provided by public servants.
Mr Yip Hon Weng: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs whether ICA will consider a future waiver of the passport renewal fee for those who renewed their passports before October 2021 and were thus not eligible for the new 10-year validity passports.
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) what are the contributing factors leading to the current record low two-year recidivism rate amongst ex-offenders; and (b) what are the challenges that can prevent long-term recidivism rate from being reduced further.

No.

51 1 MARCH 2022 4 4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.


Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether the Ministry tracks (i) data on the divorce rates amongst inmates and ex-offenders and (ii) correlation of such divorce rates with the overall recidivism rate; and (b) what are the efforts to connect inmates and ex- offenders with the resources and assistance in the marriage counselling and social services sector.
Ms Mariam Jaafar: To ask the Minister for Law (a) in the last five years, what is the annual number of people who have been placed under the pre- bankruptcy Debt Repayment Scheme administered by the Official Assignee; and (b) what percentage of these people did not meet their monthly debt repayments.
Mr Leon Perera: To ask the Minister for Education (a) in the past three years, what is the annual percentage of students who have missed at least 10 percent of school days out of the total student population in primary and secondary schools respectively; and (b) of these students, what is the respective breakdown in terms of (i) housing type (ii) household income and (iii) race.
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs in view of the Multi- Ministry Task Force’s announcements on 16 February 2022, how will the updated safe management measures impact religious activities, events and prayers in mosques, including the number of vacancies and sessions for Friday and other prayers, in light of the upcoming fasting month.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for National Development whether he can provide an update on the banning of the practice of debarking dogs.

Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim: To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) whether employers can compel employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 from ART self-testing but are well, to obtain a medical certificate; and (b) what recourse do employees have in such circumstances.