Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698079844994.pdf (Singapore)
FOURTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF SINGAPORE ___________________ FIRST SESSION ___________________ ORDER PAPER TUESDAY, 3 AUGUST 2021 No.

36 11.00 am 1 *1.

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QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWER* Miss Cheng Li Hui: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) how many incidents have there been in the past two years of uniformed police being challenged by a disorderly member of the public; (b) in how many of these cases was additional back-up deployed; and (c) how does the Ministry ensure police personnel are physically and mentally prepared to handle face-to-face conflicts.
Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information (a) what are the guidelines for the media when approaching those affected by a major traumatic event to avoid interference in their recovery; (b) what special considerations are put in place in relation to minors; and (c) whether there are plans to revise these guidelines.
Mr Leon Perera: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) whether he can provide an update on the Government’s study on the use of sustainable aviation fuels in the local aviation industry; and (b) whether Singapore’s readiness to participate in the voluntary phase of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation has been delayed by the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry and, if so, what is the extent of the delay.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for National Development whether the Ministry will develop an action plan for urban wildlife management in consultation with nature groups and with a stronger focus on co-existence measures rather than removal of wildlife which reinforces the mindset that native wildlife are pests.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim: To ask the Minister for Education whether there are plans to re-evaluate school start times especially with most schools currently operating in single-session mode.

No.

36 3 AUGUST 2021 2 *6.

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Miss Cheng Li Hui: To ask the Minister for Education in light that fewer than 15 per cent of secondary school students get enough of the recommended daily eight hours of sleep and experts on children and sleep advocate starting school no earlier than 8.30 am, whether there are plans to revise the starting time for all primary, secondary and pre-tertiary schools to later than 8.30am.
Dr Tan Wu Meng: To ask the Minister for Manpower with regard to outsourced employment, to what extent do flexible working arrangements (FWA) incentives apply to (i) the outsourcing entity and (ii) the contractor employing the outsourced worker during the period of such employment.
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) over the last five years, what is the annual range, median and average commission rates paid by housing developers to their appointed sales agents; and (b) whether the Government is looking to regulate or mandate the disclosure of such commissions paid by property developers.
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry how does the Ministry intend to support food caterers with their slower recovery compared to other F&B businesses.

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Ms Tin Pei Ling: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information whether the Government will more proactively police the Internet and block violent content that can be accessible to children and youths in Singapore.

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Mr Desmond Choo: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs in light of the recent school incident allegedly involving an offensive weapon procured online (a) whether our current measures are sufficient to restrict juveniles' access to offensive weapons; and (b) over the last three years, what is the number of juveniles who are arrested for possession of offensive weapons.

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Dr Tan Wu Meng: To ask the Minister for Manpower what channels of appeal and support are available to workers with employer-provided healthcare insurance when the employer-provided insurer has changed and the affected workers are no longer covered for conditions which the previous insurer covered.

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Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: To ask the Minister for Health in each of the last five years including year-to-date, what is the number of (i) nursing homes (ii) nursing home beds and (iii) available beds and average occupancy rate, broken down by the public, not-for-profit and private sectors respectively.

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Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Minister for Health whether there are plans to conduct an updated national survey on informal care to reflect changing caring patterns given that the last survey was released in 2012.

No.

36 3 AUGUST 2021 3 *15.

Mr Seah Kian Peng: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development in the last five years, what has been the annual number of single unwed mothers.

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Dr Tan Wu Meng: To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) what are the current measures to prevent dialysis patients from being discriminated against at the workplace; and (b) given the prevalence of kidney failure, what is being done to promote flexible working arrangements (FWA) to accommodate these patients’ attendance at life-supporting dialysis centres.

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Mr Saktiandi Supaat: To ask the Minister for Manpower when a childcare centre or a school is officially ordered to be closed because of links to COVID- 19 cases (a) whether the Ministry can consider granting the parents special leave that is beyond the normal childcare leave so as to take care of the child under such circumstances; and (b) if so, whether the leave can cover the period that the childcare centre or school is closed.

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Mr Murali Pillai: To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) to date, how many ex-offenders have been hired under the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI); (b) what sectors have they been employed in, in percentage terms; and (c) what steps will be taken to ensure that the ex-offenders will be fairly treated as employees after the end of the 18-month salary support period under the JGI.

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Mr Leon Perera: To ask the Minister for Finance (a) whether the Government assesses Temasek Holding’s performance in relation to the performance of broad-based market indices such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the MSCI World Index over the past 10 years; (b) if so, whether it will consider publishing the results of these assessments; (c) if not, how are assessments of performance made by the Government; and (d) whether the Government will consider publishing metrics on the performance of Temasek Holdings and GIC based on risk-adjusted performance metrics such as the Sortino ratio.
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Dr Tan Yia Swam: To ask the Minister for Health whether Rostered Routine Testing can be implemented for (i) Members of Parliament (MPs) doing home visits (ii) MPs doing physical Meet-the-People sessions and (iii) MPs attending parliamentary sittings.

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Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what are the specific targets in reduction of marine debris set out in the Regional Action Plan under the ASEAN Framework of Action on Marine Debris; and (b) if no specific targets have been set, whether the Government will work towards setting specific targets with other ASEAN country partners.

No.

36 3 AUGUST 2021 4 *22.
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs what can the Government do to (i) help de-escalate the tension in Israel and the Palestinian Territories to avoid the loss of innocent lives and protect from damage the UNESCO World Heritage religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem which include the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Wailing Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and (ii) monitor and ensure the safety of all Singapore citizens who are currently residing in Israel.

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Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: To ask the Minister for Finance whether the Government is involved in, prescribes or audits, any net carbon emissions target set for 2030 for companies owned by its investment entities and, if so, what are these as broken down into total portfolio emissions versus negative emissions targets.

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Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for Manpower in each the last five years, in respect of the investigated cases where employers are alleged to have received kickbacks from migrant workers, how many and what percentage involved are found to have received kickbacks (i) prior to or at the point the worker started employment (ii) in the course of employment and (iii) at the point of renewal of work passes.

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Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) in each of the last five years, how many requests for removal of bee hives have been referred to NParks; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider implementing pollinator protection and management measures that ensure that key pollinators in Singapore’s biosphere are protected against and properly managed by pest control methods to minimise ecological impact.

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Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth with respect to the Report of the Auditor-General for FY 20/21 (a) why did the People's Association (PA) not adopt the Government's instruction to adopt full price fluctuation in construction contracts; (b) how long has the PA practised this incorrect methodology; and (c) what is the total value of the contracts that invoked this incorrect methodology over the last seven years.

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Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth with respect to the Report of the Auditor-General for FY 20/21 (a) whether the PA will undertake an extensive review, investigation or audit to ascertain the true extent of lapses in approvals found in more than 50% of PA's contract variations on a test-check basis; and (b) what is the facility referred to and who is the managing agent identified in paragraph 56 of the Report where of out of 36 supporting documents for the project, 34 were suspected to have been falsified amongst other irregularities.
No.

36 3 AUGUST 2021 5 *28.
Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Minister for Finance (a) what action does the Government intend to take with respect to irregularities found in audited documents reported in the Report of the Auditor-General for FY 20/21 where documents were altered, backdated, artificially created and falsified by officers across three Ministries and two statutory boards; (b) how many investigations have been undertaken arising from these irregularities; (c) how many individuals are involved for each Ministry and statutory board; and (d) what specific action has been taken against officers in cases where investigations have concluded.
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Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Health whether HPB will consider distributing all the still-functional fitness trackers from among the 341,000 excess fitness trackers purchased for the National Steps Challenge seasons 1 to 5 to members of the public in order to promote exercise and fitness instead of disposing them.

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Ms Sylvia Lim: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) what caused HDB to make erroneous payments of CPF housing grants to ineligible applicants as highlighted in the Annual Report of the Auditor-General’s Office for FY 2020/21; and (b) in what manner will HDB be improving its controls over the processing and assessment of CPF housing grants.

* 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 AND NOTICE OF MOTIONS (That markedꞏ is Order of the Day) 1.

Police Force (Amendment) Bill [Bill No.

14/2021] – (Minister for Home Affairs).


Resumption of Debate on Question (2 August 2021) “That the Bill be now read a second time.”.

– (Minister for Home Affairs).

No.

36 3 AUGUST 2021 6 2.


Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah) Mr Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok) Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer): COMMEMORATING 200 YEARS OF THE SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE: That this House commemorates and honours the important contributions of the Singapore Police Force and its officers to nation building and to keeping Singapore as one of the safest countries in the world.

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Ms He Ting Ru (Sengkang) Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): EMPOWERING WOMEN: That this House affirms that gender equality requires a whole of society effort to remove all barriers in order to empower every woman to freely realise her full potential and participation in society.

1 3 1 3 MEMORANDUM Matter proposed to be raised on the Motion for the Adjournment (SO 2(8)(b)).

Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied) : Nurturing a Thriving, Innovative and Sustainable Hawker Industry as a Cornerstone of Singaporean Culture.
QUESTIONS FOR WRITTEN ANSWER 1.

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Dr Tan Wu Meng: To ask the Prime Minister with regard to grant applications considered by the National Research Foundation and its subsidiary entities over the past three years, how many and what proportion of grants have been approved with unanimous agreement by the review panelists.
Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong: To ask the Minister for Defence whether there are discussions with Indonesia on conducting more joint patrols with Indonesia in view of the increase of piracy or armed sea robbery incidents on commercial vessels in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) in the first half of 2021 such as in waters near Tanjung Pergam of Bintan Island.

No.

36 3 AUGUST 2021 7 3.

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Mr Leon Perera: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs over the past 10 years (a) how many cases have there been of canings administered by the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) without judicial sentencing; (b) what is the median number of strokes imposed for these cases; and (c) how many times have visiting Justices of the Peace amended the number of strokes imposed by the SPS.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether there are any plans to issue separate licences for family karaoke operators from other nightlife-oriented operators; and (b) whether existing restrictions on karaokes may be relaxed for family-oriented operators, contingent on appropriate safe management measures.
Miss Cheng Li Hui: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs in the recent operation to shut down F&B businesses that pivoted from nightlife establishments (a) how many have been mistakenly placed on the list of such businesses when they are in fact new owners who merely took over the venue; (b) what is the reason for the lack of data synchronisation; and (c) how will the police prevent such incidents from happening for future operations.
Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) since the launch of i-Witness, how many reports have been filed by the public; (b) how many of these have (i) aided ongoing police investigations and (ii) led to action taken against hitherto unreported crimes including stern warnings; and (c) whether the Ministry can include an option on the i-Witness webpage for a member of the public to choose whether he wishes to be informed about the outcome of their submission to i-Witness upon the completion of investigations.
Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs of the number of male and female prison inmates respectively in 2020, how many have (i) children under the age of seven and (ii) children under the age of 18.

Mr Yip Hon Weng: To ask the Minister for Law (a) whether there is any intention to review the law on minors in light of the River Valley High School incident; and (b) whether the current position of not imposing the death penalty on individuals under the age of 16 will be retained.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) whether there has been an increase in the adoption rate of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in private residential estates and condominiums; and (b) whether the Ministry is studying the feasibility of grants or changes to the building code to provide additional incentives for solar PV system usage within private residential estates and condominiums.

No.

36 3 AUGUST 2021 8 10.

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Mr Yip Hon Weng: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) what other potentially high-risk industries have been allowed to pivot during the COVID- 19 situation; and (b) what is being done to mitigate the risks.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong: To ask the Minister for Transport whether the Electric Vehicle Common Charger Grant is applicable for condominiums and private apartments with less than 100 parking lots.
Dr Tan Wu Meng: To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) whether agencies have assessed how many HDB blocks in Singapore are not amenable to existing CCTV methods for investigation of high-rise littering due to the design of the blocks; and (b) what measures are available to detect and deter high-rise littering at such blocks.
Mr Pritam Singh: To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) how many Safe Distancing Ambassadors (SDAs) have been deployed across Singapore since April 2020 on a monthly basis, broken down by gender; (b) of these, how many are between 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70 and 70- 80 years of age respectively; (c) whether SDAs are deployed to former nightlife establishments including KTV lounges that had pivoted to F&B outlets after March 2020; and (d) how extensive are the operations at these pivoted establishments.
Mr Yip Hon Weng: To ask the Minister for Finance (a) whether nightlife businesses that pivot to other industries qualify for the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS); (b) how does the Ministry verify the number of eligible workers employed at these businesses; and (c) should nightlife businesses that engage in illegal activities receive grants and payments under COVID-19 assistance schemes, whether these amounts will be rescinded and the owners made to return what they have received.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Finance whether there will be continued scrutiny by the AGO on AGD's IT security as weak controls over the most privileged operating system user account has been continuously flagged across different systems over the past three years.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) for each year in the past five years, what percentage of working parents use both days of extended childcare leave; and (b) if such data is not being collected, whether the Ministry will start collecting it.
Mr Leon Perera: To ask the Minister for Health what are the Government’s plans to (i) increase the take-up rate of the Caregivers Training Grant and (ii) widen the support available for carers supporting elderly or sick family members and those with dementia.

No.

36 18.

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3 AUGUST 2021 9 Dr Shahira Abdullah: To ask the Minister for Health (a) what policies and programmes are in place to reduce the burnout rates and poor mental health among junior doctors working in the public healthcare system especially after such an unprecedented public health crisis; and (b) what are the processes that ensue and what support is provided when a medical practitioner or applicant for a medical licence declares to the Singapore Medical Council that he is receiving or have previously received psychiatric care.
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information (a) what is the percentage completion of the planned rollout of the 5G network to half the country by 2022; and (b) whether the Ministry has set a target for the total number of 5G mobile subscribers and individual user penetration rates.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for National Development in the last five years, how many notices has HDB issued to flat owners to repossess their flats because of owners' refusal to comply with court orders to transfer or sell a flat upon divorce.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) whether and how does the Ministry ensure that all government agencies compensate construction firms for the full price fluctuations for materials used in construction projects; and (b) whether the Ministry will ensure that any shortfalls in such adjustments will be reimbursed to construction firms.
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) what is the current number of licensed swimming pools in Singapore; (b) what is the number of swimming pools with lifeguards on duty; and (c) whether the Government will consider legislating the need for lifeguards on duty or for other on-premise officers to be trained in life-saving techniques.
Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim: To ask the Minister for Manpower how many individuals working in COVID-19-related short-term roles have taken up retraining programs and been subsequently matched to another role.