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Second Reading Speech on Statutes (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Bill 2005
Posted on Monday, November 21, 2005 - 12:00 AM

Second Reading Speech on Statutes (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Bill 2005 by Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Assoc Prof Ho Peng Kee, Mon, 21 November 2005 which seeks the following amendments:
(a) Amendments Due to Changes in Modes of Commencement of Court Proceedings;
(b) Amendments to the Computer Misuse Act and Criminal Procedure Code;
(c) Amendments to the Trade Marks Act;
(d) Amendments Due to Operation of Companies (Amendment) Act 2005;
(e) Amendments to the Interpretation Act;
(f) Amendments to the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act and Land Titles (Strata) Act;
(g) Amendments to the Probate and Administration Act; and
(h) Amendments to the Securities and Futures Act.
Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, that the Bill be now read a second time.

2. Sir, as its title implies, this Bill contains a number of amendments to several Acts which are mainly technical in nature. Let me highlight the key ones.

Amendments Due to Changes in Modes of Commencement of Court Proceedings (Clauses 1 to 9) [Part I of the Bill]

3. First, we have a number of technical amendments that reflect the Courts' initiative to simplify court procedures and promote the use of plain English in our laws. Currently, there are four ways to commence court proceedings in non-criminal matters: a writ of summons, an originating summons, an originating motion and a petition. Different procedures and court forms are prescribed for each process. These different processes are procedural in nature and must be distinguished from the substantive law that decides the legal outcome of any case.

4. The intention is to amend the Rules of Court early next year to simplify court procedures by reducing the number of processes from four to two, by abolishing the "motion" and "petition" processes. Some Acts and subsidiary legislation prescribe how court proceedings are to be commenced for specific actions, e.g. by writ or by petition to the court. These Acts and subsidiary legislation will be accordingly amended. These amendments will be policy-neutral and purely procedural in nature. In general, existing applications to court using the "motions" and "petition" processes will be converted to use the originating summons process. In addition, some archaic Latin terms will be substituted with plain English terms for clarity.

Amendments to the Computer Misuse Act and Criminal Procedure Code (Clauses 14 and 15)

5. Currently, only section 15 of the Computer Misuse Act ("CMA") provides specific powers for police officers and authorised persons to gain access to decryption "keys" in computer-related offences and other offences discovered in the course of investigations into computer-related offences. This power does not extend generally to non computer-related offences, including those relating to national security.

6. Sir, criminals are becoming more tech-savvy and are making use of information technology to commit non computer-related crimes. The international press has also widely reported that international terrorist groups are using computer networks to communicate with each other. If these criminal and terrorist elements use strong encryption, law enforcement agencies would face operational challenges and difficulties in gaining access to the essential encrypted information for investigation and enforcement.

7. It is therefore necessary to amend the Criminal Procedure Code ("CPC") to include several new provisions which provide for firstly, access to decryption "keys" for the investigation of all seizable offences; secondly, empower the Public Prosecutor to issue a Decryption Order to allow the police and authorised persons to obtain access to decryption "keys" that can unlock encrypted information, including voice and fax encryption; (iii) thirdly, impose a penalty for disobeying a Decryption Order and (iv) fourthly, impose a heavier penalty if there is evidence that the encrypted data was used to conceal evidence relevant to the planning, preparation or commission of a specified serious offence, such as a national security-related offence. The proposed amendments are intended to widen investigative powers where the police and authorised persons have to access computer and decryption data.

8. Consequentially, section 15 of the CMA is deleted as that provision is rendered obsolete with the introduction of the proposed powers in the CPC.

Amendments to the Trade Marks Act (Clause 21)

9. Clause 21 makes several amendments to the Trade Marks Act. The definition of "Convention country" is amended to provide that "Convention country" includes Singapore. This clarification will ensure that Singaporean owners of unregistered well-known marks are protected under the Act.

10. Clause 21 will also enable the restoration of withdrawn trade mark applications. Currently, where Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has queries or objections to an application for the registration of a trade mark, the applicant has four months to respond, after which the application is automatically withdrawn. The applicant will then have to re-start the application process, pay application fees again, and lose his priority to register the mark. With the amendment, IPOS may restore the withdrawn application on request from applicants. Businesses will benefit from the resulting time and cost savings.

Miscellaneous Amendments

11. Finally, let me briefly touch on some amendments which will facilitate better administration of their parent Acts.

Amendments Due to Operation of Companies (Amendment) Act 2005 (Clauses 10, 12, 13 and 19)

12. First, the Companies (Amendment) Act 2005, passed by Parliament in May 2005, abolished the concepts of authorised capital and par value shares. Consequential amendments are now proposed to the Architects Act, Professional Engineers Act and Companies Act, to align affected provisions with the new Companies (Amendment) Act 2005.

Amendment to the Interpretation Act (Clause 16)

13. Next, clause 16 makes a technical amendment to the definition of "States of Malaya" in the Interpretation Act to clarify, for the avoidance of doubt, that the expression "States of Malaya" in our laws includes the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, as well as any other Federal Territory that may be established in the future from any part of the territory of any state in Malaya. The amendment does not expand the scope of the definition but merely serves to clarify the scope of the definition.

Amendments to the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act and Land Titles (Strata) Act (Clauses 11 and 17)

14. Next, clauses 11 and 17 make a number of consequential amendments, which are housekeeping in nature, to the Land Titles (Strata) Act and Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act arising from earlier amendments to the Land Titles Act, Land Titles (Strata) Act and the new Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act 2004. They will provide greater clarity and facilitate the operation of these Acts.

Amendments to the Probate and Administration Act (Clause 18)

15. Two amendments are made to the Probate and Administration Act. Firstly, a technical amendment is made to section 35(1) to bring it in conformity with the Subordinate Courts Act, which was amended when the District Court's monetary jurisdictional limit for probate matters was increased from $250,000 to $3 million.

16. The second amendment is necessitated by the privatization, on 17 September 2005, of the Dependants' Protection Insurance Scheme maintained by the Central Provident Fund. With the privatization of the Scheme, the monies payable by the insurers under the Scheme will form part of the deceased's estate and are no longer paid out together with CPF funds. The amendment clarifies that, for the purposes of administration by the Public Trustee, the monies payable by an appointed insurer pursuant to the Scheme will not form part of the $50,000 limit imposed upon the value of the estate of the deceased. The amendment will take effect from 17 September 2005 to ensure that the Public Trustee can continue to administer cases of up to $50,000 as before, even after the privatization of the Scheme.

Amendments to the Securities and Futures Act (Clause 20)

17. Finally, clause 20 makes a number of technical amendments to the Securities and Futures Act resulting from the change in the numbering of the provisions made by the Securities and Futures (Amendment) Act 2005. Consequential amendments are also made to two sections arising from the repeal of section 73 and the Companies (Amendment) Act 2005.

18. Sir, I beg to move.

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