Volume 94 Thursday No 10 24 March 2016

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES

OFFICIAL REPORT CONTENTS

Written Answers to Questions

Page

1. Role of District Mayors Given Transfer of Functions to Social Service Offices (Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap) 1 2. Extension of Operating Hours of MRT Station Pedestrian Walkways (Mr ) 2 3. Review Full-day Bus Lane Implementation (Mr ) 2 4. Illegal Parking at Taxi Stands (Mr Ang Hin Kee) 3 5. Justification for Building Sheltered Pedestrian Overhead Bridges (Mr Sitoh Yih Pin) 3 6. Reason for Delay in Completion of Sheltered Linkway at Woodleigh Close (Mr Sitoh Yih Pin) 3 7. Breakdown of Account Balances by Gender of CPF Members (Ms Foo Mee Har) 4 8. Property Pledges by CPF Members to Allow for Fund Withdrawal Beyond Basic Retirement Sum (Ms Foo Mee Har) 4 9. Productivity Growth of Government over 10 Years (Ms Foo Mee Har) 5 10. Appeals for Public Rental Flats and Interim Rental Housing (Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap) 7

ROLE OF DISTRICT MAYORS GIVEN TRANSFER OF FUNCTIONS TO SOCIAL SERVICE OFFICES

1 Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap asked the Prime Minister (a) what is the role of district Mayors in the respective Community Development Councils (CDC) and whether their role is still relevant given that the ComCare assistance programmes have been transferred to the Social Service Offices under the care of the Ministry of Social and Family Development; and (b) what is the annual income of a Mayor.

Mr (for the Prime Minister): The Community Development Councils (CDCs) were set up in 1997 to foster community bonding and strengthen social cohesion in Singapore. The Mayor, as the Chairman of the CDC, plays a key role in strengthening the social infrastructure in the community. The CDCs bring together various community stakeholders across the 3P (people, public and private) sectors to serve the residents in each District. This engenders community ownership and builds community resilience. For example, by partnering the Law Society, CDCs have provided residents with greater accessibility to legal advice, and better awareness of legal issues through legal talks by pro bono lawyers. By partnering the National Arts Council (NAC), the CDCs have made arts programmes more accessible to the vulnerable. By working with SPRING Singapore and the Business Associations to set up the five Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) Centres@CDCs, the CDCs have helped to promote greater awareness of the Government’s help schemes for and offer business advice to SMEs. In the same spirit, the CDC mobilises the local resources of community and corporate organisations to complement the national assistance schemes to meet the needs of the residents. For example at North East (NE) District, the NE CDC coordinates among Grassroots Organisations, Social Service Offices and Workforce Development Agency to help the residents achieve self-reliance from receiving financial assistance to getting employment. In 2015, the CDCs helped over 100,000 beneficiaries. Mayors are appointed by the Chairman of PA who is the Prime Minister. Each Mayor is in charge of a District where the number of residents in the District is not less than 500,000. As chairman of the CDC, the Mayor maintains the focus of the CDCs to serve the residents and 2

ensures the efficient running of the CDC. He / She advises the PA Board on matters affecting the well-being of the residents in the District, the provision and use of public facilities and services within the District. From time to time, they will be asked to represent Singapore at official international conventions or meetings in their capacity as Mayors. Mayors hold responsibilities which are comparable in scale and complexity to that of office holders at the Ministries. The norm annual salary of a Mayor is $660,000, pegged between the salary range of a Senior Parliamentary Secretary and that of a Minister of State. A Mayor who also holds a concurrent appointment in the Ministry will only receive one salary. Back to Contents EXTENSION OF OPERATING HOURS OF MRT STATION PEDESTRIAN WALKWAYS

2 Mr Sitoh Yih Pin asked the Minister for Transport whether the underground pedestrian walkway at the Potong Pasir and other affected MRT stations can remain open for public use even after the MRT stations have stopped their operations in the early morning hours.

Mr : Pedestrian links are kept open round the clock for the convenience of pedestrians. This is the default position, unless there are strong reasons not to do so. In the case of Potong Pasir MRT Station, the underground pedestrian link leads directly to the station’s platform. If it is kept open after MRT operating hours, it can pose security issues such as vandalism of station property. Back to Contents REVIEW FULL-DAY BUS LANE IMPLEMENTATION

3 Mr Ang Hin Kee asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether the Ministry will consider imposing the full-day bus lane traffic rule only for stretches of roads which face heavy congestion, instead of all bus lanes in the city area as per the current regulations; and (b) whether taxis will be allowed to pick up and alight passengers along roads marked for bus lanes during bus lane operation hours, as vehicles providing public transportation services.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: Not all bus lanes in the city area are full-day bus lanes. Only roads with high bus volumes throughout the day have full-day bus lanes. 3

Allowing taxis to stop within bus lanes during operation hours will hamper bus speeds and timeliness, to the detriment of many bus commuters. Back to Contents ILLEGAL PARKING AT TAXI STANDS

4 Mr Ang Hin Kee asked the Minister for Transport (a) how many cases of illegal parking or misuse of taxi stands and taxi stops have there been over the last three years; (b) what is the breakdown in terms of the number of such cases committed by taxis and non-taxis; and (c) what efforts will the Ministry embark on to reduce such cases.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: Over the last three years, there were 4,329 cases of illegal parking at and misuse of taxi stands and taxi stops. Of these, 325 were committed by taxis. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will continue to deploy enforcement officers to deter motorists from misusing taxi stands and taxi stops. Back to Contents JUSTIFICATION FOR BUILDING SHELTERED PEDESTRIAN OVERHEAD BRIDGES

5 Mr Sitoh Yih Pin asked the Minister for Transport (a) what is the reason why some pedestrian overhead bridges are sheltered while others are not; and (b) whether shelter can be provided for the pedestrian overhead bridge at Braddell Road near Carmichael Road and its linked walkways to the surrounding bus stops.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: In building shelters for pedestrian overhead bridges, Land Transport Authority (LTA) prioritises those bridges that are more frequently used. We will review the case for the bridge at Braddell Road. Back to Contents REASON FOR DELAY IN COMPLETION OF SHELTERED LINKWAY AT WOODLEIGH CLOSE

6 Mr Sitoh Yih Pin asked the Minister for Transport (a) what is the reason for the delay in completion of the sheltered linkway at Woodleigh Close under the Walk2Ride programme; and 4

(b) what is LTA's estimated date of completion of these works.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: It was originally estimated that the sheltered linkway at Woodleigh Close would be completed by May 2016. Since then, Land Transport Authority (LTA) has found that it needs more time to ensure that the linkway’s construction does not affect existing utilities infrastructure and adjacent trees. The expected completion date is now August 2016. Back to Contents BREAKDOWN OF ACCOUNT BALANCES BY GENDER OF CPF MEMBERS

7 Ms Foo Mee Har asked the Minister for Manpower how does the average CPF balances of members vary by gender and what is the breakdown of gender differences by the respective age groups.

Mr : In 2015, the average net CPF balances1 of males and females across all ages was $86,000 and $76,000 respectively. The difference between male and female CPF balances has narrowed from 21% in 2005 to 14% in 2015. Table 1 shows the male-to-female ratio of average net CPF balances across different age groups. The male-to-female ratio is lower for younger age groups and increases for older age groups.

Back to Contents PROPERTY PLEDGES BY CPF MEMBERS TO ALLOW FOR FUND WITHDRAWAL BEYOND BASIC RETIREMENT SUM

1 Net CPF balances refer to net balances in the Ordinary, Special, Medisave and Retirement Accounts. This excludes CPF savings that have been withdrawn for approved purposes (e.g. housing, the CPF Investment Scheme and the CPF Education Scheme).

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8 Ms Foo Mee Har asked the Minister for Manpower (a) in 2016 so far, what is the number of CPF members who choose to pledge their properties in order to withdraw their Retirement Account savings above their Basic Retirement Sum; and (b) how much of the amount withdrawn has been used to top up their spouses' CPF accounts.

Mr Lim Swee Say: CPF members aged 55 and above can withdraw their Retirement Account savings above their Basic Retirement Sum if they have a sufficient existing charge2 on their property. Those who do not have a sufficient existing property charge can still make such a withdrawal after making a pledge on their property. This property charge or pledge does not affect the ownership of the property and is intended to ensure that the member’s Retirement Account is restored up to the Full Retirement Sum if the property is sold in the future. In January and February 2016, 1,200 CPF members withdrew their Retirement Account savings above their Basic Retirement Sum through a property charge or pledge. 700 of them turned 55 in January and February 2016 and became eligible to make such withdrawals. These members had withdrawn their Retirement Account savings in cash. We do not track whether any of them subsequently make cash top-ups to their spouses' CPF accounts. CPF members can also directly transfer their CPF savings above their Basic Retirement Sum to their spouse’s Special or Retirement Account, without the need for a property charge or pledge. Back to Contents PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH OF GOVERNMENT OVER 10 YEARS

9 Ms Foo Mee Har asked the Minister for Finance about (a) the productivity growth of the Government over the last 10 years and (b) the areas which showed the most improvement.

Mr : The Public Service is constantly seeking to be more productive, doing more with the same or less resources, and ensuring that we continue to be effective and efficient in delivering our services. However, unlike the private sector, it is difficult to measure productivity growth in public services, as the outcomes achieved and value created from the

2 A property charge is created when a member withdraws savings from his OA to finance the purchase of his property and pay his housing loan instalments.

6 diverse range of public services are often intangible and not easily quantifiable. Nevertheless to give a sense of the numbers, our population and real GDP grew by 2.6% and 5.3% per annum on average over the past 10 years. During the same period, we have maintained our public sector manpower growth at an average of 1.8% per annum to serve the population and support the economy. The lower public sector headcount growth is a result of a deliberate policy to constrain Ministries’ headcount growth under the Manpower Management Framework. As a result, the public sector’s share of the total labour force has also decreased from 4.30% in 2006 to 3.97% in 2015. This is one of the lowest internationally; it is the same as that in Hong Kong (4%) and lower than in countries such as New Zealand (7%) and the UK (12%) -- in all these cases, the numbers exclude defence personnel. To drive productivity and innovation in the Public Service, our agencies have been tapping on technology and ICT extensively. Compared to 10 years ago, there are now more e-services on multiple channels, which have made it more convenient and efficient for both the users as well as for the agencies. For example, through electronic tax-filing and the no-filing scheme, IRAS has saved time for taxpayers. It was also able to redeploy 100 officers to doing new and other areas of work, despite the tax base growth of 32% from 2009 to 2014. Another example would be ACRA’s Bizfile which has enabled businesses to be registered and companies to be incorporated online in just 15 minutes or less, compared to the manual process which would have taken 24 hours for businesses and five days for companies. We have also sought to drive productivity gains through organisational restructuring. For example, we setup the Municipal Services Office (MSO) in 2014 to improve the Government’s overall coordination and delivery of municipal services; often, these services involve multiple agencies. Since its establishment, MSO has worked with these agencies to improve inter-agency work flows, processes and SOPs to reduce the average time taken to respond to feedback, especially for complex cases. MSO has also worked with agencies to improve the adoption of structured digital channels such as mobile apps and web portals. This has allowed feedback to be routed quickly and automatically to the correct agency for attention. Beyond tapping on IT and organisational restructuring, we have also started to harness data analytics to innovate and improve services. For example, the National Library Board analysed borrowing data to understand library users and their borrowing behavior. This has enabled the NLB to determine the type and number of books it should purchase, and improve its 7

mix of book collections to make library services better. Back to Contents APPEALS FOR PUBLIC RENTAL FLATS AND INTERIM RENTAL HOUSING

10 Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap asked the Minister for National Development for each year between 2013 and 2015 (a) how many cases of appeals have been received from the respective Members of Parliament on behalf of their residents for public rental flats and interim rental housing respectively; (b) of the total number of appeals, what is the number of successful appeals; (c) what are the main considerations for favourably granting these appeals; and (d) whether for complex cases, referrals will be made to Family Service Centres or voluntary welfare organisations to have the respective cases further assessed before a decision on their appeals are made.

Mr : From 2013 to 2015, HDB received requests from around 8,700 appellants a year for public rental flats. These included appeals made through Members of Parliament and appeals made directly to HDB. Over this same period, a total of 6,900 households were successful in their requests for public rental flats. Another 510 households were assisted with Interim Rental Housing. HDB assesses each appeal on its own merit. For needy households who do not meet the eligibility criteria, HDB will exercise flexibility and offer public rental if they are unable to buy a flat, and have no other housing options or family support. HDB may also refer complex cases to a Family Service Centre (FSC) for a social worker’s assessment if the client consents. Apart from exploring their housing options, HDB will then work with the social service agencies to help the families with counselling, financial assistance and employment support to address the underlying causes of housing instability. Back to Contents

Office of the Clerk of Parliament Singapore, 24 March 2016