Volume 94 Monday No 69 19 March 2018 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES SINGAPORE OFFICIAL REPORT CONTENTS Written Answers to Questions Page 1. Hiring of Workers above Re-employment Age of 67 in Ministries and Statutory Boards (Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan) 1 2. Direct Bus Service to Connect Boon Lay Place to Jurong West (Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan) 1 3. Public Transport Mode Share for Bukit Panjang Town (Mr Liang Eng Hwa) 1 4. CPF Contributions for Apprentices and Interns from Institutes of Higher Learning (Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan) 2 5. Adoption of SnapSAFE App by Companies for Reporting of Workplace Safety Issues (Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang) 2 6. Fishing Vessels Caught Trespassing Waters of Pulau Tekong in Last Five Years (Miss Cheng Li Hui) 3 7. Babies Seeking Paediatric Care at KK Women's and Children's Hospital from 6pm to 6am in Past Five Years (Ms Joan Pereira) 4 8. Singapore's Gini Co-efficient after Government Taxes and Transfers vis-à-vis Other Major Developed Economies in Last Five Years (Mr Leon Perera) 5 9. Supply and Demand for Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme Flats (Miss Cheng Li Hui) 6 10. Data of Plastic Bags Used in Singapore in Past Three Years (Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang) 7 11. Students Taking up Higher Chinese, Higher Malay and Higher Tamil in Past 10 Years (Mr Leon Perera) 7 12. Utilisation of Respite Care Services and Median and Range of Fees Charged (Mr Desmond Choo) 8 HIRING OF WORKERS ABOVE RE-EMPLOYMENT AGE OF 67 IN MINISTRIES AND STATUTORY BOARDS 1 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Prime Minister (a) what is the Public Service Division's position on the hiring of workers above the re-employment age of 67 years across Ministries and statutory boards; and (b) whether Ministries and statutory boards are free to hire or extend employment beyond 67 years of age. Mr Teo Chee Hean (for the Prime Minister): Public agencies can hire or re-employ officers who are above 67 years old as long as their services are needed. As at 31 December 2017, there are about 1,400 public officers who are aged 67 and above. Back to Contents DIRECT BUS SERVICE TO CONNECT BOON LAY PLACE TO JURONG WEST 2 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Minister for Transport whether LTA will be able to roll out a bus service to directly connect Boon Lay Place to the Jurong West part of Boon Lay constituency as efforts to secure private transport companies to run a service have not been successful. Mr Khaw Boon Wan: Currently, commuters can travel between Boon Lay Place and Jurong West via a direct public bus service (ie Service 99) or within one bus transfer. Given that there are existing bus services which serve these commuters, there are no plans to roll out new services to provide additional direct connections there. Back to Contents PUBLIC TRANSPORT MODE SHARE FOR BUKIT PANJANG TOWN 3 Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Minister for Transport what is the latest figure for the public transport mode share for Bukit Panjang Town and what is the figure before the opening of Downtown Line 2. Mr Khaw Boon Wan: Based on the Household Interview Travel Surveys in 2012/2013 2 and 2016/2017, the peak period public transport mode share for Bukit Panjang increased from 56% to 58% after Downtown Line 2 opened in December 2015. Back to Contents CPF CONTRIBUTIONS FOR APPRENTICES AND INTERNS FROM INSTITUTES OF HIGHER LEARNING 4 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Minister for Manpower whether employers are made to contribute CPF for the hiring of apprentices and interns from (i) ITEs/polytechnics (ii) autonomous universities (iii) private education providers/institutions and (iv) private universities. Mr Lim Swee Say: In the case of students from ITE, polytechnics or autonomous universities, employers do not need to contribute CPF if the student is employed by them for training that is approved by their institutions. For students from private education providers or private universities, employers are exempted from making CPF contributions only if the student is: (i) enrolled in a full-time programme subsidised by the Ministry of Education (MOE); and (ii) employed by them for training that is approved by their institution. The list of such programmes may be found on the MOE website. Back to Contents ADOPTION OF SNAPSAFE APP BY COMPANIES FOR REPORTING OF WORKPLACE SAFETY ISSUES 5 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Manpower (a) to date, how many companies have adopted the SnapSAFE app for reporting of workplace safety issues; (b) how many complaints have been filed through the app in 2015, 2016, 2017 respectively; (c) what is the breakdown of valid and invalid reports; (d) how many companies have been reported; (e) how many employers have been disciplined for unsafe work practices in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively; and (f) what actions have been taken against them. Mr Lim Swee Say: The number of reports received via the Snap@MOM app, number of valid reports, and number of companies issued with enforcement actions between 2015 and 2017 is shown below: - 3 All valid reports have resulted in warnings or enforcement actions. The enforcement actions included Notices of Non-compliance, composition fines and/or Stop Work Orders. The Snap@MOM app was enhanced and replaced by the SnapSAFE app on 1 December 2017. It has a new internal corporate reporting function for in-house reporting of WSH lapses, near-misses or accidents to facilitate company ownership on WSH. As it is in its initial months of launch, we are currently reaching out to more companies to adopt this as an internal WSH reporting tool. Back to Contents FISHING VESSELS CAUGHT TRESPASSING WATERS OF PULAU TEKONG IN LAST FIVE YEARS 6 Miss Cheng Li Hui asked the Minister for Home Affairs (a) what is the number of fishing vessels caught trespassing the waters of Pulau Tekong over the last five years; (b) what measures are in place to prevent such trespassing and whether they are sufficient; and (c) how are trespassers being dealt with. Mr K Shanmugam: From 2013 to 2017, the Police Coast Guard (PCG) detected an average of 34 vessels each year making illegal or unauthorised entry into the waters off Pulau Tekong for fishing activities. Parts of the waters around Pulau Tekong are designated as Working Areas by the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) due to reclamation work. Unauthorised entry into Working Areas is an offence under the MPA Act. The punishment is a fine of up to $5,000, and in the case of a continuing offence, a further fine of up to $500 for every day which the offence continues. Some of the vessels detected included cases of unlawful entry into Singapore by foreigners. 4 These persons were arrested under the Immigration Act. The punishment is imprisonment of up to six months, and a minimum of three stokes of the cane, or a fine of up to $6,000 in lieu of caning. PCG has installed land- and sea-based barriers to protect our maritime borders and coastline. At Pulau Tekong, PCG has deployed floating sea barriers to prevent vessels from entering the designated Working Area and approaching the shoreline. PCG also deploys sensors such as radars and cameras to monitor our waters. This is complemented by regular PCG patrols to detect and interdict intrusions and illegal activities. Back to Contents BABIES SEEKING PAEDIATRIC CARE AT KK WOMEN'S AND CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FROM 6PM TO 6AM IN PAST FIVE YEARS 7 Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Health (a) how many babies sought paediatric care at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) from 6pm to 6am in the past five years; (b) what is the average waiting time during these hours; and (c) whether the Government will build more 24-hour outpatient paediatric clinics to take the load off KKH. Mr Gan Kim Yong: In 2016 and 20171, 14,500 and 12,900 babies (those aged below one-year-old), respectively, sought paediatric care at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) Children’s Emergency (CE) from 6 pm to 6 am. The median waiting time was 20 minutes and 27 minutes respectively. Patients assessed to be urgent cases by KKH’s CE triage will be attended to immediately. Less urgent cases (or P32 cases) made up about one in three of these attendances. KKH has assessed that many of these less urgent cases can be adequately managed by primary care doctors. Hence, KKH is developing a community partnership network with primary care doctors3 to provide care to non-emergency cases. MOH is also studying the possibility of piloting extended-hours paediatric urgent care clinics in regions with many young families. These would 1 Accurate data broken down by the hour was available from 2016 onwards. 2 These refer to conditions classified as Priority 3 or 4 under the Patient Acuity Category Scale (PACS) which generally refer to ambulant minor emergency cases such as fevers, fractures, sprains, superficial injuries, constipation and vomiting. 3 This will be similar to Changi General Hospital’s GPFirst scheme, in which patients are incentivised to seek initial treatment of non-urgent medical conditions at participating GPs. If they are assessed to require a higher level of care, the GPs will refer them to CGH’s Emergency Department and give them queue priority and a subsidised bill. 5 be operated by primary care doctors, to handle non-emergency cases. Besides KKH’s CE, babies requiring emergency paediatric care can also seek treatment at the National University Hospital’s (NUH) CE.