Both NCMPs Hazel Poa and Leong Mun Wai have filed their parliamentary questions for February 2024, addressing their questions and queries for the Minister(s) for Transport, Education, Finance, National Development, the Prime Minister amongst others.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) whether the cost of $40 million to renew the present card-based ticketing system and continuing to run it alongside the SimplyGo system is a one-off or recurring expenditure; (b) how much has been spent or committed to be spent in (i) the development of the SimplyGo system and (ii) this conversion attempt, including time, manpower and other expenses.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) what is the reason for choosing a transport payment system like SimplyGo that does not show commuters the fares and deductions; and (b) what are the benefits that justify this trade-off.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Manpower regarding the recent layoffs by an e-commerce company which was not notified to the unions (a) whether the Ministry has data on the number of employees who were laid off with a breakdown by nationality; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider regulating non-compete clauses in employment contracts.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Prime Minister (a) whether financial institutions are required to report to the Monetary Authority of Singapore or any other authorities the amounts lost to scams by their customers; and (b) if so, what have been the amounts lost in 2022 and 2023 with breakdowns by financial institutions.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs what is the duration of time taken by the Traffic Police at the 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles to complete investigations into traffic accidents.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information (a) whether the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) has been consulted by the Land Transport Authority before the full transition to the SimplyGo system is announced; and (b) whether SNDGO will conduct a review to draw lessons from this incident regarding digital inclusivity.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information (a) whether there are any restrictions on the locations where movies rated NC16 and above can be screened; (b) if so, what is the rationale for such restrictions; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider removing such restrictions in light of the rise of online movie streaming services.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what is the current number of licensed and unlicensed tissue sellers in Singapore; (b) whether any increase in the number of unlicensed tissue sellers has been observed since 2020; (c) what efforts have been made by Government agencies to reach out to unlicensed tissue sellers who are eligible for Government support schemes; and (d) whether any enforcement efforts have been conducted against unlicensed tissue sellers.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) why Bus Services 160 and 870 do not call at Bus Stop 28301 in front of Block 131 Jurong Gateway Road; and (b) whether these services can be amended to call at Bus Stop 28301 to provide more convenient access for commuters travelling from Jurong East.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Law (a) other than temporary hawker centres, what other circumstances are state lands allowed to be rented to private individuals at zero cost or below market cost; and (b) what are the justifications for doing so.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Education (a) whether students are able to combine results from separate sittings of (i) GCE O-level examinations when applying for admissions into educational institutions like polytechnics and junior colleges and (ii) GCE A-level examinations when applying for admissions into universities; (b) whether the same arrangements will apply to the planned Secondary Education Certificate examinations from 2027; and (c) whether the same arrangements apply to international students.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) how many households who have collected their keys in the Tengah estate have signed up for the centralised cooling system; (b) of these households, how many have reported issues with the centralised cooling system, such as water leaks and airflow problems; and (c) how much has been spent by SP Group to rectify these issues.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Defence (a) what is the estimated increase in the frequency of flights from Tengah Air Base after operations from Paya Lebar Air Base (PLAB) are relocated there prior to PLAB’s decommissioning in 2030; and (b) what are the noise mitigation measures being explored.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Education (a) in the past three years, what is the annual number of students who apply to ITE; (b) of these, what is the number of students who gain admission to ITE broken down by (i) O-level qualifications (ii) N(A)-level qualifications (iii) N(T)-level qualifications and (iv) other qualifications.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Education with regard to admissions into Institutes of Technical Education (ITE) (a) how is the allocation of places between O-level and N-level students decided; and (b) how are the grades on subjects taken at the different Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) levels taken into account when computing the points for admission.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) what is the cost of installing a traffic enforcement camera at a signalised intersection; and (b) whether the Traffic Police plans to deploy more such enforcement cameras for detecting red light running offences in addition to the current cameras deployed.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Manpower what is the Retirement Account (RA) savings threshold that determines whether payouts under the Retirement Sum Scheme will last for 20 years from the payout eligibility age or for a shorter period.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Defence (a) for each year since 2018, what is the percentage of Exit Permit (EP) applicants who receive instant approvals; (b) whether the Ministry has ceased to instantly approve EP applications and, if so, why; (c) what is the median time taken to approve an EP if it is not instantly approved; and (d) what can applicants do to accelerate the approval process if their EP is not instantly approved.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) why are the interest rates for the Child Development Account (CDA) not pegged to the CPF Ordinary Account (CPF-OA) interest rate; and (b) whether the Government has considered taking measures to encourage banks to increase CDA interest rates to match the CPF-OA interest rate and, if not, why.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) whether LTA has considered launching express public buses from Bukit Batok West Extension to the Central Business District; and (b) if not, why not.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) of all the HDB BTO units launched this year, how many units are directly facing a multi-storey carpark at the same or higher levels; (b) how many units below the fifth floor are directly facing a bin centre; and (c) what are the factors considered when deciding whether to construct a multi-storey carpark within the same block or in a separate building next to the block.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Prime Minister (a) whether any attempts to breach Singpass facial verification have been detected since it was launched; and (b) what safeguards and measures have been taken to ensure that Singpass facial verification cannot be breached by deepfakes or other clones generated by artificial intelligence.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Manpower what are the reasons for (i) the decrease in PMET employment for those aged below 30 years old in 2022 compared to previous years and (ii) the significant increase in PMET employment for those in their 40s to 50s.
Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) for the past three years, how many individuals or households were eligible for support schemes which benefits were meant to be automatically disbursed but did not receive the support; (b) how many complaints or appeals were made concerning suspected erroneous payouts including fraud cases; and (c) whether there were any cases in the last five years where additional benefits were found to be erroneously disbursed to those not eligible.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) what is the current number of financial support schemes from the Government available to individuals and households; (b) how many of such schemes require individuals or households to actively make an application; and (c) what is the rationale for not automatically granting support under schemes where the qualification criteria are objective and not subjective.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) in each of the past three years, how many vehicles have been subjected to additional inspection in response to complaints about vehicle modifications; (b) how many of these have been found to have illegal modifications; and (c) how many workshops have been investigated and penalised for performing illegal modifications on vehicles.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Education (a) why can the balance of the Post-Secondary Education Accounts (PSEA) only be checked by calling a 24-hour hotline; (b) whether such a system poses data privacy and security concerns since any person can check the PSEA balance of any other person as long as they have the other person’s NRIC number; and (c) whether the Ministry will build an online system with Singpass authentication for PSEA holders to check their balances and, if not, why not.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Education (a) what is the rationale for only transferring Post-Secondary Education Account (PSEA) balances to the CPF Ordinary Accounts only at age 31 rather than an earlier age; and (b) whether the Ministry will consider allowing PSEA holders to transfer their account balances to their CPF Ordinary Accounts prior to age 31 so that these monies can be used for other purposes such as housing and, if not, why not.
Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) how many places of worship which are gazetted as national monuments currently sit on privately owned leasehold land; and (b) whether exceptions can be made to grant freehold or 999-year leases to such places of worship which are legally protected from alterations and changes that will affect their character and significance.