Parliament Questions for May 2024 Sitting

Both NCMPs Hazel Poa and Leong Mun Wai have filed their parliamentary questions for May 2024, addressing their questions and queries for the Minister(s) for Manpower, Home Affairs, Defence, and the Prime Minister amongst others.

7 May

1. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Prime Minister in each year since 2020 (a) how many (i) Singapore citizens and (ii) permanent residents (PR) who have a registered foreign address or been overseas for at least 12 months continuously were not included as part of citizen and PR population in the Population in Brief publication by the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD); (b) whether NPTD will consider publishing this figure in future editions of Population in Brief; and (c) if not, why.
2. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Manpower with regard to the rise in resident employment by 4,900 in 2023 (a) what percentage of the increase is due to non-residents becoming residents in Singapore; and (b) if this data is not collected in the annual labour market reports, why not.
3. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Manpower since 2014, what is the annual percentage of companies with (i) more than 30% of foreign PMETs employed and (ii) employees of a single foreign nationality accounting for more than 20% of all PMETs employed.
4. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) whether he can provide the wage or salary breakdown of local and foreign PMETs in each industry for each year from 2020 to 2023; and (b) if not, why not.
5. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) whether foreign workers who have filed wrongful dismissal claims with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management are allowed to remain in Singapore while their claims are being adjudicated, even when the employers have cancelled their work passes; and (b) if not, why not; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider allowing such foreign workers to remain in Singapore so as to strengthen the safeguards in preventing unfair treatments of migrant workers.
6. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Prime Minister (a) who is eligible to be the Returning Officer (RO) for Singapore’s presidential and parliamentary elections; (b) how is the RO selected; and (c) what are the considerations behind the selection of the RO.
7. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs with regard to the planned expansion of Woodlands Checkpoint (a) why does the checkpoint need to be expanded by five times its current size when the number of daily travellers is only expected to increase between 33% to 40% by 2050; and (b) what is the expected increase in daily travellers who are Malaysian work pass holders.
8. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Prime Minister (a) whether the charges levied by banks or payment service providers on merchants for using PayNow to receive payments from end-consumers are being monitored and/or regulated; (b) if so, what steps are taken to regulate these charges to ensure that merchants are not to pass on such costs to end-consumers; and (c) whether the Government will consider legislation to prevent merchants from charging end-consumers when they make payments using PayNow, and if not, why not.
9. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Manpower in the last five years (a) what is the annual number of employment pass applications for jobs that are initially posted on the MyCareersFuture portal of the Government; and (b) how many employment pass applications are rejected as a result of employers deemed to have not giving due consideration to Singaporean applicants on MyCareersFuture.
10. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) what foreign manpower concessions are provided to participating companies under the Shared Stay-in Senior Care Services sandbox; (b) whether there are any other sandbox or pilot schemes in which foreign manpower concessions are given; and (c) if so, what are they.

8 May

1. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Defence since 2000 (a) what is the proportion of full-time National Servicemen who are assigned to (i) clerk (ii) storeman and (iii) other non-combat vocations; (b) whether these proportions have increased over the years; and (c) if so, whether these proportions are expected to further increase with the growing prevalence of mental and other health issues in the population.
2. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Defence for each year since 2014 (a) how many second-generation permanent residents (PRs) renounced their PR status before serving National Service (NS); and (b) how many new citizens or PRs renounced their Singapore citizenship or declined offers for Singapore citizenship after having completed their full-time NS obligations.
3. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Health (a) what is the rationale for retroactive charging for upgrades to higher-class wards, especially when patients do not consume services and amenities of the higher-class wards before their upgrades; and (b) whether retroactive charging applies to cases where patients downgrade to lower ward types; and (c) if not, why not.
4. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether the sentences currently being imposed for offences relating to reckless or dangerous driving are sufficient deterrents; and (b) if not, whether the existing sentencing guidelines can be recalibrated to deter such offences more effectively.
5. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether sentences for offences under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 have sufficiently deterred individuals from engaging in money laundering; and (b) if not, whether the Government will consider strengthening the sentencing regime.
6. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Prime Minister (a) in 2023, what is the number of gifts declared by civil servants and political officeholders respectively to their Permanent Secretaries that is valued (i) above $50 and (ii) below $50; (b) what is the mean and maximum value of these gifts; (c) how many officers have chosen to retain the gifts; (d) what is the number of meal invitations declared to their Permanent Secretaries; and (e) how many meal invitation requests have been denied.
7. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Law in each year of the past five years (a) what proportion of rent collected from residential properties managed by the Singapore Land Authority was spent on maintenance and safety inspections; (b) what safety incidents were there; and (c) how regularly are safety inspections conducted.
8. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for National Development (a) since 2010 in the west region, what is the annual number of public and private heavy vehicle parking lots registered under the Vehicle Parking Certificate scheme and the length of the waiting list for publicly-operated lots; (b) whether there are any plans to reduce the number of publicly-operated lots in the next five years; and (c) whether any new publicly-operated lots will be provided in or near newly constructed residential areas such as Tengah New Town.
9. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Transport (a) what is the current total number of roundabouts located in Silver Zones; and (b) what is the number of accidents reported at roundabouts located in Silver Zones for each of the last three years.
10. Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Education (a) how many parents and staff respectively have had their data leaked in the data security breach incident concerning unauthorised access into the user management portal of Mobile Guardian; and (b) what are the steps being taken to raise the security level on such portals.

9 May

1. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Defence in the last five years (a) what is the number of complaints made to the SAF Hotline; (b) of which, how many of such calls were made by (i) Full-Time National Servicemen and (ii) Regulars, respectively; and (c) how many of these calls resulted in an investigation where an officer or sergeant was penalised.
2. Mr Leong Mun Wai: To ask the Minister for Education what is the breakdown of the Government’s total expenditure in FY 2022 and FY 2023 on permanent resident students and non-resident students respectively in (i) primary schools (ii) secondary schools and (iii) pre-tertiary educational institutes, respectively.

Support Progress, Support PSP.