Enforcement Action Taken by Volunteers Exercising New Enforcement Powers Conferred by NEA (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act

Mr Chen Show Mao asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources what is the total number of cases of enforcement action taken by the NEA that involved volunteers exercising their new enforcement powers conferred by the NEA (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act of 2016.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: The primary role of a Community Volunteer (CV) is to educate environmental offenders to stop the offending acts and encourage greater ownership of the environment.

To enable the CVs to perform their role more effectively, they are empowered to request the particulars of offenders who fail to heed their advice. The particulars are sent to the National Environment Agency (NEA) for follow-up action. Since 2016, our CVs have engaged more than 3,500 individuals for environmental offences such as littering in public spaces and smoking in prohibited areas. The vast majority responded positively such as by picking up their litter and hence no further action was taken. A small number of around 60 individuals were non-compliant and therefore subjected to enforcement action by NEA such as summonses and advisory letters.