Committee of Supply – Head P (Ministry of Home Affairs)

Debate in Committee of Supply resumed.

[Mr Deputy Speaker in the Chair]

Head P (cont) −

Ms Sylvia Lim: Sir, I have three clarifications. First, it is in relation to the private security industry that Deputy Prime Minister Teo touched on earlier. He mentioned that there was a total of about 60,000 licensed holders in the security industry. Can I just confirm with him that this figure includes not only agency guards but also inhouse security, for example, those working in hotels? Second clarification related to that is he mentioned that out of these 60,000, about 35,000 were active. Does this indicate that actually there is quite a high attrition rate from the industry since out of 60,000, only 35,000 are active, which is about 58%? Is the Ministry concerned about the attrition? Perhaps, more importantly, does it indicate wasted training costs that went into those that did not continue?

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Second group of clarifications concerns the Auxiliary Police recruitment criteria. Deputy Prime Minister Teo just now mentioned that there was a need to show that, for example, Malaysians do not have any prior criminal convictions. Is there any other criteria which the Government sets for recruiting of AP officers, whether it is in terms of education or going through other testing? And the last clarification is about unlicensed moneylending for Minister Iswaran. He mentioned earlier that there was a lot of youths involved in being runners for such businesses. Is there also any indication that there are foreigners involved, particularly foreigners on social visit pass, being used as runners?

Mr Teo Chee Hean: Sir, I do not have the detailed breakdown that Ms Sylvia Lim has asked for − in the fine grain that she had asked for. If she would file a question, I will be happy to go and look up the specific statistics that she is looking for, and try to give her an answer. As for the criteria for recruitment of APOs, there are criteria beyond the need for a Certificate of Non-Criminal Conviction, including academic and other requirements, and so forth.

Mr S Iswaran: Sir, I thank the Member for her question. I do not have the specific data or breakdown. However, what I can say is that it clearly has not emerged the involvement of foreigners in unlicensed moneylending activities as a particularly serious problem at this stage. But I will be happy to provide more details if the Member files an appropriate question.

Ms Sylvia Lim: Just to follow up on Deputy Prime Minister Teo's answer. What about the part where the Minister mentioned that 35,000 licensees were actually out of the 60,000? Does this indicate attrition, and is the Ministry concerned about it?

Mr Teo Chee Hean: I would invite the Member to file a question. I will look up the information and I will give her a full reply. I do not have the information right now, so I would not want to give her a reply which is not accurate.

The Chairman: Any other clarifications from any Member? If not, can I invite Mr Hri Kumar to see if he wishes to withdraw the amendment?

Mr Hri Kumar Nair: Sir, on behalf of the Members who spoke, I thank the Deputy Prime Minister and his team for their answers and, more importantly, for the good work they and their Ministry have done to keep Singapore one of the safest countries in the world to raise our families here. This, more than anything else, makes us an exceptional nation. As they will need all the funding they can get, I beg leave to withdraw my cut.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

The sum of $3,120,074,800 for Head P ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates.

The sum of $315,326,900 for Head P ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates.

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