National Servicemen Converting Military Driving Licences into Civilian Licences

Mr Zainal Sapari asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs (a) for the last five years, what is the number of National Servicemen who had their military driving licences converted to civilian driving licences upon their Operationally-Ready Date (ORD); and (b) whether the Ministry will consider allowing National Servicemen holding military driving licences to convert the licences to civilian driving licences upon their ORD to increase their chances of securing better jobs.

Mr Teo Chee Hean: The Traffic Police (TP) and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) have an arrangement whereby suitable SAF Servicemen, including Full-time National Servicemen (NSFs), Operationally Ready National Servicemen (NSmen) and SAF Regulars, who hold military driving licences are recommended by SAF to TP to be awarded qualified civilian driving licences.

Over the last five years, from 2007 to 2011, an annual average of about 1,000 SAF Servicemen successfully converted their military driving licences to various classes of civilian driving licences.

TP has adopted this licence conversion framework as it is satisfied that the SAF's training and testing standards and emphasis on driving safety are robust and comparable to civilian test regimes. As such, SAF Servicemen recommended by the SAF to be awarded civilian driving licences do not have to undergo TP's competency tests to convert their driving licences. TP's primary consideration is to ensure that the driving competency skills of SAF Servicemen holding converted driving licences are on par with other motorists who have successfully cleared TP's competency tests.

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