STATE LANDS (AMENDMENT) BILL

STATE LANDS (AMENDMENT) BILL: Order for Second Reading read.

5.05 pm

The Senior Minister of State for Law (Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Sir, this Bill makes a number of amendments to the State Lands Act.

Clause 2 of the Bill clarifies that State land may be alienated as a parcel of surface earth together with so much of the subsoil and airspace as is reasonably necessary for the use and enjoyment thereof, or as parcel of airspace or a parcel of subterranean space, or to a certain depth and reserving the lower reaches of the subsoil to the State.

The new provision does not change the existing general practice that when we alienate State land, it includes the subsoil below and airspace above it. This general practice will continue to apply. Clause 2 basically facilitates the disposal

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of stratum of subterranean space down to such depth, without having to define in each and every disposal, the precise terms of the stratum of subterranean space that is being alienated, leased or licensed.

Sir, the rest of the amendments in the Bill are various miscellaneous amendments to update the Bill. Clause 3 updates archaic language in the Act. Clause 4 clarifies that only officers of the Collector of Land Revenue authorised in writing may have access to lands which are the subject of a grant or State lease. Clause 5 allows the Minister to provide for the vesting in Government of any estate or interest in land for the purposes of implementing any international agreement to which Singapore is a party. And Clause 6 modernises language, replacing "under-lease", with "sub-lease". Clause 7 removes reference to boundary marks in the section heading and some of the archaic means of demarcating boundaries between State land and alienated land which are no longer appropriate today.

Sir, these amendments will serve to modernise the Act, removing obsolete provisions and enabling the proper administration of State land.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. – [Assoc. Prof. Ho Peng Kee].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.