REGISTRATION OF CRIMINALS (AMENDMENT) BILL

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Order for Second Reading read.

5.31 p.m.

The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr Ong Pang Boon): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The reason for this Bill is partly due to the attainment of the Federation of Malaya to a sovereign independent status. The Registration of Criminals Ordinance requires the Registrar of Criminals to maintain a register of, inter alia, persons convicted of any offences committed within any scheduled territory and persons ordered to be banished, expelled or deported from Singapore or from any Colony, protectorate or protected state for the time being included in the Third Schedule of the Ordinance.

The two places at present included in the Third Schedule of the Ordinance are the Federation of Malaya and the State of Brunei. Singapore, the Federation of Malaya and the State of Brunei together form the principal registration area under this Ordinance. Both this Government and the Government of the Federation of Malaya have agreed that Singapore and the Federation of Malaya only will form the principal registration area under the Ordinance.

At the same time, it is thought desirable to remove Brunei from the principal registration area and to treat that territory in the same way as North Borneo and Sarawak, that is, as part of the British possessions, protectorates and protected states outside the principal registration area, in respect of which the same registrable particulars of criminals may be recorded with the approval of the Yang di-Pertuan Negara under section 5 of the Ordinance.

Clause 2 of the Bill gives effect to these intentions by deleting the definition of "scheduled territories", and amending the definition of "principal registration area" to include only Singapore and the Federation of Malaya.

The opportunity has also been taken in clause 2 to make a consequential amendment to the definition of "registrable particulars", due to the inclusion in the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Bill, which was before the Assembly today, of a provision to take into account outstanding offences in sentencing an accused person.

The Government of the Federation of Malaya has also agreed to the continuation of the system of a single Criminal Records Office located in Kuala Lumpur. As the Registrar of Criminals would almost certainly, under the present arrangements, be a Federation officer, it is therefore necessary that this Government's statutory powers under section 3 of the Registration of Criminals Ordinance to appoint a Registrar of Criminals should be amended to provide for the appointment of a Federation officer to be the Registrar of Criminals.

Clause 3 of the Bill, therefore, enables the Yang di-Pertuan Negara, with the concurrence of the Government of the Federation of Malaya, to appoint a Federation officer to be a Registrar of Criminals or an Assistant Registrar for the purposes of this Ordinance.

Clause 4 of the Bill amends section 9 of the Registration of Criminals Ordinance to empower the Police to take, in addition to finger-print impressions, the photograph of a convicted person where such a photograph has not already been taken under the provisions of that Ordinance.

Clauses 5 and 6 introduce amendments which are merely consequential to the amendments introduced in clause 2 of the Bill.

Sir, I beg to move.

[Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr G. KANDASAMY) in the Chair]

Question put, and agreed to.

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

Assembly immediately resolved into a Committee on the Bill. -[Mr Ong Pang Boon].

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