ROAD TRAFFIC (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read. 4.44 p.m.

The Minister for Communications and Acting Minister for Culture (Mr Ong Teng Cheong): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

One way to improve the standard of driving in Singapore is to upgrade the level of teaching of driving instructors. This can be achieved through proper training and licensing of these instructors. The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill seeks to empower the Minister to make provisions for this.

Under the Bill, a driving instructor has been defined as a person who gives instruction in the driving of a motor vehicle for a fee or reward. From now on, no one will be allowed to give driving instruction unless he is duly licensed by the Registrar of Vehicles (ROV). Similarly, any person wishing to carry on the business of a driving school will have to be licensed by the ROV. Any person who breaches any of these provisions shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both.

The ROV will be empowered to grant a driving instructor licence or a driving school licence with or without conditions. He may suspend or revoke the driving instructor licence if he finds the driving instructor to be a person no longer fit and proper to hold the licence, for example, when the instructor acquires a bad driving record or misconducts himself.

A driving school owner will be required to employ only licensed instructors. The ROV will be empowered to collect a cash deposit from the holder of a driving school licence. All or part of this sum may be forfeited if any of the conditions of the licence is not complied with. He may also revoke the driving school licence if the driving school owner does not manage his school properly or breaches any of the Rules.

The Bill empowers the Minister to make rules requiring driving instructors to attend courses and to pass examinations, to regulate the conduct of driving instructors and activities of driving schools, to prescribe the kind of motor vehicles to be used when giving driving instruction, to regulate the form of records to be kept by driving instructors and driving schools, to impose conditions on licensing and to prescribe fees.

Over the past 18 months, the Registry of Vehicles has been conducting theoretical and practical lessons for driving instructors. Those who have completed the course successfully will be eligible to apply for a driving instructor licence. The licensing exercise is expected to commence in early 1980 when all the existing driving instructors, numbering about two thousand, have completed the training course.

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. [Mr Ong Teng Cheong].

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