REGISTRATION OF CRIMINALS (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read. 5.41 p.m.

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

The Registration of Criminals Act provides for the registration of persons who are convicted of certain crimes in Singapore or Malaysia. The crimes are listed in the First and Second Schedules to the Act. Persons who are ordered to be banished, expelled or deponed tom Singapore or Malaysia are also registrable.

Under the existing section 7 of the Act, the Commissioner of Police has the power to dispense with registration where an accused person has been convicted of an offence included in the Second Schedule to the Act and sentenced to a fine not exceeding $25. In the light of inflation, this sum is derisory. Clause 2 of the Bill, therefore, seeks to amend this section to increase the limit to $1,000. It is also intended that the Commissioner of Police be given a wider discretionary power to dispense with registration.

There are many obsolete references in the existing Part II of the First and Second Schedules to the Act which have resulted from revision of other laws in the past. Clause 3 of the Bill seeks to repeal and re-enact Part II of the First and Second Schedules with up-to-date references.

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 Chua Sian Chin].

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