MINISTRY OF LAW

PROF S JAYAKUMAR Minister for Law

The Attorney-General's Chambers is helping the Law Revision Commission to prepare a Revised Edition of the Subsidiary Legislation of Singapore. This task is nearing completion. The Revised Edition is expected to be published by 1991, and will make subsidiary legislation easily accessible to the public and law practitioners.

We will be upgrading the standard of prosecution work in the Subordinate Courts by progressively replacing Police prosecutors with legally trained Deputy Public Prosecutors from the Attorney-General's Chambers.

By mid-1990, Government departments, law firms and the general public will be able to subscribe to Singapore Law Net, an electronic database containing the complete Revised Edition of the Singapore Statutes. Singapore Law Net will be expanded later to include Subsidiary Legislation. A case-management and litigation-support computer system will also be developed for use by the Attorney-General's Chambers.

The Trade Marks Act will be amended to revise the penalties provided for breaches of the Act, and to take account of changes in commercial practice which make it necessary to protect trade marks not only of goods, but also of services. The Registry of Trade Marks and Patents will introduce the registration of service marks at the end of 1990.

The Registry is reviewing our Patent Registration System to see how it can be improved to promote creativity and innovation, and to help Singapore develop into a centre of high technology.

The Land Data Sharing Network Project is progressing smoothly. This project involves other Ministries, Statutory Boards and government authorities which deal with land-related information. The Land Data Hub, commissioned in April 1990, will enable the Government to manage data on land from the various sources more efficiently.

The Lot Base System, a computerised inventory of land parcels and strata lots, will be in full operation by end 1990. The Registry of Titles and Deeds is computerising the registration and search of Land and Strata Titles under the Singapore Titles Automated Registration System (STARS) project. The Registry of Trade Marks and Patents will speed up the processing of trade marks applications by computerising its operations.

The Ministries of Law and Home Affairs and the Attorney-General's Chambers are studying possible legislation to protect computer data and combat computer crime.

The Survey Department is progressively implementing Surmap, a computerised system for storing digital maps. It has also set up the Micrographic Registry which provides the public with quality prints more quickly and cheaply.