ARCHITECTS BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for National Development (Mr S. Dhanabalan): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Sir, I introduced this Bill last year during the Second Session of the Seventh Parliament. We had the Second Reading in December last year at which I explained in detail the objective and provisions of the Bill. The Bill lapsed because Parliament prorogued on 29th January 1991 and I had to re-introduce the Bill at this Session of Parliament. I do not want to repeat all that I said during the Second Reading in December last year. Let me summarise very briefly the main objective of this Bill.

The Architects Bill will repeal and re-enact, with changes, the existing Architects Act (Cap. 12). The Bill is to permit registered architects to team up with allied professionals to form multi-discipline partnerships and limited liability companies. This is to meet the needs of today's large and complex development projects which require integrated design inputs from a team of architects, engineers and allied professionals. Sufficient safeguards have been incorporated in the Bill to protect public interest and to ensure that commercial considerations do not compromise the professionalism of incorporated consultancy firms. The Bill marks an important milestone for the course of professional practice in our construction industry.

Mr Speaker, Sir, when I moved this Bill before this House in December 1990, it was resolved that the Bill be committed to a Select Committee so that professional groups and individuals in the construction industry would be given the opportunity to present their views on the new provisions which affect them. Two other related Bills, namely the Professional Engineers Bill and the Land Surveyors Bill, were also committed to the same Select Committee.

The Select Committee received 14 written representations from the public on the three Bills before Parliament was prorogued.

I propose to refer the Bill to a Select Committee consisting of Mr Speaker as Chairman and the same Members as the last Select Committee. I also propose that the written representations already received be considered by the Select Committee together with any new representations that may be submitted.

Sir, I have discussed this with my colleague, the Minister for Law and he will be moving, at the end of the Second Reading of the Land Surveyors Bill, a motion to enable the new Select Committee to consider all the representations received by the last Select Committee.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved,

That the Architects Bill be committed to a Select Committee consisting of Mr Speaker as Chairman and the following Members:

Mr Chng Hee Kok

Mr Lim Chee Onn

Dr Low Seow Chay

Mr S. Dhanabalan

Prof. S. Jayakumar

Encik Zulkifli bin Mohammed. - [Mr S. Dhanabalan].