HAWKER/CANTEEN STALL LICENCES (Number of applications)

Mdm Ho Geok Choo asked the Minister for the Environment (a) what is the number of applications for hawker/canteen stall licences from 2000 till now; (b) how many of such applications have been successful and what are the criteria for success; and (c) what is the average waiting time for the issue of such licences.

The Minister of State for the Environment (Dr Balaji Sadasivan) (for the Minister for the Environment): Mr Speaker, Sir, the National Environment Agency (NEA) issues licences for stall holders to operate their stalls. This means a person has to secure a stall first before he applies to NEA for a licence, be it a hawker centre, canteen, coffee shop, or food court.

Between January 2000 and July 2002, a total of 16,458 new licences were issued for stalls in hawker centres, food courts, coffeeshops and canteens. 788 licences were issued for cooked food stalls and 1,060 licences for market stalls in the various ENV and HDB hawker centres and wet markets. Another 13,620 licences were issued to stall holders in food courts and coffeeshops, and another 990 licences for school canteens.

A licence to operate a stall is issued to the applicant after he has been inoculated against typhoid, passed a TB screening test if he is above 45 years old, and attended and passed a basic food hygiene course. Licences are usually issued to the applicants within the same day if documents are produced to show satisfactory compliance. During the period January 2000 to July 2002, only two out of 16,460 applicants did not meet the requirements because they failed their TB screening test.