How breaches of privilege here and abroad have been dealt with

Deliberately misleading Parliament or an equivalent lawmaking body is an offence in most jurisdictions with a parliamentary system of government such as Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.

This may be considered an abuse of parliamentary privilege or contempt of Parliament, with penalties ranging from fines to expulsion or suspension to even jail time, depending on severity.

The most serious cases can see MPs facing criminal prosecution after having their privileges revoked.

In Australia, former MP Barry Urban is awaiting sentencing for fraud and forgery after being found guilty of abuse of privilege.

He had misled the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, which is the Lower House of the Parliament of Western Australia, about his educational qualifications and history of service in the police force.

The Legislative Assembly's Procedure and Privileges Committee recommended his expulsion from the Legislative Assembly and revocation of his privileges, but he resigned before the report was submitted.

In Malaysia, parliamentary privilege does not protect MPs from charges under the Sedition Act.

In 1982, MP Mark Koding was charged with sedition over a parliamentary speech in which he had called for the closure of Chinese and Tamil schools.

In Singapore, the last MP to be taken to task by a Committee of Privileges for abuse of privilege was former Workers' Party (WP) leader J.B. Jeyaretnam.

Four complaints involving him were referred to the committee during his term of office as MP for Anson - one in 1982 and three in 1986.

He was twice fined $1,000 and received a $25,000 fine for contempt of Parliament after publishing distorted reports of the committee's proceedings in a series of newsletters to Anson residents.

Mr Jeyaretnam's transgressions in 1986 were considered serious, which included accusations that the Government had tampered with the judiciary on multiple occasions, and of the police abusing their powers of detention.

But he could not be given penalties other than fines because the committee made its recommendations only in 1987, after he had stepped down as MP.

The committee can also recommend that Parliament take actions against non-MPs.

In 1987, Mr Jeyaretnam - no longer an MP - was fined $10,000 for contempt of Parliament in his capacity as editor of the WP's newsletter, The Hammer, which was said to have contained distorted reports of the committee's proceedings.

The WP's executive committee was fined $5,000 as the publisher of The Hammer, and the printer of the newsletter was reprimanded and warned by then Parliament Speaker Yeoh Ghim Seng.

The most recent matter referred to the Committee of Privileges here was in 1996 and involved four members of the Singapore Democratic Party, none of whom was an MP.

Then Minister for Health George Yeo filed a complaint against Dr Chee Soon Juan, Mr S. Kunalen, Mr Wong Hong Toy and Mr Kwan Yue Keng, accusing them of fabricating data and presenting false or untrue documents with the intent to deceive a Select Committee on government healthcare expenditure.

The four men were found guilty of contempt of Parliament.

Dr Chee was fined $25,000, Mr Wong was fined $13,000, Mr Kunalen was fined $8,000 and Mr Kwan was fined $5,000.