The gist: NRIC issue aired in Parliament; Bills on workplace fairness and food safety passed
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A review is ongoing to find out how full NRIC numbers came to be revealed on Acra’s recently launched business portal.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
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SINGAPORE – The public disclosure of NRIC numbers on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority’s (Acra) Bizfile portal in December was aired in Parliament on Jan 8.
MPs had filed 51 questions to seek accountability for the incident
Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo and Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah each delivered a ministerial statement in response.
MPs also passed a Bill on workplace fairness and another to bolster Singapore’s food safety and security.
Here are the key takeaways:
Ministerial statements on NRIC unmasking incident
A review is ongoing to find out how full NRIC numbers came to be revealed on Acra’s recently launched business portal. It will also look into the Government’s policy on the responsible use of NRIC numbers, Ms Indranee said.
The review panel, led by civil service head Leo Yip, is expected to complete its work in February.
Mrs Teo also said NRIC numbers remain a form of personal data, and should be collected and used only when necessary.
Organisations that collect NRIC numbers still have a duty of care and must notify and seek consent on the use of the data and protect it, she said, adding: “These are existing guidelines that will not change.”
Why it matters:
Between Dec 9 and Dec 13, some Singaporeans had their full NRIC numbers made available on Acra’s Bizfile.
The issue caused public alarm and the number of searches on the portal spiked to 500,000 during the five-day period, instead of the usual daily traffic of 2,000 to 3,000 searches.
The Government subsequently apologised for the anxiety caused and explained that the error had resulted from a misunderstanding.
It also said it had intended to change the practice of masking NRIC numbers, but Acra’s new portal was launched before these plans were publicly announced.
This incident drew attention to the existing private sector practice of using NRIC numbers as a means of authentication, or as a default password to grant individuals access to privileged information or services.
Organisations should stop doing so as soon as possible, Mrs Teo said on Jan 8. She added that NRIC numbers are a means of identification, but should not be used to authenticate individuals.
Green light for proposed workplace fairness laws
Parliament passed a Bill to protect workers from discriminatory practices
The Bill is the first of two pieces of proposed legislation targeting workplace discrimination.
The second part, which will be tabled this year, will focus on claim procedures.
Why it matters:
This is Singapore’s first workplace fairness law.
The proposed legislation sets out corrective action against errant employers, making clear that basing employment decisions, such as in hiring, firing and appraisals, on certain specified characteristics is unlawful.
The characteristics listed under the Bill are nationality, age, sex, marital status, pregnancy status and caregiving responsibilities, as well as race, religion, language, disability and mental health conditions.
Discrimination based on these characteristics accounts for 95 per cent of workplace discrimination complaints made to the Manpower Ministry and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices.
READ MORE HERE: Landmark Bill tackling workplace discrimination passed in Parliament
Bill with stiffened penalties for food safety violations passed
There will soon be stronger overall maximum penalties for offences involving unsafe food
Currently, an offender who sells meat or fish that is unfit for human consumption could be fined up to $50,000, whereas he or she would only face a fine of up to $5,000 if it was some other food.
The Bill aligned the highest possible fine for the most serious food safety-related offences to $50,000 for corporate offenders.
Offenders whose licences have been revoked due to fraud or multiple food safety lapses will also be barred from holding new licences of the same type for up to three years.
Why it matters:
The FSSB consolidates and updates existing food-related legislation, which has been scattered across nine different Acts.
Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Koh Poh Koon told the House that the new laws are needed, as “the agri-food supply chain is getting increasingly complex, involving multiple stakeholders and more potential points of failure”.
“Before food reaches our tables, the base ingredients are very likely grown in multiple countries, processed in yet another country, and then packaged and distributed to supermarkets and retail food businesses locally,” he said.
If you have a few more minutes:
Installation of ERP on-board units to wrap up by 2026
The installation of the Electronic Road Pricing on-board units (OBUs)
Previously, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) had said this exercise will be completed by the end of 2025. The Straits Times has asked the Ministry of Transport about the delay.
Dr Khor said more than 217,000 vehicles have been fitted with OBUs as at Dec 31, 2024. LTA had said that 200,000 vehicles were expected to be fitted with the units by the end of 2024.
Smartphone application developers are encouraged to work with the LTA to create third-party apps that can use ERP 2.0 data. There are now three such apps available, in addition to the one by LTA.
Such apps serve as alternatives for motorists who opt out of installing the system’s touchscreen display in their vehicles.
Dr Khor said other features are being developed for the OBU, including reminders for motorists who miss their ERP payments. Motorists will also be able to pay for outstanding ERP fee amounts using the OBU.
All clear for Boeing 737-800 jets in Singapore
No anomalies or reliability issues were found in a check of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft registered here, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat told Parliament. The check was carried out after December’s fatal Jeju Air crash.
There are also no concrete structures near runways at Singapore’s airports similar to those involved in the accident in South Korea.
And all air navigation equipment located near runways here are designed to break off in the event of a collision, Mr Chee noted.
More than 25,000 Singaporeans tapped $4,000 SkillsFuture Credit top-up
As at Nov 30, 2024, more than 25,000 Singaporeans had used the $4,000 SkillsFuture Credit top-up
The top-up was announced at Budget 2024 and available for use from May 2024. It was meant to support mid-career Singaporeans as part of the new SkillsFuture Level-Up Programme to encourage this group to refresh their skills and progress in their careers.
Among those who used the top-up, the most popular area of training was in information and communication technologies, covering skills such as digital marketing and data visualisation, Ms Gan said.
