AGC revamps Singapore Statutes website to make it more accessible for public

SINGAPORE — The official online repository for all things to do with the law, Singapore Statutes Online, has been given a revamp as part of the Plain Laws Understandable by Singaporeans project, or Plus project.

In a media release on Monday (July 10), the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) said the revamp focused on what could be done to make Singapore’s written laws more accessible to the general public, and took into consideration feedback supplied by two online public surveys conducted by the AGC in November 2013 and September 2016.

The AGC has also rolled out a beta version of its new Singapore Statutes Online website (https://sso.agc.gov.sg) to give users time to transition to the new site and to also obtain feedback on its features and functionalities.

The Chief Legislative Counsel in AGC, Mrs Owi Beng Ki, said: “As keepers of the Singapore statute book, we are firmly committed to ensuring that our laws remain understandable and conveniently accessible to those to whom the laws apply.”

One of the biggest challenges, she added, was figuring how to present the complex information on the website logically and still intuitively enough “for the very varied users of our legislation”.

Since 2014, AGC has been progressively implementing changes in law drafting as part of its Plus initiatives. This includes writing in shorter sentences and simpler English — omitting words such as “hereby” or replacing certain words — and replacing Roman numerals, while new laws drafted in plain English as far as possible.

The AGC said the Plus initiatives are still on-going, adding that it welcomed feedback on these initiatives from the public through its website (https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Feedback).