Amended act now allows sharing of criminal records with foreign law agencies
TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — While Members of Parliament (MPs) generally supported changes to the Registration of Criminals Act passed on Monday (Feb 29) to allow information on the criminal register to be shared with foreign law enforcement agencies, some of them raised concerns that such information may be abused.
Under the amended Act, foreign law enforcement agencies may now request information about an individual — such as his or her particulars, fingerprints, photographs, and conviction records — for investigation-related purposes.
This move abides by the internationally accepted principle of reciprocity, and will allow Singapore’s law enforcement agencies to similarly ask for and receive such information from foreign counterparts. Such exchanges are “essential” to international cooperation in Singapore’s crime control and border security efforts, especially since transnational organised crime and terrorism continue to pose a growing threat globally, Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Lee said.
“As a global and financial transport hub, Singapore is a potential target for organised crime and terrorist groups, and a possible conduit for their activities. In order to tackle this trend more effectively, governments and law enforcement agencies around the world need to cooperate more closely and intensively,” he added.
MP Ang Wei Neng (Jurong GRC) and Opposition MP Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) sought greater clarity on safeguards relating to how information would be shared.
Mr Ang mentioned that after the European Union adopted the European Criminal Records Information System, which allows the courts and law enforcement agencies to obtain criminal records from other member states, the experiences of Britons showed that they were denied a shot at “sensitive” jobs such as teachers and policemen. On the other hand, migrants from other member states could go to England and apply for these jobs because their home countries “wiped the slate clean” and did not keep records of “low-level offences”.
In response, Mr Lee reiterated that in Singapore, information would be disclosed only in relation to an investigation of a “foreign offence”.
The amended Act defines this as an act which, if committed in Singapore, would amount to an offence punishable with a jail term exceeding 12 months.
“This is to ensure that information is not disclosed for non-serious matters,” Mr Lee said, adding that requests unrelated to the prevention and combating of crime and terrorism, such as employment screening, would be denied.
The Act also requires the foreign law enforcement agency to undertake to protect the confidentiality of the information it receives and to ensure that unauthorised persons have no access to it, Mr Lee added.
The Head of Criminal Records Office in Singapore, which has custody of such information on the criminal register, may refuse requests if an agency fails to comply by this and further conditions that may be imposed on it. Requests made in a “broad or tenuous manner” will not be processed.
While the amendments allow law enforcement agencies to take particulars and body samples from a person on bail and under investigation — as opposed to after he or she is arrested — such information will be recorded in the register only after the individual has been convicted.
“If there is subsequent acquittal or when a conviction is rendered spent, then the record will be deleted. This will not unduly compromise a person whose trial takes a longer time,” Mr Lee said.
