Requirement to provide information
32.—(1) Subject to sections 33 and 34, the Director‑General, Food Security may require a person —(a)
who —(i)
is an agri‑food supply chain participant; or
(ii)
is closely connected with an agri‑food supply chain; and
(b)
who falls within any class of persons prescribed in the Part 2 Rules for the purposes of this section,
to provide information to the Director‑General, Food Security, within a reasonable period specified in that requirement.
(2) For the purpose of subsection (1), a person is “closely connected” with an agri‑food supply chain if the person is any of the following:(a)
anybody providing, to any person mentioned in subsection (1)(a)(i), goods or services related to —(i)
the health of food producing animals, or plants, involved in the agri‑food supply chain; or
(ii)
the safety or quality of any food to be provided to the ultimate consumers;
(b)
any person carrying on activities capable of affecting a matter mentioned in paragraph (a)(i) or (ii);
(c)
any body representing persons mentioned in subsection (1) or paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection.
(3) To avoid doubt, it does not matter whether the person required under subsection (1) is subject to a minimum stockholding requirement in relation to an MSR product.
(4) However, subsection (1) does not apply in relation to individuals in an agri‑food supply chain so far as they are in the agri‑food supply chain by reason of them, or members of their households, being the ultimate consumers.
(5) In giving a requirement under this section, it is not necessary for the Director‑General, Food Security to give any person who may be affected by the requirement a chance to be heard before the requirement is given.
(6) A requirement under this section is binding on the person to whom it is addressed and given, and that person is bound to state truly what the person is required.
Subject information of section 32 requirement
33.—(1) The power in section 32 may be exercised only in relation to any information —(a)
about matters relating to a person’s activities connected with the agri‑food supply chain so far as the activities are in or relate to Singapore;
(b)
which the Director‑General, Food Security considers necessary for all or any of the following purposes:(i)
to determine what is an MSR product and the MSR activity for an MSR product, and holdings of an MSR product;
(ii)
to determine whether there are grounds to exercise any power under section 23, 24, 25, 26 or 27, or under any other provision of this Act directed at mitigating the impact on Singapore of agri‑food supply chain disruptions or the impact of disruptive events on the supply of food or agri‑food production inputs in Singapore;
(iii)
to monitor or analyse markets connected with agri‑food supply chains;
(iv)
to monitor the resilience of the agri‑food supply chain in response to natural or man‑made disasters, climate change, severe disturbances in agricultural markets and other disruptions in the supply of food and agri‑food production inputs; and
(c)
that is —(i)
within the knowledge of the person to whom a requirement under section 32 is given; or
(ii)
in the custody or under the control of that person.
(2) However, nothing in this section requires a person to provide any information subject to legal privilege.
Other content of section 32 requirement
34. A requirement under section 32 must specify —(a)
the purpose or purposes for which the required information is required;
(b)
how and when the required information is to be provided, including (in particular) —(i)
the form in which it is to be provided;
(ii)
the means by which it is to be provided; and
(iii)
the time or times at which, or by when, it is to be provided; and
(c)
that it is an offence under this Act to fail to comply with the requirement.
Limits to disclosure of information provided due to section 32 requirement
35.—(1) Subsection (2) applies to —(a)
the Director‑General, Food Security to whom any information is provided because of a requirement under section 32; and
(b)
a Singapore public sector agency or other person to whom the information is disclosed by or under the authority of the Director‑General, Food Security under this section.
(2) Information provided because of a requirement under section 32 must not be disclosed to a person who is not a Singapore public sector agency —(a)
except as required by an order of court, or for the purposes of any criminal proceedings for an offence under this Part or any Part 2 Rules; or
(b)
except in an anonymised form, for any other purposes.
(3) If —(a)
a person discloses, or the person’s conduct causes disclosure of, information provided because of a requirement under section 32;
(b)
the disclosure is not authorised by this section; and
(c)
the person does so —(i)
knowing that the disclosure is not authorised by this section; or
(ii)
reckless as to whether the disclosure is or is not authorised by this section,
the person shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.
(4) In proceedings for an offence under subsection (3), it is a defence for the person charged to prove, on a balance of probabilities, any of the following:(a)
the information was, at the time of its disclosure by the person charged, information that consists of readily observable matter, including information that consists of deductions, conclusions or inferences made or drawn from readily observable matter;
(b)
the person charged disclosed or caused the disclosure of information as authorised or required by an order of court.
(5) In subsection (2), “anonymised form”, for any information or particulars, means any form that will not identify, and is not reasonably capable of being used to identify, any person to whom the information or particulars relate.
(6) To avoid doubt, this section does not affect the authorisation to share any information under the control of a Singapore public sector agency with another Singapore public sector agency to the extent permitted by any data sharing direction given under the Public Sector (Governance) Act 2018.
Compliance and non-compliance with section 32
36.—(1) Where —(a)
any information which is required by a section 32 requirement to be given to the Director‑General, Food Security is not given or is not given within the time delimited in the requirement; or
(b)
information which is required by a section 32 requirement to be given to the Director‑General, Food Security is given to the Director‑General, Food Security, but the information does not comply with the requirements of section 34(b) as regards the form of the information,
then the person required to give the information shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) A person who is guilty of an offence under subsection (1) shall be liable on conviction —(a)
where the person is an individual — to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to both; or
(b)
where the person is not an individual — to a fine not exceeding $10,000.
(3) Subsection (1) does not apply if the person required to give the information has a reasonable excuse.
(4) The ordinary meaning of “reasonable excuse” is affected by section 258.
Source: Singapore Statutes Online (Attorney-General's Chambers), © Government of Singapore.
