Offences by bodies corporate, etc.
Open ↗16.—(1) Where an offence under this Act committed by a body corporate is proved —(a)
to have been committed with the consent or connivance of an officer; or
(b)
to be attributable to any neglect on the officer’s part,
the officer as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(2) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (1) applies in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with the member’s functions of management as if the member were a director of the body corporate.
(3) Where an offence under this Act committed by a partnership is proved —(a)
to have been committed with the consent or connivance of a partner; or
(b)
to be attributable to any neglect on the partner’s part,
the partner as well as the partnership shall be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(4) Where an offence under this Act committed by an unincorporated association (other than a partnership) is proved —(a)
to have been committed with the consent or connivance of an officer of the unincorporated association or a member of its governing body; or
(b)
to be attributable to any neglect on the part of that officer or member,
the officer or member as well as the unincorporated association shall be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(5) In this section —“body corporate” includes a limited liability partnership which has the meaning given by section 2(1) of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2005;
“officer” —(a)
in relation to a body corporate, means any director, partner, member of the committee of management, chief executive, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate and includes any person purporting to act in any such capacity; or
(b)
in relation to an unincorporated association (other than a partnership), means the president, the secretary, or any member of the committee of the unincorporated association, or any person holding a position analogous to that of president, secretary or member of a committee and includes any person purporting to act in any such capacity;
“partner” includes a person purporting to act as a partner.
(6) The Minister may, by regulations, provide for the application of any provision of this section, with the modifications that the Minister considers appropriate, to any body corporate or unincorporated association formed or recognised under the law of a territory outside Singapore.
Protection from liability
Open ↗17.—(1) No action, suit or other legal proceedings shall lie against the Government or personally against the Director‑General, the Registrar, a Registry officer, an agent of the Registry, an investigation officer or any other person for anything done or omitted to be done in good faith in the course of or in connection with —(a)
the exercise or purported exercise of any power under this Act;
(b)
the performance or purported performance of any function or the discharge or purported discharge of any duty under this Act; or
(c)
the compliance or purported compliance with this Act.[Act 11 of 2023 wef 01/05/2023]
(2) A person who makes a notification to the Registrar under section 6 or who otherwise makes available to the Registrar, a Registry officer, an agent of the Registry or an investigation officer any document or other information for the purpose of complying with the requirements of this Act, shall not, by virtue of doing so —(a)
be liable to any suit or other legal proceedings for breach of confidence; or
(b)
be held in any proceedings before any court or tribunal or in any other respect to have breached any code of professional etiquette or ethics, or to have departed from any accepted form of professional conduct.
(3) Where pursuant to this Act the Registrar discloses to any person any information that is held by the Registry, neither the Registrar nor any Registry officer involved in the disclosure of the information shall be liable for any loss or damage suffered by that person or by any other person by reason of any error or omission of any nature appearing in the information disclosed or however caused if the error or omission was made in good faith and in the ordinary course of the discharge of the duties of the Registrar or Registry officer.
Obstructing Registrar, Registry officer, etc., in execution of duty
Open ↗18. Any person who obstructs, hinders or impedes the Registrar, a Registry officer or an agent of the Registry in the performance or execution of his or her duty or anything which he or she is authorised, empowered or required to do under this Act 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 6 months or to both.
Jurisdiction of court
Open ↗19. Despite any provision to the contrary in the Criminal Procedure Code 2010, a District Court has jurisdiction to try any offence under this Act and has power to impose the full penalty or punishment in respect of the offence.
Composition of offences
Open ↗20.—(1) The Director‑General may compound any offence under this Act that is prescribed as a compoundable offence by collecting from the person reasonably suspected of having committed that offence a sum not exceeding the lower of the following —(a)
one half of the amount of the maximum fine prescribed for that offence;
(b)
$5,000.[Act 11 of 2023 wef 01/05/2023]
(2) On payment of the sum of money mentioned in subsection (1), no further proceedings may be taken against that person in respect of the offence.
(3) All sums collected under this section must be paid into the Consolidated Fund.
General exemption
Open ↗21.—(1) The Minister may, by order in the Gazette, either permanently or for such period as the Minister may think fit, exempt any person or class of persons from all or any of the provisions of this Act.
(2) The Minister may, when granting an exemption under subsection (1), impose such conditions as the Minister thinks fit.
Amendment of Schedule
Open ↗22. The Minister may, by order in the Gazette, amend the Schedule.
Regulations
Open ↗23.—(1) The Minister may make regulations for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act.
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), the Minister may make regulations with respect to all or any of the following matters:(a)
the circumstances under and the manner in which individually‑identifiable information held by the Registry may be anonymised for the purposes of disclosure and publication under section 9;
(b)
the circumstances under and the manner in which persons whose individually‑identifiable information is held by the Registry, or the next‑of‑kin of those persons, may be contacted for the purposes of any national public health programme mentioned in section 10;
(c)
the circumstances under and the manner in which individually‑identifiable information held by the Registry may be disclosed for the purposes of any medical, epidemiological or other form of public health research mentioned in section 12;
(d)
the circumstances under and the manner in which a person may obtain certified extracts of individually‑identifiable information relating to himself or herself;
(e)
the forms to be used for the purposes of this Act;
(f)
the fees and charges payable under or for the purposes of this Act;
(g)
the offences which may be compounded under section 20;
(h)
any other matter as may be necessary or expedient to be prescribed for carrying out the provisions of this Act.
(3) The Minister may, in making any regulations, provide that any contravention of or failure to comply with any regulation shall be an offence punishable with a fine not exceeding $10,000 or with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or with both.
Saving provision for personal information previously collected
Open ↗24.—(1) As from the date on which any disease becomes a reportable disease for the purposes of this Act —(a)
any personal information that had already been collected by a specified entity before that date pertaining to a person who had been diagnosed with or who had undergone treatment for that disease for the purposes of a national disease registry is deemed to be personal information that has been collected under and for the purposes of this Act in relation to that reportable disease; and
(b)
any person who had made a notification of any such personal information to the specified entity before that date is entitled to the same protection from liability under section 17(2) as if the person had made the notification under section 6 on or after that date.
(2) In subsection (1), “specified entity” means any entity that is declared by the Minister by notification in the Gazette to be a specified entity for the purposes of this section.
Source: Singapore Statutes Online (Attorney-General's Chambers), © Government of Singapore.
