Transport Safety Investigation Bureau of Singapore
8.—(1) A Government department called the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau of Singapore or TSIB is established by this section.
(2) The TSIB consists of the following personnel:(a)
the Director;
(b)
such other public officers as are necessary for the proper functioning of the department;
(c)
every employee of a public authority performing duties in the TSIB under a secondment arrangement making available temporarily to the Government the services of the employee in connection with the performance of the TSIB’s functions;
(d)
every consultant engaged by the Government for the purposes of any investigation into transport occurrences or any TSIB function.
(3) When performing services for the TSIB under a secondment arrangement under subsection (2), the employee of the public authority concerned is subject to the directions of the Director.
Functions of TSIB
9.—(1) The function of the TSIB is to improve transport safety by means that include the following:(a)
receiving and assessing reports of reportable matters, and other safety information that is prescribed;
(b)
independently investigating transport occurrences;
(c)
reporting publicly on those investigations;
(d)
identifying factors that —(i)
contribute, or have contributed, to transport occurrences; or
(ii)
affect, or might affect, transport safety;
(e)
communicating those factors to relevant sectors of the transport industry and the public in any way, including in any one or more of the following ways:(i)
by making safety action statements;
(ii)
by making safety recommendations;
(iii)
by issuing safety advisory notices;
(f)
conducting public educational programmes about matters relating to transport safety;
(g)
any other means as appear to the Director to be incidental, advantageous, necessary or convenient for the TSIB to carry on for or in connection with the performance of its functions and the discharge of its duties under this Act.
(2) In addition, the TSIB has the following functions:(a)
cooperating and coordinating with a public authority that has functions or powers relating to transport safety or functions affected by the TSIB’s function of improving transport safety;
(b)
cooperating and coordinating with an appropriate foreign authority, or any other body of a foreign country that has functions or powers relating to transport safety, including taking evidence on their behalf;
(c)
coordinating and directing all investigations mentioned in subsection (1)(b) and determining which other parties (if any) should be involved in such investigations;
(d)
doing anything incidental, advantageous, necessary or convenient to the TSIB’s function of improving transport safety.
(3) However, the following are not functions of the TSIB:(a)
to apportion blame for any transport occurrence;
(b)
to provide the means to determine the liability of any person in respect of any transport occurrence;
(c)
to assist in court proceedings or other proceedings between parties (except as provided by this Act, whether expressly or impliedly);
(d)
to allow any adverse inference to be drawn from the fact that a person was involved in a transport occurrence,
and even though blame or liability may be inferred, or an adverse inference may be made, by a person other than the TSIB, this does not prevent the TSIB or any of its personnel from carrying out its functions under this Act.
(4) To avoid doubt, subsection (3) does not prevent the prosecution of any offence under this Act.
(5) Nothing in this section imposes on the Director or the TSIB, directly or indirectly, any form of duty or liability enforceable by proceedings before any court to which the Director or the TSIB would not otherwise be subject.
International obligations
10.—(1) The Director must ensure that his or her powers and any investigator’s powers under this Act are exercised in a manner that is consistent with Singapore’s obligations under international agreements (as in force from time to time) that are identified by the regulations for the purpose of this section.
(2) In exercising powers under this Act, the Director must also have regard to any rules, recommendations, guidelines, codes or other instruments (as in force from time to time) that are promulgated by an international organisation which is, and that are, identified by the regulations for the purposes of this section.
Director of TSIB
11.—(1) There must be a Director of the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau of Singapore, who is an individual the Minister appoints from among the individuals mentioned in section 8(2)(b).
(2) The Minister may appoint an individual from among the individuals mentioned in section 8(2)(b) or (c) to act temporarily as the Director during any period, or during all periods, when the Director is, for any reason, unable to perform the duties of the office.
(3) Subject to subsection (4), the Director may delegate the exercise of all or any of the powers conferred or duties imposed upon the Director by any provision in this Act or the regulations to such TSIB staff member as the Director specifies in relation to that provision; and any reference in that provision to the Director includes a reference to such a TSIB staff member.
(4) Any delegation under subsection (3) may be general or in a particular case, and may be subject to such conditions or limitations as set out in this Act or as the Director may specify.
(5) However, nothing in subsection (3) authorises delegating the power of delegation conferred by that subsection.
