Singapore legislation
Section 56
Section 56
Power to obtain information from employers
(1)
The Director may require employers in commerce and industry to furnish such returns and other information and to keep such records and produce them for examination as appear to the Director to be necessary for the purposes of this Act.
(2)
Subject to subsection (3), returns and other information furnished in pursuance of subsection (1) and any information obtained on an examination made in pursuance thereof shall not, without the consent of the employer to whose business the returns or information relate, be disclosed otherwise than to the Board or a committee appointed by the Board, or an officer of the Board or of such committee or any person entitled to take part in the proceedings of the Board.
(3)
Subsection (2) shall not apply —
to the disclosure of returns or information in the form of a summary of similar returns or information furnished by or obtained from a number of employers, if the summary is so framed as not to enable particulars relating to any individual business to be ascertained from it;
to any disclosure of information made for the purposes of any legal proceedings pursuant to this Act or any criminal proceedings, whether pursuant to this Act or not, or for the purposes of any report of any such proceedings.
(4)
A certificate purporting to be issued by or on behalf of the Director and stating that he has approved any kind of information, return or record for the purposes of subsection (2) shall in any legal proceedings be evidence of the facts stated in the certificate.
(5)
If any person fails to comply with any requisition made under subsection (1), he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $500 and on a second or subsequent conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000.
(6)
If any person —
knowingly or recklessly furnishes, in pursuance of any requisition made under subsection (1), any return or other information which is false in a material particular;
wilfully makes a false entry in any record required to be produced under subsection (1) or, with intent to deceive, makes use of any such entry which he knows to be false; or
discloses any information in contravention of subsection (3),he shall be guilty of an offence.