Singapore legislation
Section 23
Section 23
Powers of entry and inspection
(1)
An inspecting officer may exercise all or any of the powers in this section for the purpose of ascertaining whether any requirement of the Act is being complied with.
(2)
An inspecting officer may —
enter and inspect any premises which are used or which the inspecting officer has reasonable cause to believe are used for the purposes of an establishment for massage;
photograph or film, or make a record or sketches of, any part of the premises, or any person or thing at the premises;
require any person on those premises to produce or grant access to, without charge, any document, information or article reasonably required for any purpose in subsection (1), which is in the possession or under the control of that person;
inspect and make copies of, or take extracts from, any such document or article;
subject to section 24(6), take possession of such a document or article if, in the opinion of the inspecting officer —
the inspection or copying of or extraction from the document or article cannot reasonably be performed without taking possession;
the document or article may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
the document or article may be required as evidence in any proceedings instituted or commenced under this Act.
(3)
The power to require a person to produce or grant access to any document, information or article under subsection (2)(c) includes the power —
to require the person, or any person who is or was an officer or employee of that person, to explain the document, information or article;
if the document, information or article is not provided, to require the person to state, to the best of the person’s knowledge and belief, where it is; and
if the document, information or article is recorded otherwise than in legible form, to require the document, information or article to be made available to the inspecting officer in legible form.
(4)
For the purposes of subsection (2), if any document or information required by an inspecting officer is kept in electronic form —
the power of the inspecting officer to inspect the document or to obtain the information includes the power to —
access any computer or other equipment (including a mobile telephone) in which the document or information is stored; and
require any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer or equipment to provide assistance in gaining such access; and
the power of the inspecting officer to seize such document includes the power —
to make copies of the document in legible or electronic form; and
to transfer the information from the document to a disk, tape or other storage device.
(5)
If the inspecting officer under subsection (4)(b) is unable to make copies of the document or transfer the information from the document, the Licensing Officer or a police officer (whether or not the same inspecting officer) may —
subject to section 24(6), seize the computer or other equipment (including a mobile telephone) in which the document or information is stored, as evidence in proceedings for an offence under this Act; and
require any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer or equipment to disclose any password or access code for gaining access to the document or information held in the computer or equipment.
(6)
Nothing in this section or section 24 or 25 derogates from the powers of a police officer under the Criminal Procedure Code 2010.