Legislative Assembly (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Ordinance

“Assembly” includes a committee and where the context so admits the Assembly House and the precincts thereof;

“Clerk” means the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly or such other person for the time being lawfully performing the functions of that office;

“committee” means a committee of the whole Assembly, or any sessional, select, or other committee of the Assembly;

“contempt” includes any breach of privilege of the Assembly and the commission of any offence mentioned in Part V of this Ordinance;

“court” includes the Industrial Arbitration Court established, and any Board of Inquiry appointed, under the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1960 (Ord. 20 of 1960);

“journals” means the votes and proceedings of the Assembly, the official reports or records of the proceedings thereof, and the minutes or records of the proceedings of any committee;

“member” means a member of the Assembly;

“officer of the Assembly” means the Clerk or any Clerk-Assistant of the Assembly, the Serjeant-at-Arms and such other officers or persons as may be appointed to the staff of the Assembly, and includes any person employed temporarily in the Assembly and any police officer acting under the orders of the Speaker, the Clerk or the Serjeant-at-Arms;

“police officer” has the same meaning as in the Police Force Ordinance, 1958 (Ord. 32 of 1958);

“Speaker” means the Speaker and, in his absence, the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and includes any other member when such other member is presiding at a sitting of the Assembly or a committee of the whole Assembly;

“Standing Orders” means the Standing Orders of the Assembly for the time being in force;

“stranger” means any person who is not a member or officer of the Assembly.

No person shall offer any fee, gift, compensation, profit, reward, loan, consideration or other advantage whatsoever —

Any person mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) of this section who demands or accepts any such fee, gift, compensation, profit, reward, loan, consideration or other advantage shall be guilty of an offence.

On the conviction of any person for an offence under this section the court shall in addition to any penalty which it may impose in terms of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section 35 of this Ordinance order that the value of the fee, gift, compensation, profit, reward, loan, consideration or other advantage, which is the subject of such offence, shall be paid by the recipient into the Consolidated Fund.

Any person who contravenes any of the provisions of this Ordinance shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —

Any person who attempts to contravene any provision of this Ordinance or abets the contravention of any such provision shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to the penalty to which he would have been liable for a contravention of the provision itself.

Save as is otherwise expressly provided in the Singapore (Constitution) Order in Council, 1958, and in this Ordinance, the privileges, immunities and powers of the Assembly and of the Speaker, members and committees shall be the same as those for the time being held, enjoyed or exercised by the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom or the Speaker, members or committees thereof.

Such privileges, immunities and powers shall for all purposes be construed and have effect as if such privileges, immunities and powers were prescribed by this Ordinance, and it shall not be necessary in any proceedings to plead the same but the same shall be judicially noticed in all the courts.

Subject to the provisions of this Ordinance, upon any inquiry touching the privileges, immunities and powers of the Assembly or of the Speaker or of any member or committee, any copy of the Journals of the Commons House of Parliament of the United Kingdom, or of any record or official report of the proceedings or debates thereof or of any committee thereof, which has been printed or purports to have been printed by the order or by the printer of the Commons House aforesaid, shall be admitted as evidence in all courts and places without proof of its being such copy or that such copy was so printed.

No member shall be liable to any civil or criminal proceedings, arrest, imprisonment, or damages by reason of any matter or thing which he may have brought before the Assembly or a committee by petition, bill, resolution, motion, or otherwise or may have said in the Assembly or in committee.

No person shall be liable to any civil or criminal proceedings, arrest, imprisonment or damages by reason of any act done under the authority of the Assembly or the Speaker and within its or his legal powers or under any warrant issued by virtue of those powers.

It shall not be lawful to require the Speaker or any member or officer of the Assembly —

The production of a certificate signed by the Speaker or the chairman of the committee shall be deemed sufficient proof of attendance on the Assembly or the committee.

An order to attend or to produce any paper, book, record or document before the Assembly or before any committee shall be notified to the person required to attend or produce such paper, book, record or document by a summons under the hand of the Clerk issued by direction of the Speaker.

In every such summons there shall be stated the time when and the place where the person summoned is required to attend and the particular documents which he is required to produce, and the summons shall be served on the person mentioned therein, either by delivering to him a copy thereof or by leaving a copy thereof at his usual or last known place of abode in Singapore with some adult person.

Such summons may be served by an officer of the Assembly or by a police officer.

Without prejudice to the provisions of section 16 of this Ordinance and subject to the provisions of subsection (3) of this section, no person who gives evidence before the Assembly or any committee shall be liable to any civil or criminal proceedings, arrest, imprisonment or damages by reason of anything which he may have said in such evidence.

Except in proceedings referred to in subsection (3) of this section, no statement made by any person in evidence before the Assembly or any committee shall be admissible in evidence against that person in any civil or criminal proceedings or in any court.

Nothing in subsections (1) and (2) of this section shall prevent or be deemed to prevent the institution or maintenance of any proceedings against any person for perjury or for any offence under this Ordinance in respect of any evidence given by him before the Assembly or any committee.

For any dishonourable conduct, abuse of privilege or contempt, on the part of a member, the Assembly may —

For any contempt on the part of a stranger, the Assembly may —

If it is alleged or appears that any person has committed any offence mentioned in section 20 of this Ordinance, the Assembly may —

If on the report of the select committee to which a matter has been referred under the provisions of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section, the Assembly is satisfied that any person is guilty of any offence mentioned in section 20 of this Ordinance, the Assembly may —

Nothing in this Ordinance shall be taken to prohibit the Assembly from punishing in one session or in one Assembly offences which have been committed in another.

Where the Assembly considers that an offender has not been punished or not been sufficiently punished in one session or in one Assembly by reason of the early ending of a session he may again be dealt with in the next session or Assembly until the Assembly is satisfied.

Any fine imposed by the Assembly under the provisions of this Ordinance shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

The State Advocate-General may sue for and recover in any civil court of competent jurisdiction any such fine as though such fine were a debt due to the Crown, and any sums recovered in such proceedings shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

An order to attend before the Assembly to be informed of or to receive any punishment which the Assembly has decided to inflict upon any person shall be notified to such person by a summons under the hand of the Clerk issued by the direction of the Speaker.

In every such summons there shall be stated the time when and the place where the person summoned is required to attend and the summons shall be served on the person mentioned therein either by delivering to him a copy thereof or by leaving a copy thereof at his usual or last known place of abode in Singapore with some adult person.

Such summons may be served by an officer of the Assembly or by a police officer.

If a person to whom a summons under section 13 or 25 of this Ordinance is directed does not attend at the time and place mentioned therein, the Speaker may, upon being satisfied that the summons was duly served, issue a warrant to apprehend him and to bring him, at a time to be stated in the warrant, before the Assembly or committee.

A warrant issued under this section shall be deemed to have been issued and shall be executed by a police officer in the same manner as a warrant issued under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 132).

The Speaker on issuing a warrant under this section may, if he thinks fit, by endorsement on the warrant, direct that the person named in the warrant be released after arrest on his entering into such a recognisance before a Magistrate for his appearance before the Assembly or committee as may be required in the endorsement.

Any person so arrested shall be brought before the Assembly as soon as possible and until so brought or until released under the provisions of subsection (3) of this section or by order of the Speaker, shall be detained in any prison.

A member who has been suspended from the service of the Assembly shall withdraw from the Assembly and the precincts thereof and shall not enter or remain therein while such suspension remains in force.

If any such member is found within the Assembly or the precincts thereof in contravention of subsection (1) of this section, he may be forcibly removed therefrom by an officer of the Assembly or a police officer.

No salary or allowance payable to such member for his service as a member of the Assembly shall be paid in respect of any period during which he is suspended from the service of the Assembly.