National Registry of Diseases Bill

“agent of the Registry” means any public officer or employee of any statutory body who is appointed by the Director under section 3(3) to be an agent of the Registry;

“anonymised”, when used to describe information pertaining to an individual, means that the identity of that individual has been concealed or protected, whether by presenting such information in a statistical form or otherwise, such that it cannot be readily discovered or ascertained from that information;

“authorised Registry officer” means any Registry officer who is duly authorised by the Registrar in writing to carry out any particular function or to exercise any particular power under this Act;

“Director” means the Director of Medical Services;

“disclose”, in relation to any information held by the Registry, includes to grant to any person access to such information;

“disease” means any physical or mental ailment, disorder, defect or morbid condition (whether of sudden onset or gradual development), or the recurrence of any such ailment, disorder, defect or morbid condition;

“healthcare institution” means —

“individually-identifiable”, when used to describe information pertaining to an individual, means that the identity of that individual can be readily discovered or ascertained from that information;

“investigation officer” means any public officer who is appointed under section 13 to be an investigation officer for the purposes of this Act;

“manager”, in relation to a healthcare institution, means the person having the management or control of the healthcare institution;

“medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act (Cap. 174) and who holds a valid practising certificate;

“register” means a register kept and maintained by the Registrar under section 5;

“Registrar” means the person appointed by the Director under section 3 to be the Registrar of the Registry and includes a Deputy Registrar and an Assistant Registrar;

“Registry” means the National Registry of Diseases established under section 4;

“Registry officer” means any person who is appointed by the Director under section 3 to be an officer of the Registry;

“regulations” means regulations made under section 23;

“reportable disease” means a disease that is specified in the Schedule;

“requisite consent”, for the purposes of section 11 or 12, means —

The Director may, in writing, appoint any public officer to be an investigation officer for the purpose of conducting an investigation into any offence under this Act.

Every investigation officer, when exercising any of his powers under this Act, shall, if not in uniform, declare his office and shall, on demand, produce to any person affected by the exercise of that power such identification card as the Director may direct to be carried by the investigation officer when exercising such power.

An investigation officer shall, for the purposes of investigating any offence under this Act, have power to do any or all of the following:

The occupier or any person having the management and control of, or who is found in, any place mentioned in subsection (1)(a) shall render all necessary assistance and co-operation to the investigation officer as are necessary for an entry, inspection, examination, inquiry or otherwise for the exercise of his powers under this Act in relation to that place.

Any person who —

An investigation officer may —

The person referred to in subsection (1)(a) shall be bound to state truly the facts and circumstances with which he is acquainted concerning any offence or matter under this Act, except only that he may decline to make, with regard to any fact or circumstance, a statement which would have a tendency to expose him to a criminal charge, penalty or forfeiture.

A statement made under this section by any person shall be read over to him and shall, after correction, if necessary, be signed by him.

If any person fails to attend as required by an order under subsection (1)(b), the investigation officer may report such failure to a Magistrate who may thereupon issue a warrant to secure the attendance of that person as required by the order.

The Director shall, with the approval of the Minister, appoint a Registrar who shall be responsible for the administration of the Registry.

The Director may, with the approval of the Minister, appoint —

The Director may appoint any public officer or employee of any statutory body to be an agent of the Registry to assist in the collection and collation of any information under this Act, subject to such conditions and limitations as the Director may specify.

The Registrar, Deputy Registrar, Assistant Registrars, Registry officers and agents of the Registry shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of the Penal Code (Cap. 224).

The Registrar shall keep and maintain for each reportable disease a register containing individually-identifiable information of each person who is diagnosed with and treated for that disease in Singapore.

The registers kept and maintained under subsection (1) shall not be open for inspection by the public.

Where a person is diagnosed with or undergoes treatment for a reportable disease at a healthcare institution, the manager of the healthcare institution shall, in such form and within such time as may be prescribed, notify the Registrar of that fact.

Any manager of a healthcare institution who —

A certificate under the hand of the Registrar stating that a notification required under subsection (1) has not been furnished or is incorrect shall be prima facie evidence of the facts stated in the certificate.

Upon a notification being made to the Registrar under section 6, the Registrar or an authorised Registry officer may require the manager of the healthcare institution who made the notification to provide such additional information as may be prescribed concerning the person to whom the notification relates.

For the purpose of subsection (1), the Registrar or authorised Registry officer may require the manager of the healthcare institution —

Any manager of a healthcare institution who —

A certificate under the hand of the Registrar stating that the additional information required under subsection (1) has not been furnished or is incorrect shall be prima facie evidence of the facts stated in the certificate.

Except in the case of a prosecution for an offence under this Act, the Registrar, a Registry officer, an agent of the Registry or any other person who acts under the direction of the Director or Registrar for any purpose related to the Registry shall not be compellable in any proceedings to give evidence in respect of, or to produce any document containing, any individually-identifiable information which has been obtained under this Act.

Except as otherwise provided by this Act, the Registrar, a Registry officer, an agent of the Registry or any other person who acts under the direction of the Director or Registrar for any purpose related to the Registry shall not disclose the contents of any register or any individually-identifiable information which may have come to his knowledge in the course of performing any duty or function under this Act or carrying out any act in relation to the Registry.

Any person who fails to comply with subsection (2) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

The Registrar —

Any person who fails to comply with any condition imposed under subsection (1) 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.

The Registrar may, with the approval of the Director, disclose individually-identifiable information held by the Registry to any public officer or any other person for the purpose of conducting national public health programmes concerning any reportable disease.

In determining whether to approve such disclosure under subsection (1), the Director shall, subject to subsection (3), have regard to —

The Director shall not approve any disclosure under subsection (1) unless he is satisfied that the national public health programme cannot be carried out with anonymised information.

The Director may, when granting approval under subsection (1), impose such conditions as he considers necessary with respect to —

The Director may, at any time, vary or revoke any of the existing conditions imposed under subsection (4) or impose new conditions.

The Director may, at any time, revoke the approval given under subsection (1).

Any person who fails to comply with any condition imposed under subsection (4) or any new condition imposed under subsection (5) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

A person (referred to in this section as the researcher) who requires any individually-identifiable information held by the Registry for the purpose of carrying out any medical, epidemiological or other form of public health research concerning any reportable disease may apply to the Registrar in the prescribed form for the disclosure of such information.

The Registrar may, subject to such conditions as he thinks fit to impose and upon the payment by the researcher of such fees as may be prescribed, disclose to the researcher such individually-identifiable information if the Registrar is satisfied that —

A researcher to whom the individually-identifiable information of any person has been disclosed under subsection (2) shall not —

A researcher to whom the individually-identifiable information of any person has been disclosed under subsection (2) shall not disclose —

Before making any decision on an application under subsection (2), the Registrar may refer the application to a national research advisory committee comprising not less than 3 and not more than 5 members appointed by the Director and, in making his decision, the Registrar shall have regard to any report made to him by the national research advisory committee.

Where a researcher to whom any individually-identifiable information of any person has been disclosed under subsection (2) contravenes subsection (3) or (4) or any condition imposed under subsection (2), he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

Where an offence under this Act committed by a body corporate is proved —

Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (1) shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

Where an offence under this Act committed by a partnership is proved —

Where an offence under this Act committed by an unincorporated association (other than a partnership) is proved —

In this section —

“body corporate” includes a limited liability partnership which has the same meaning as in section 2(1) of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act (Cap. 163A);

“officer” —

“partner” includes a person purporting to act as a partner.

The Minister may, by regulations, provide for the application of any provision of this section, with such modifications as the Minister considers appropriate, to any body corporate or unincorporated association formed or recognised under the law of a territory outside Singapore.

No action, suit or other legal proceedings shall lie against the Government or personally against the Director, the Registrar, a Registry officer, an agent of the Registry, an investigation officer or any other person for anything which is done or omitted to be done in good faith in the course of or in connection with —

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 —

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 such 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 whatever 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.

The Director may, in his discretion, compound any offence under this Act which is prescribed as a compoundable offence by collecting from the person reasonably suspected of having committed that offence a sum not exceeding —

On payment of such sum of money, no further proceedings shall be taken against that person in respect of the offence.

All sums collected under this section shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.

The Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, either permanently or for such period as he may think fit, exempt any person or class of persons from any or all of the provisions of this Act.

The Minister may, when granting an exemption under subsection (1), impose such conditions as he thinks fit.

The Minister may make regulations for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act.

Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Minister may make regulations with respect to any or all of the following matters:

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.

As from the date on which any disease becomes a reportable disease for the purposes of this Act —

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.