Singapore legislation
Regulation 18
Regulation 18
Meetings and quorum of institutional review boards
Subregulation 1
The quorum at all meetings of an institutional review board is 5 members, of whom —
one must be the chairperson or the member appointed by the chairperson under paragraph (6) to preside at that meeting or part of the meeting;
at least one must be an external scientific person; and
at least one must be an external lay person.
Subregulation 2
No business may be transacted at any meeting unless a quorum is present.
Subregulation 3
A meeting of an institutional review board may be held —
by a quorum of members, being assembled together at the time and place appointed for the meeting; or
by means of audio, audio and visual, or electronic communication but only if —
all of the members who wish to participate in the meeting have access to the technology needed to participate in the meeting; and
a quorum of members are able to simultaneously communicate with each other throughout the meeting.
Subregulation 4
A member of an institutional review board participating in a meeting as permitted under paragraph (3)(b)(i) is taken to be present at the meeting.
Subregulation 5
The fact that a meeting of an institutional review board was held as permitted under paragraph (3)(b)(i) must be recorded in writing in the minutes or other record of the meeting.
Subregulation 6
The chairperson of an institutional review board must preside at meetings of the board, and if the chairperson is absent from any meeting or part of a meeting, the member (who need not be a medical practitioner) appointed by the chairperson will preside at that meeting or part of the meeting.
Subregulation 7
A decision at a meeting of the institutional review board is adopted by a simple majority of the members present and voting and to avoid doubt, in the case of an equality of votes, the research proposal is deemed to have been rejected.
Subregulation 8
For the purposes of the institutional review board’s proceedings, papers (including declarations, disclosures and proposals to be circulated before the meeting and decisions after the meeting) may be circulated among members or delivered to the secretary of the board by hand or facsimile or electronic transmission of the information in the papers concerned.
Subregulation 9
Subject to the provisions of the Act and this Part, each institutional review board may regulate its own processes and procedures.
Subregulation 10
For the purposes of paragraph (1), an individual is treated as external in relation to a research institution if the individual is not a researcher of, not employed by and not in a commercial relationship with the research institution.