Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied): Madam, at various points over the years, the issue of manpower shortages at the Home Team has been raised. This is perfectly understandable, since the officers of the Ministry interface with the public daily and in critical ways, be it calls for police service or investigations, paramedic and ambulance services, immigration matters and others. The relevance of proper staffing levels is not just a matter of maintaining staff morale. Inadequate staffing potentially affects public outcomes.
It would be useful if the Ministry could explain whether the manpower crunch is getting worse and if so, what the main reasons are.
Take the Police as a prime example. A brief comparison of the number of officers from 2013 to date shows an increase from about 8,800 regulars to more than 10,000 today. No doubt, within that time, the population in Singapore has increased too, by about 8%. From 5.47 million in 2014 to 5.92 in June last year, an increase of 450,000 people. Besides population increase, what are the drivers that add to manpower shortfalls? How much of this is due to new demands, for example, the formation of new land divisions such as Woodlands Police Division, or new specialised units such as the Anti-Scam Command.
Within the functions that the Police retain and do not outsource, there is acknowledgment that the workload has increased dramatically. MHA has highlighted that the preponderance of scam cases has added significantly to the load of Police investigators. On the ground, it is not uncommon to hear from our residents that the investigator for their case has resigned or that there has been a change of investigators, which would add to delays in the investigations.
As for other public services such as Neighbourhood Police establishments, the trend has been to leverage on technology so as to reduce manpower demands. While I accept that this is necessary, has the Ministry assessed the public satisfaction levels for such changes, especially in the elderly population?
Retaining experienced officers is an important stabiliser. For officers who have resigned, some may have done so due to pull factors such as better prospects elsewhere. Could the Ministry share what proportion of resignations were due to push factors, such as workload or high public expectations?
Outsourcing of police functions to auxiliary police officer (APO) or private security is logical and a necessary strategy to overcome manpower shortfalls. Overall, I do see that the outsourcing moves over the years have been incremental and deliberate. By that, I mean that the nature of the task is assessed first to be potentially capable of being outsourced, then training of the auxiliary police or private security will be done before the outsourcing is effective.
Thus, over the years, we see many modular courses being offered in security screening, crowd and traffic control, threat observation and so on. It is common these days to see APO escorting prisoners and manning our land checkpoints, or private security officers deployed at major events.
That said, there must be some limits to outsourcing, as some tasks are probably too complex, are too risky or require the exercise of discretion. Take for instance, police investigations. During the recent debate on the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, I voiced my concern about whether APOs should be deemed authorised officers for the purpose of exercising force to extract a forensic specimen from an uncooperative criminal suspect. While the Ministry of Law replied that they would be trained for this, this to me, is a confrontational task that carries high risk.
In making decisions on outsourcing, there are legal accountability issues to consider as well. If say, a police officer acts wrongly or negligently, being a public servant, the Government is potentially liable for his acts as an employer. This is a reassurance to the public that losses can be recovered. In the case of an APO or private security officer, a private employer is vicariously liable. While companies providing APO services are well resourced, many private security agencies are not.
Finally, it is useful to speak about the APOs. Sixty-eight percent of APOs are Singaporeans, while the balance 32% are Malaysians and Taiwanese. In answer to a Parliamentary Question (PQ) I filed in January, the Minister affirmed the need to allow auxiliary police forces to recruit foreign APOs to meet the increasing demand for security services. It was further mentioned that besides Taiwan, some other source countries for APOs being considered are China, India, the Philippines and Myanmar. It was further recognised that letting non-Singaporeans carry firearms was a risk which would be managed through security screening, training and supervision.
Could the Ministry elaborate a little on the reasons for the selection of the four Asian jurisdictions? Does proficiency in certain languages play a part? And if so, I am wondering why countries such as Nepal have not been named.
Private security industry. I am supportive of the Government’s efforts in recent years to uplift and transform the private security industry. At the national level, with a better trained private security workforce, there will be better cost efficiencies through utilising the workforce from both the public and private sectors and right-sizing them to the task at hand.
At the ground level, we see the growth of security providers with better operational capabilities. Many of our residents also work as security officers and are enjoying higher salaries through regulatory requirements. A key driver of these changes is the Security Industry Transformation Map (ITM) launched in 2018.
In response to a PQ I filed in 2021, the Ministry reported that significant progress had been made on the four pillars of the ITM. Of particular interest to me is the first pillar, namely, to push for technology and innovation to transform operating models. The aim of such technology adoption is to achieve manpower efficiencies. The Ministry reported then that in 2019, 98% of SME security agencies had adopted at least one stage one digital solution, while 82% had adopted at least one stage two solution as recommended by the security industry digital plan. These are encouraging signs.
As one of the biggest bugbears of security officers are the long 12-hour shifts, it will be useful to know whether the adoption of these technologies has resulted in shorter working shifts. I believe it is still common to have 12-hour shifts. What is the Ministry’s assessment, would be entailed to move to an eight-hour shift? With the further concerted efforts to improve the image and working conditions of security officers, does the Ministry also detect any change in the demographic profile of those in the industry? For example, are younger people considering such a career?
Mr Raj Joshua Thomas (Nominated Member): Madam, the SPF IOs are the first front in the criminal justice process. The whole investigation process can be complex and requires an eye for detail as well as skills in preparing and presenting evidence. As a lawyer who takes up criminal matters from time to time, I have seen that our SPF IOs are competent and do a good job collecting evidence and assisting the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).
Sometimes, investigations take some time; but this is understandable given the increasing complexity of crimes, including cybercrimes. I note that the number of physical crimes has remained stable but that the number of scams has risen significantly. Could the Minister provide some insight into the workload of our SPF IOs as well as the average turnover of investigations from first information reports (FIRs) to making recommendations to the AGC?
On a related note, I agree with the hon Member Ms Sylvia Lim and I would like to join her in calling on the SPF to consider engaging private investigators (PIs) to assist in the work of SPF IOs. In particular, in collecting and organising evidence. PIs are trained and have experience precisely in doing so and their contributions have been invaluable in civil suits. Perhaps the Ministry could consider availing of their expertise in criminal investigations as well?
And on a related note, perhaps the SPF can also consider engaging security agencies to outsource some of their functions – their security-related functions to them as well.
The Chairman: Ms Sylvia Lim, you wish to clarify?
Ms Sylvia Lim: Yes, Chairperson. I just wanted to clarify that in my speech, I did not call for outsourcing of Police investigations to private investigators. I did not call for that.
The Chairman: Yes, Mr Raj Joshua Thomas.
Mr Raj Joshua Thomas: Yes, I stand corrected. I think it was engaging PIs to do some of these works.
The Chairman: Ms Sylvia Lim, do you want to further clarify?
Ms Sylvia Lim: Yes. No, I did not call for that. So, my speech was actually about outsourcing, but it did not specifically call for investigations to be outsourced because I did mention that I considered it to be a rather high-risk activity. So, just to clarify: I did not call for that.
Mr Raj Joshua Thomas: Mdm Chairman, Ms Lim, I stand corrected.
The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr K Shanmugam): Mr Murali Pillai and Ms Sylvia Lim asked about the manpower situation in MHA agencies. I have said it before, it is very tight. This shortage of manpower is faced not just by MHA, including all the Home Team departments, but by many other parts of the Civil Service as well.
I have also said that births are declining in Singapore and there are limits on the growth of resources. Government agencies are put on a very tight quota on new employment. We can understand it, rightfully so because you cannot have a situation where the public sector continues to grow and employ Singaporeans while the private sector suffers through severe shortages. The public and private sectors need to share resources across many fields, and MHA is no exception.
The fact is, both public and private sectors in Singapore face shortages of manpower, particularly if they wish to employ Singapore citizens. In MHA, we are obviously in a position of having to employ Singapore citizens for most of our work.
One way we try to deal with this, partially, is to use technology wherever we can. My colleague, Minister Josephine Teo, will talk about these efforts in the Home Team.
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And in this context of automation and what we prioritise and where we put our manpower, Ms Sylvia Lim asked about the Ministry’s changing of Neighbourhood Police Posts (NPPs) from being manually operated with having officers there at the counter, to being automated. For those who need assistance, there will be both audio and video help available, with some officer taking you through the steps. She asked if a survey has been conducted on the perception of the elderly population on the removal of manned NPPs. Members will understand why we removed the manned NPPs and converted them to automated NPPs.
We have not done a specific survey on the elderly, but we have been running publicity campaigns to educate the public on the use of digital services. There have also been ongoing efforts to review the digital services for lodging of Police reports to make them more user-friendly. We also still have physically manned counters available across Singapore for those who prefer to report in person. So, it will not be at the NPP, but they will have to go to the specific Police stations.
So, while we have not conducted a survey specific to manned NPPs, there are alternatives available, including manned counters, albeit a little bit further away. And second, there are general surveys that have been done which are statistically valid because they cover different demographics and that would include the elderly. And I have given the numbers before.
Based on the Home Team’s public perception survey of 2022, 95% of respondents surveyed personally trust the Home Team. And as I said, these surveys are statistically representative of the Singapore population, so they include both the elderly and the younger populations. And the 2021 IPS World Values Survey said 87% were confident or very confident in SPF, and that is the highest level of confidence in the Police around the world.
So, I think, overall, there is that confidence and the trust. But it all depends on how the Police and the Home Team agencies conduct themselves year by year, and also a variety of factors, including how investigations are conducted and the manpower resources.
Coming back to my points, the third point I would make in the context of resourcing is that within the SPF, we have also looked at prioritising the areas that have the most pressing needs, for example, investigating scams and sexual offences, and we are looking to channel more resources towards them. But Members will appreciate that, on the flip side, this also naturally means that there will be some other areas where work will be deprioritised. These are the trade-offs.
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Both Assoc Prof Razwana Begum and Ms Sylvia Lim asked questions related to the welfare of security officers. MHA and tripartite partners are actively looking at these issues as one of the means to help with the recruitment and retention. We are, of course, also very interested in maintaining the welfare of our security officers.
As Members will be aware, wages of security officers have been raised and will continue to increase at a sustainable and meaningful pace through the Progressive Wage Model (PWM). The monthly gross wage of an entry-level, full-time outsourced security officer was increased to $2,650 since 1 January 2024. It will be raised to $3,530 by 2028. More than 40,000 resident security officers will benefit from the PWM wage increases.
On shift hours raised by Ms Sylvia Lim, the new PWM wage schedule has already taken the first step to impose a maximum cap of 72 additional working hours per month. The Government – together with its tripartite partners – are monitoring the implementation of the new wage schedule and will review further the working hours and deployment patterns of security officers. Our recent initiatives have implications on resourcing and we will need to monitor the industry’s response to these initiatives.
Ms Sylvia Lim asked if there has been any change in the demographic profile of security officers.
The demographic profile of security officers has remained stable, with the average age of security officers being about 52 years old. With growing integration of technology and advanced systems, anecdotally, we do see growing interest from younger Singaporeans and that is very encouraging.
On Ms Sylvia Lim’s question on the source countries being considered for the recruitment of APOs, the four countries cited by the Member are not the sole sources being considered. All APOs must pass a basic English proficiency test, but it is not the sole requirement.
On Ms Sylvia Lim’s questions on the limits of duties that can be outsourced from SPF to APOs, I would like to clarify that only Police officers, forensic specialists and medical practitioners can conduct forensic medical examinations, otherwise known as FME. I would like to assure the Member that APOs cannot conduct FME directly. APOs may be involved only to support the conduct of the FME.
Ministry of Home Affairs
29 February 2024
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=budget-2355
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 