Greater Discretionary Power for Courts to Administer Harsher Punishment for Child Abuse Offenders

6 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Law whether he will consider a provision in the Penal Code or the Children and Young Persons Act to enhance the discretionary power of the courts to administer harsher punishments for child abuse offenders.

The Senior Minister of State for Law (Ms Indranee Rajah) (for the Minister for Law): Mr Deputy Speaker, the Ministry of Law, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Social and Family Development and other agencies have been working together over the past year to review the laws relating to child abuse, with a view to enhancing protection for children. This includes a review of the adequacy of penalties for the entire spectrum of child abuse offences. We will announce more details when the review is completed.

Mr Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah): I thank the Senior Minister of State for her reply. There was a recent case of the Public Prosecutor vs BDB, where the Court dealt with grievous hurt and said that for vulnerable victims, an equivalent of section 73, which deals with foreign domestic workers, would be useful to it to enhance its sentencing ability. So, would the Ministry consider something like that?

Ms Indranee Rajah: The Ministry has taken note of the suggestion by the Court of Appeal and we will consider this as part of the broader review for legislation.