Making Public Consultations Conducted by REACH
Ministry of Digital Development and InformationSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the transparency and duration of REACH public consultations as raised by Mr Leon Perera. Minister S Iswaran stated that over the past five years, 49 out of 126 consultations on the REACH portal had findings or summaries published. Minister S Iswaran noted that consultations typically last four weeks and agencies may share findings on their own platforms or with researchers as appropriate. Feedback is shared with ministries for policy formulation, with REACH periodically releasing findings of public interest like the annual Budget feedback. This approach utilizes multiple engagement platforms to understand ground concerns and facilitate policy review and formulation.
Transcript
14 Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Communications and Information (a) over the past five years, what proportion of REACH public consultations have had their results (or a summary thereof) made open to the public; (b) whether the full findings (as opposed to the summary) of these public consultations are made available to independent researchers; and (c) what is the average length of time for which consultations are run.
Mr S Iswaran: REACH aims to engage Singaporeans and seek their feedback through multiple platforms such as dialogues, mobile listening points, chat groups and surveys to better understand ground issues and concerns.
Feedback collected by REACH is shared with the relevant Ministries as part of their ongoing process to review and improve policies. REACH also periodically releases findings that may be of public interest, such as the findings from our annual feedback exercise on the Budget.
Government agencies may also tap on the REACH Public Consultation portal to obtain feedback on specific issues as part of their policy formulation and review process. Government agencies decide on the duration of their respective public consultations on REACH’s website, but it typically lasts four weeks.
Over the past five years, 126 public consultations were hosted on the REACH website. The findings or summary of responses of 49 such public consultations were published on the REACH portal, at the request of the agency. Other agencies consolidate their findings from various feedback avenues and publish these on their own platforms and/or share them with relevant stakeholders, including researchers, as appropriate.