Proposal to Review Built Environment Code to Enable Building of More Lactation Rooms

4 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for National Development in respect of the Code on Accessibility in the Built Environment 2019, whether the Government will consider (i) increasing the number of lactation rooms from the one lactation room currently required for offices and business parks with a gross floor area of 10,000 sqm and above and (ii) lowering the gross floor area threshold of 10,000 sqm before buildings are required to have at least one lactation room.

The Minister of State for National Development (Mr Zaqy Mohamad) (for the Minister for National Development): Mr Speaker, the Code on Accessibility in the Built Environment was recently reviewed in 2019 by a committee comprising representatives from social service agencies, Trade Associations and Chambers, academia and Government agencies. Under the new Code which took effect in January this year, the requirement to provide at least one lactation room has been expanded to apply to more building types. Besides offices and business parks with a gross floor area (GFA) of 10,000 m² or more, this requirement now also applies to all hospitals and polyclinics, as well as mixed-use developments where the non-residential component has a GFA of 10,000 m² or more.

The intent of the GFA threshold is to strike a balance between the need for such facilities and the practical implications for smaller buildings, such as efficiency in the use of space. Notwithstanding this, the developers are encouraged to provide lactation rooms beyond the requirements of the Code, based on the scale of the building and the needs of the building users.

BCA will continue to study how we can enhance our accessibility requirements, including the provision of lactation rooms, as part of its periodic review of the Code.

Mr Speaker: Mr Ng.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Thank you, Sir. I have three clarifications. Really, we all agree that breast milk is the best food for our babies but we also want our working mothers to return to work and we even incentivise it with the Working Mother's Child Relief. But the two points will be sort of conflicting if we do not allow the working mothers to easily express their milk when they are back at work, if we do not provide enough lactation rooms.

So, one, can I ask, for working mothers that work in buildings where the GFA is below 10,000 sqm, where exactly are they going to be able to pump and express their milk? If they do it in their workplace, there are privacy issues. Also, he pumping equipment is actually quite loud. Some of the feedback has been that other colleagues then start to complain about it.

Two, the working mothers are not asking for this big fancy room to pump or express their milk but a small clean place where they can express their milk. And maybe the cost is an issue. So, whether the Government can step in and provide some grants so that more buildings can provide more lactation rooms for the working mothers.

And third, I think the Minister of State said that we will review this again in the next periodic review. Can I ask when will the next review be? Because, really, that one lactation room is really very little for the number of working mothers that could possibly work in that building.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: I certainly agree with the Member that we should, as much as possible, facilitate our mothers to breastfeed. Certainly, it helps with the raising of the child. Under the Code Review, really, in many jurisdictions too, the "one room a building" based on the floor area is, I would say, a base guideline. It is a base rule, rather, not guideline; it is a base rule because we also have to be practical about some of these buildings and how you can retrofit such rooms.

My own experience so far, I came from the private sector, even in a building, you have tenants who, like my previous firm, provided lactation rooms on every floor or most floors. So, these are on top of the building requirements in which developers may provide one but the tenants themselves could provide more. We have also seen shopping malls with more than one lactation rooms too. I just did a check on my two Ministries. MND has got two in MND HQ within the floors that we occupied. MOM has got five among the two buildings that we occupy.

So, we have not done a survey in terms of the take-up rates out there but, really, I do think that many building owners have provided more than what the Code requires. Certainly, we will continue to promote this. But in setting regulations and codes, it is important that we also take a practical view.

On the Member's question on grants, BCA has an Accessibility Fund (AF) worth about $39.2 million in which we incentivise building owners to undertake voluntary upgrading. Up to 60% of the construction cost for accessibility features, such as lactation rooms can be used up to a cap of $300,000 per development. There is funding available for building owners if they wish to undertake this. As of 5 February this year, close to 150 private building owners have tapped on the AF to retrofit their buildings with the accessibility features.

So, apart from what we put in the Code, the good thing is that we have seen many private buildings too coming on board. Again, we have to be very practical about how we put codes up but we support the motion, generally.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: Just one last one question. The fact that MND and MOM have so many lactation rooms show that there is a need for this. So, this is the last Supplementary Question, which is that when are we going to review this, whether we are going to study this in further detail, see whether in MOM or in MND, how many times the lactation rooms are used, whether it is sufficient? So, a really detailed study to look into this issue.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: I thank the Member. Our Building Codes are typically studied every few years. I do not have a date for the next study, so I am not going to commit at this point. But I do think that this could be further promoted to employers. Like I said, tenants themselves too have provided lactation rooms for their own officers. In this case, it is very hard to fix a demand because it depends on the profile of the workers too, whether you have an older workforce or a very young workforce. I think it depends. So, it is difficult and impractical as well to fix a Code and regulate that everyone has to provide this because it also depends on the demand as well. To some extent, we will study this and certainly survey and study more but without waiting for a review, we can certainly do more as organisations to support this.