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Use of Plain English
The Attorney-General's Chambers has been promoting the use of plain English in legislation drafting for some time and draftsmen have incorporated plain English drafting in all their work. The use of legal jargon is minimised and archaic expressions are replaced with modern language. Long and complex sentences are divided into shorter ones or made intelligible by paragraphing. Assistance is also given to readers of legislation through the use of objects clauses and very detailed explanatory statements setting out the purpose and operation of a Bill.
Versioned Legislation Database System
The Versioned Legislation Database System (“VLDB”) captures the texts of all the statutes and subsidiary legislation of Singapore. It is “versioned” in that all versions of legislation since 01 Jan 1997 are captured and are available for time-based retrieval through an easy-to-use interface. The Division was instrumental in setting up the VLDB which was launched by the Chief Justice on 28 Feb 98 as part of the LawNet Legal Workbench. This database is available to all Government Ministry users free of charge. Members of the Legal Profession may obtain paid subscriptions through the LawNet Project. Subscription details are available at http://www.lawnet.com.sg. In addition, ad hoc usage by members of the public (through time-based charging) is also available through LawNet. Free access to all Acts of Parliament is available through the Statutes.Online website, which can be accessed at http://statutes.agc.gov.sg. The Statutes.Online website has only the latest version of Acts of Parliament, updated monthly.
Subject Index To Legislation
The Subject Index to Acts and Subsidiary Legislation is a useful legal research tool and a tool to increase general awareness of statutory law in Singapore. The Subject Index to Acts and the Subject Index to Subsidiary Legislation were first published in 1998 and 1 July 1999 respectively. Yearly Updates to the Subject Index to Acts and the Subject Index to Subsidiary Legislation are prepared.
The eGazette
The eGazette, launched on 15 Sep 1998, is the online publication of the Government Gazette. Notifications on the eGazette are official by Government authority and effective on the date they are electronically published. The Division checks the printed proofs of subsidiary legislation to be gazetted immediately prior to their publication at 5 pm every weekday. Gazette Notifications can be accessed free of charge (for five days after publication) at http://www.egazette.com.sg.
In-house Legislative Drafting Course
An annual In-House Legislative Drafting Course has been conducted annually since 1997.The objectives of the course are to equip new legislative draftsmen with basic drafting skills and to improve the standard of drafting instructions and draft legislation prepared by our client ministries and statutory boards. Participants in the Course have included officers from both the Legal Service and our client ministries and statutory boards, as well as legal officers from our foreign counterparts.
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