Overview of Functions

The Legislation Division is Singapore’s central law drafting office. The Division provides law drafting and legislative consultancy services to the Government and all public sector agencies, and performs regular compilation of amended legislation through law revision. The Division supports the Rule of Law by providing comprehensive free online public access to Singapore legislation through the Singapore Statutes Online website.

The work of the Legislation Division consists of the following:

• providing the Government and public sector agencies a range of advisory services with respect to the development of proposals for legislation, and the enactment and initial implementation of legislation;
• preparing drafts of Government Bills and accompanying explanatory statements for introduction to Parliament;
• preparing drafts of Subsidiary Legislation for the Government and other public sector agencies so that the Acts they administer can be fully implemented;
• participating in inter-ministry and public-private sector committees driving emerging policies and law reform;
• ensuring ready online access by the public to accurate and updated legislation on the Singapore Statutes Online (this comprises both Acts passed by Parliament and Subsidiary Legislation delegated to Ministers and other authorised bodies to enact);
• producing revised editions of legislation under the direction of the Law Revision Commissioners;
• collating across the Government all proposed Bills planned for introduction in Parliament each year, a function authorised by the Ministry of Law, and prioritising these proposed Bills for COPS’ decision;
• enhancing the link between good policy and good laws by conducting courses on effective law making and legislative drafting in partnership with the Civil Service College.The Legislation Division has embarked on a nation-wide project (PLUS – Plain Laws Understandable by Singaporeans) to modernise and make our written laws more accessible to businesses, members of the public and public officials.

The Legislation Division has 4 functional groups: the Law Drafting Group, the Legislative Editorial and Revision Group, the Law Publication Group and the Business Services and Governance Group comprising Legislative Standards and Knowledge Facilitation, Secretarial Support and Business Services.

Law Drafting Group

The Law Drafting Group comprises lawyers who draft Bills and Subsidiary Legislation, and advise the Government and other public sector agencies on the development and translation of public policies into legislation and on the initial implementation of legislation. This Group handles matters from all agencies in the public sector, comprising —

• Constitutional and Election matters
• Community and Infrastructure
• Manpower and Population
• Education and Healthcare
• Commerce
• Tax and Financial Markets
• Security and Defence
• Crime and Justice

Legislative Editorial and Revision Group

The Legislative Editorial and Revision Group is responsible for reviewing, editing and proof-reading draft legislation prepared by law drafters and editors to ensure that they are accurate, inherently consistent and error-free, and for the timely production of hard-copies of legislation for introduction to Parliament and for publication in the Gazette. This Group also staffs the Law Revision Commission in revising laws.

Law Publication Group

The Law Publication Group is responsible for maintaining the Legislation Editing and Authentic Publishing System Versioned Legislation Database (LEAP-VLDB) and the Singapore Statutes Online website to ensure comprehensive free online public access to Singapore’s written laws. The Law Publication Group has also taken over some of the type-setting of legislation from the Government Printer.

Business Services and Governance Group

The Business Services and Governance Group provides the administrative, statistics, archival and secretarial support for the other Groups. The Legislative Standards and Knowledge Facilitation Unit is responsible for setting standards through the publication of guidelines for law drafters and policy advisers, and administering training both in-house and externally. The Unit has recently taken on the Bill Programme planning as well.