Oral Reply to Parliamentary Question on Review of Penal Code by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Question:

Mr Kok Heng Leun: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) what is the outcome of the Ministry's review on the criminalisation of attempted suicide; and (b) whether any legislative change will be introduced and, if so, when.

Mr Kok Heng Leun: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) what is the outcome of the Government's review on the issue of marital immunity for rape; and (b) whether any legislative change will be introduced and, if so, when.

Answer:

1. We set up this Committee in July 2016 to review the Penal Code. Some of the areas that are being looked at by the Committee include attempted suicide, marital immunity for rape, punishments for sex offenders, and the need to create new criminal offences to deal with the changing crime environment. In that context, the feedback on these issues, both from Members of this House and outside have been noted. They are being considered in the review.

2. In addition to these, the Committee is also undertaking a fairly fundamental review on the principles which underlie our penal laws, including elements of criminal liability, the required mental element, intention or knowledge, the scope of mental health defences, as well as some of the language used in the Penal Code.

3. The Committee aims to complete its work later this year. We will then invite feedback from the public on the recommendations.

Media Factsheet on Penal Code Review Committee [PDF, 194 KB]