Strengthening Collaboration Between Religious Institutions, Communities and Security Agencies to Enhance the Early Detection and Prevention of Potential Security Threats

Questions:

Mr Christopher de Souza: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs in light of a second instance of assault at a place of worship in less than half a year (a) how does the Ministry plan to strengthen collaboration between religious institutions, their surrounding communities, and security agencies to enhance the early detection and prevention of potential security threats; and (b) whether the Ministry has plans to take additional steps to provide further assurance to the public of their personal safety at places of worship.

Miss Rachel Ong: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs in view of the rise of extremist threats, whether our schools, places of worship, hospitals and public institutions are being prepared to respond to potential terrorist attacks.

Answer:

Ms Sun Xueling, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development:

1. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been collaborating with community partners, which includes religious organisations, schools, and hospitals, to enhance our ability to prevent, detect, and respond to terror attacks.

2. For more information on the efforts that we have made to enhance safety at places of worship and to engage the public, Members may refer to MHA’s responses to similar Parliamentary Questions on 7 January 2025.

3. Then, I had shared that MHA works closely with community and religious organisations, including places of worship, through the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth’s (MCCY) crisis preparedness for religious organisations programme, where religious organisations participate in security self-assessments, develop contingency plans and attend counter-terrorism seminars to understand that threat better.

4. MHA also works closely with the Ministry of Education (MOE) on crisis preparedness in schools. All schools have a School Emergency Structure, helmed by the Principal, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), to help staff and students deal with, respond to and recover from emergencies, including a terror attack. MOE regularly reviews and updates the SOPs. Besides annual lockdown drills, schools also conduct regular exercises involving the Police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). Such exercises and drills familiarise school staff and students with emergency situations and facilitate collaboration between the schools and emergency responders during a crisis.

5. The Ministry of Health (MOH) continually enhances the security resilience of the healthcare sector through various measures. These include aligning security standards across healthcare institutions, and conducting regular readiness exercises with the Police and SCDF for public acute hospitals, where they are assessed on their measures to secure their facilities while responding to a mass casualty incident. MOH maintains close communication with healthcare institutions to uphold security postures and implements security enhancement programmes in partnership with the Police.

6. When there is a heightened security situation, the Police will step up security measures, such as increasing the frequency of patrols. They will also engage the relevant stakeholders to step up security measures.

7. At some point, I hope never, but we have to be prepared that an attack will succeed. When it does, it is important that as a community, we remain resilient and united. This requires us to be physically and psychologically prepared. Through the SGSecure movement, MHA will continue to work with religious organisations, public institutions, and the community at large, to strengthen our readiness to terror attacks.

8. Thank you.