Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Number of People who have had their Criminal Records Rendered Spent by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Question:

Mr. Ang Wei Neng: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) since the Registration of Criminals (Amendment) Act 2005 came into operation, how many persons have had their criminal records rendered spent as of 31 December 2015, with breakdowns by year, and (b) of these persons, how many are Singaporeans.

Answer:

1. The annual breakdown of persons who have had their criminal records rendered spent from 2005 to 2015 is provided in Table 1.

2. Under the Registration of Criminals Act, sections 7B and 7C provide that a record in the Register of Criminals will automatically be marked as spent if the ex-offender satisfies certain criteria.

3. To qualify for a record to be spent, the ex-offender must not have been sentenced to an imprisonment term exceeding three months or to a fine exceeding $2,000. The ex-offender must also satisfy a five year crime-free period, among other criteria.

4. Based on these criteria, those who have had their records spent since 2005 include ex-offenders who committed minor offences, such as shop theft. They also include foreign offenders, the majority of whom are immigration offenders.

5. Of the 157,369 persons who have had their criminal records rendered spent as of 31 December 2015, 68,792 persons are Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PRs). Of the 88,577 foreigners who have had their criminal records rendered spent as of 31 December 2015, more than half (47,836 persons) were convicted for entering or attempting to enter Singapore without a valid pass; or in other words, illegal immigrants.

6. All of these illegal immigrants have been repatriated. Their convictions were recorded in the Register of Criminals and their criminal records would be automatically rendered spent after a five year period. Notwithstanding the spent records, they are still required to seek prior written permission from the Controller of Immigration if they wish to enter Singapore.

Table 1: No. of persons with criminal records rendered spent, 2005 to 2015