Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Update on the Roll Out of Video-Recording of Statements from Suspects

Question:

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether he can provide an update on the roll out of video-recording of statements from suspects; and (b) when will the video-recording of suspects’ statements be fully implemented.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:

1.    Video Recording of Interviews (VRI) was introduced in 2018 for the recording of statements for rape cases. It has since been expanded to include more categories of offences such as aggravated outrage of modesty cases, sexual assault by penetration, child abuse cases, maid abuse cases, and non-capital drug-related offences.

2.    VRI is more resource-intensive as compared to the traditional method of statement-taking. Transcripts have to be prepared. Accuracy of the transcripts needs to be checked – that is time and resource intensive. Technology such as speech-to-text (Artificial Intelligence) transcription will help reduce the costs and augment manual transcription. But it is not yet at a level where we can use it confidently. MHA is also working to streamline the transcription process. Over time, we hope to expand the use of VRI to more cases.