Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

This Bill before the House seeks to revise and strengthen the law in respect of building control by:

Mr Speaker, Sir, following the collapse of the roof of the uncompleted Compassvale Primary School hall in June last year, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) conducted a review of its accredited checkers system. The system requires all structural plans and calculations to be checked by an independent accredited checker before they are submitted to BCA for approval. BCA also examined the provisions of the Building Control Act to evaluate their adequacy in ensuring that our buildings are designed to safe standards and that these plans are checked. The main provisions of this Bill arose from the review.

Sir, let me now explain the proposed amendments in detail.

The accredited checkers system was introduced into the Building Control Act in 1989, following the Commission of Inquiry on the collapse of the Hotel New World. The Commission had recommended that there should be a mandatory requirement to check the structural plans and design of a building, so as to minimise the risk of errors arising from lapses on the part of the designer. A system of independent checks by an accredited checker was put in place since then.

There has not been any collapse of a building due to a failure to comply with the provisions of the Building Control Act until the Compassvale incident.

The BCA found that the current system of accredited checkers remains valid and is an efficient and cost-effective way to achieve an independent check on the building design. However, the BCA highlighted two areas in the present system which should be strengthened.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I will now elaborate on these areas.

Currently, an accredited checker can check any project, regardless of its size and complexity and the amount of technical supporting resources that he has. BCA’s view is that an accredited checker taking on a large and complex building project should have more specialised technical support staff and resources.

Clause 7 of the Bill addresses this issue by requiring an accredited checker undertaking large projects to be registered and to operate within an accredited checking organisation that has certain resources as required by the Commissioner of Building Control. The requirements will be prescribed in the Regulations. They include minimum staff strength, amount of professional liability insurance and ISO certification. Only accredited checking organisations will be allowed to check plans of building works above a prescribed value. The value is set at $10 million initially but it may be adjusted from time to time to allow for changes in construction cost. Individual accredited checkers will only be allowed to check building works below this value. They will be required to be covered by a minimum amount of professional liability insurance. The insurance is intended to provide for financial claims made by the public who may suffer personal injury or loss caused by the negligence of the accredited checker.

Sir, I would like to emphasise that the accredited checker is still personally responsible for the checking of plans and design calculations, whether he operates individually or within an accredited checking organisation. He cannot delegate this responsibility to his assistants.

Another area that should be strengthened relates to the need for a regular review of the performance of an accredited checker. Under the present system, the registration of an accredited checker is valid for life, unless he breaches his duty. There is no provision to review his performance regularly after his registration.

Sir, the amended section 16 and new section 16A will require the accredited checker or accredited checking organisation to renew their registration periodically. The registration will be valid for one year, but the period can be reviewed in the future if some other time frame for renewal is deemed more suitable. The amendment also allows the Commissioner of Building Control to suspend or cancel the registration of an accredited checker or accredited checking organisation. These offences could include situations where the accredited checker has been censured, fined, suspended or de-registered by the Professional Engineers Board, where he has failed to meet the prescribed requirements for registration and where his performance failed to meet the standards prescribed in the Regulations. During the period of suspension, the accredited checker or accredited checking organisation will not be allowed to practice.

The new sections 16A, 16B, 16C and 18A extend the existing provisions relating to the individual accredited checker to the accredited checking organisations. These provisions include the registration procedures and requirements, suspension or cancellation of registration procedures, the avenues for appeal against decisions taken by the Commissioner of Building Control and the requirement to maintain professional and financial independence in the building works being checked.

The new section 18B allows the Minister to exempt buildings and building works carried out by the public authorities from certain requirements of the revised accredited checkers system. With the exemption, public authorities with the necessary qualified accredited checkers in-house need not appoint an accredited checking organisation for building works above the prescribed value. These in-house accredited checkers will also not be subjected to the requirement of checking only plans of building works below the prescribed value.

Sir, as I have mentioned earlier, the accredited checking organisation is introduced to ensure that the accredited checker has adequate and appropriate staff and resources. Public authorities like the Housing and Development Board and the Land Transport Authority already have the professional support staff and resources, and good internal control and disciplinary measures to ensure that their in-house accredited checkers carry out proper checks on designs. However, if the public authorities appoint external accredited checkers, they will be subjected to the relevant provisions in the Bill.

Besides the accredited checker, it is also very important that the qualified person be appraised of his duties and responsibilities under the Building Control Act and its Regulations, and carry out such duties with professionalism and due diligence.

Currently, the maximum penalty for a design offence committed by the qualified person is a fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisonment of not more than 6 months or both under the Building Control Regulations.

On the other hand, an accredited checker who fails to detect the same design offence will face a penalty of up to $50,000 in fines or an imprisonment of not more than one year or both under the Building Control Act. The difference in the penalties suggests that, in the design of a building, the accredited checker carries a much heavier responsibility than that of the qualified person. This clearly cannot be so.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the qualified person must carry the primary responsibility of ensuring the integrity of his design, as he is the one doing the design in the first place. He must not be lulled into a false sense of complacency that the accredited checker will be there to spot his mistakes, and that there is no need for him to check his own work for errors. The qualified person must exercise due diligence in ensuring the integrity of his work. The accredited checker only acts as the final mechanism in the system to check and detect any lapses in design. Ideally, if the qualified person exercises due diligence in his design, the accredited checker should not detect any design faults.

The amendment to section 9 of the Act therefore seeks to make clear the importance of the role of the qualified person in his design duties. It proposes to impose a duty on the qualified person to take reasonable steps and exercise due diligence in ensuring that the structural design of a building meets the specified requirements. The maximum penalty for a breach of this duty is a fine of up to $100,000 or an imprisonment not exceeding 12 months or both. This is more severe than the maximum penalty that the accredited checker could face in order to reflect that the primary responsibility of the building design rests with the qualified person.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I turn now to the amendments in this Bill that concern site supervisors. Site supervisors were introduced into the Building Control Act when it was first enacted in 1989. The intention was, and still is, for the site supervisor to assist the qualified person in his supervisory duties of construction work.

The current section 8 of the Building Control Act stipulates that construction works can only be carried out under the full-time supervision of a site supervisor. However, there has been some misconception that site supervisors can work independently of the qualified person.

Clause 3 of this Bill seeks to eliminate this ambiguity by making it clear in Section 8 of the Act that construction works are to be supervised by the qualified person, or a site supervisor appointed by the qualified person and working under the qualified person’s control and supervision. Some minor consequential amendments have to be made to section 10 of the Act and this is done under clause 5 of the Bill.

In conclusion, the amendments to the Building Control Act in this Bill will strengthen the legislation on the structural safety of buildings in Singapore. It will re-emphasize the proper roles and responsibilities of the various professionals involved in the design and checking of buildings. Finally, It will ensure that the highest standards are observed by all who are involved in the building and construction industry.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.

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