Over 500 laws to be made clearer and easier to read

MORE THAN 500 of Singapore’s laws will soon have simplified language and be more readable to the public.

These revised Acts of Parliament – including the Penal Code and the Trustees Act – will be part of the upcoming 2020 Revised Edition of Acts.

The 510 Acts will have modernised language and clearer expressions.

For example, the word “despite” has replaced “notwithstanding”, while the phrase “to avoid doubt” is used instead of “for the avoidance of doubt”.

The words in the new edition, which comes into force on Dec 31, are also more precise – one example is the use of “must” instead of “shall”. Additionally, gender-neutral terms have been used, such as “chairperson” instead of “chairman”, to reflect current societal norms.Lengthy clauses have been broken down into multiple sub-clauses, while some Acts have clauses renumbered. There are also stylistic changes, such as replacing Roman numbers with Arabic numerals.

Other changes include having a more comprehensive legislative history at the end of each Act, with information on its various amendments, revised editions and predecessor Acts.

Diagrams are used in Acts that have complex legislative histories.

The language revisions do not change the meaning of the Acts. The revisions were undertaken by the Legislative Division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC).

It is part of the Plain Laws Understandable by Singaporeans (Plus) initiative, which seeks to ensure that Singapore’s laws are understandable and accessible to the public. — The Straits Times/ANN