Parliamentary Questions from Er Dr Lee Bee Wah from 8th to 10th Jan 2018
1. To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development
(a) how many crisis shelters are there currently;
(b) what are their capacities for men and women respectively; and
(c) whether the Ministry has plans to expand the number of shelters to accommodate homeless singles.
2.To ask the Minister for Health in light of the new US guideline defining high blood pressure as 130/80 mmHg
(a) what percentage of our population falls within this category;
(b) why is the Ministry not adopting this more stringent guideline; and
(c) what is being done to raise awareness of hypertension as the 2010 National Health Survey indicates that one in four persons is not aware that they are hypertensive.
3. To ask the Minister for Transport
(a) what additional noise abatement measures to counter low-flying aircraft noises coming from the nearby Seletar Airport can be put in place;
(b) whether the height limit of the airspace over residential areas can be increased; and
(c) whether a different flight path can be given to aircraft landing at the airport so that they will not fly over housing estates especially in the middle of the night.
4. To ask the Minister for Manpower
(a) how many applications for job matching have been received by Workforce Singapore (WSG) since its inception;
(b) how many applicants have been successfully matched with jobs; and
(c) what is WSG doing to improve its job-matching success rate.
5. To ask the Minister for Manpower
(a) whether the Ministry is aware that some companies are unwilling to extend the contracts of healthy elderly workers to 67 years old;
(b) what is the Ministry doing to incentivise hiring of elderly workers; and
(c) how many workers aged 60 years and above are actively looking for jobs.
6. To ask the Minister for Social and Family Development
(a) what are the common causes of family violence;
(b) whether more can be done to identify at-risk families and prevent such violence especially silent victims;
(c) how many cases have reported by non-family members in the past three years; and
(d) when will public consultation be held for a Vulnerable Adults Bill.
7. To ask the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills)
(a) how many scams on claims have been reported and investigated since the implementation of SkillsFuture; and
(b) what is the Ministry doing to stop cases of training providers pressuring citizens to sign up for courses by falsely telling them that their SkillsFuture credits will expire soon.
8. To ask the Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills)
(a) what are the criteria to qualify a company to conduct Workforce Skills Qualifications courses;
(b) what can students do when the quality of the instructors is not as advertised; and
(c) how does the Ministry oversee these companies to ensure they are not overcharging.
8. To ask the Minister for Manpower
(a) how many employers have been reported to the Ministry in the past five years for not issuing employment contracts to their workers;
(b) what is the age group of these affected workers;
(c) what action has been taken against such employers; and
(d) what is the redress for these workers when their employers refuse to issue proper employment contracts that stipulate their wages, work hours and
duration of the contract.