Written Answer to PQ on Business Under Surveillance

NOTICE PAPER NO. 2072 of 2023 FOR THE SITTING ON OR AFTER 2 AUG 2023
QUESTION NO. 4853 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Ms Rachel Ong

To ask the Minister for Manpower how many companies have entered the Business under Surveillance (BUS) programme since 1 January 2023 and how many have exited from the programme since.

Answer:

The Business Under Surveillance (BUS) programme focuses on helping poor-performing companies improve their workplace safety and health (WSH) performance through the development and implementation of a robust safety and health management system. Companies with fatal workplace incidents, serious incidents or poor enforcement records, and are unable to demonstrate that they can manage WSH properly, will be required to enter the BUS programme. Construction companies in the BUS programme can be temporarily disqualified from taking part in public sector construction tenders. A company’s bizSAFE status will also be suspended if it enters the BUS programme and it will not be able to qualify for private sector contracts that may require bizSAFE.

2 Since 1 Jan 2023, a total of 10 new companies across industries such as Construction and Manufacturing, have entered the programme and are still in the programme. On average, companies will take about 18 months to exit the BUS programme. During this period, the Ministry will engage the company’s senior management and WSH professionals to develop outcome-based action plans to improve their WSH management systems. We will only allow the company to exit the programme after they fulfilled the action plans and demonstrated improvement in its WSH performance and management systems.