DPM Lawrence Wong at the Launch of the Public Defender's Office

Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices of the Supreme Court,
My Cabinet and Parliamentary Colleagues K Shanmugam, Edwin Tong, and Rahayu Mahzam,
Attorney-General Lucien Wong,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am happy to join all of you this morning for the launch of the Public Defender’s Office in Singapore.

I think this must also be my first time speaking at an event with the legal fraternity

I should let all of you know that I have always thought that, in an alternate reality, I might have been amongst you, a member of the fraternity.

I had applied to NUS decades ago, and gotten a place to study Law; I was all set to do so.

But PSC offered a scholarship to study Economics overseas.

For a young person who had never seen the world at that time, it was just too good an offer to resist. Never mind the subject of study. It could be anything. I just wanted to go abroad.

So I took up the scholarship, and pursued a different path; that path has led me to where I am today.

I do not have the benefit of legal training, but over the years in Government, I’ve had many opportunities to learn more about important issues of Law and I'm sure these opportunities will continue to grow. And that’s why I am happy to have the chance to be here today, to meet all of you, and to mark this important chapter in the history of criminal justice in Singapore.

A sound criminal justice system is crucial to any society. And in Singapore, it serves as the foundation for our safe and orderly society. Over the decades, we have established an independent and well-respected judiciary; nurtured effective law enforcement agencies; and developed a professional legal fraternity.

We are known as one of the safest cities in the world, where women and children can go out at any time of the day assured of their personal safety. The vast majority of Singaporeans have trust and confidence in our legal system. All this has enabled our society to flourish and thrive.

One area which we have been looking at is the level of access Singaporeans have to legal help and representation in Court.

For a long time, the broad principle was that the Government should not pay to defend accused persons, except in capital cases.

In the case of non-capital offences, the legal fraternity took the lead in 1985 when the Law Society of Singapore, under Harry Elias, established the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme or CLAS. Under CLAS, lawyers provide legal aid to Singaporeans of limited means on a pro bono basis.

In capital cases, accused persons can be assigned a lawyer under the Legal Assistance Scheme for Capital Offences, and this is fully funded by the State.

But over the years, the Government has moved to fund a part of the costs. This was done initially by indirect funding to the legal fraternity to provide pro bono services to the lower income.

In 2015, the Government started funding CLAS directly. Today, the Government funds about 75% of CLAS’ operating costs, such as staff salaries and honoraria for volunteer lawyers, with private donations supporting the remaining 25%.

We have also been studying the need for the Government to do more. As many of you know, MinLaw had initiated a review, taking in feedback from the Law Society and the Criminal Bar. The outcome of the review was disclosed in Parliament earlier this year.

We decided that to better serve the ends of Justice, and help those who cannot afford legal representation, a Public Defenders’ Office should be established. This will ensure that the most vulnerable amongst us can have access to legal representation if they face criminal charges. There will be some types of offences which will not be covered, for reasons which have been explained in Parliament.

One of the concerns of MOF during the review was the sustainability of funding. MOF receives funding requests all the time; the hard truth is that we don’t have the resources to meet all of our rapidly growing needs, while living within our means. So there are difficult trade-offs to make and funding requests to prioritise. Furthermore, we have seen what happened in other jurisdictions with fully-funded government legal aid, where costs escalated sharply, and the governments had no choice but to make sudden, drastic cuts to funding.

I’m sure none of us want this to happen here in Singapore. But having learnt from the experiences elsewhere, we believe it is possible to structure government-funded legal aid in Singapore in a practical and fiscally sustainable manner. To be clear, what we are doing today will still require more funding from the Government. But I am happy to support the additional resources, including money and manpower, as I believe it will be money well spent for an important, fair and just cause.

The establishment of the Public Defender’s Office therefore is a major update to our criminal justice system.

The office will be fully funded by the Government and staffed by full-time criminal defence lawyers hired by the Ministry of Law to provide criminal legal aid to Singaporeans.

It will operate independently from the Prosecution, which is under the Attorney General’s Chambers. It will make its own hiring, promotion, and remuneration decisions; and our public defenders will provide quality and independent advice regardless of the circumstances.

With the establishment of the Public Defender’s Office, we will expand criminal legal aid coverage to more vulnerable Singaporeans. We will raise the income criteria to the 35th percentile of household income, up from the 25th percentile covered previously. We will also cover a wider range of offences.

Beyond providing legal advice and representation, the Public Defender’s Office will also strengthen the support to vulnerable Singaporeans in other ways.

Many legal aid applicants have long-term financial and social needs which cannot be met by legal representation alone.

To assist such applicants holistically, the Public Defender’s Office will partner and work closely with the Social Service Offices in MSF and other community organisations.

For example, the office will refer applicants with financial and social needs to SSOs and community partners. These partners in turn can refer cases which require legal representation to our public defenders.

All of this will ensure that the Government can provide a wider net of support to help applicants and their families through difficult times.

The Public Defender’s Office will also work closely with CLAS, which the Government will continue to co-fund, so ours will be a hybrid model of criminal legal aid. This is similar to the models in other jurisdictions like the UK and Australia.

For urgent cases where counsel should be assigned as soon as possible to avoid delaying justice, our public defenders will take the lead.

But for other cases, the Public Defender’s Office will work closely with CLAS to provide legal aid.

In short, the Public Defender’s Office will work closely together with Law Society’s Pro Bono SG and the Criminal Bar to improve access to justice. So I encourage our lawyers to continue to support CLAS. The pro bono spirit of the legal fraternity, which has been a key pillar of legal aid in Singapore, remains critical in ensuring that justice is available to all segments of our society.

Many of you present today, as well as countless other lawyers, have contributed your time and expertise to selflessly defend the legal rights of accused persons in Singapore. Thank you for all your contributions.

I encourage all of you to continue to engage in pro bono work, whether through CLAS or in your own way, and to serve the broader community in Singapore.

Finally, to all our public defenders here today, you have the privilege of being the pioneer batch of Singapore’s Public Defender’s Office. Let’s give them a big round of applause.

Some of you are mid-careers – you have decided to join the office, fired by a passion to serve the cause of justice, and I know a number of you are taking pay cuts to do so.

We also have amongst you fresh graduates – you could have chosen many other jobs in the legal field, but you have decided to join us, again driven by passion to serve.

I thank all of you for stepping forward, and responding to this important call to serve.

As with all new set ups, I am sure there will be challenges with the establishment of the office. But I have no doubt you will take them in your stride, you will hit the ground running, tackle issues resolutely, motivated always by the purpose and values that brought you here today.

And I have every confidence that you will do your best to ensure justice for those you represent, discharge your duty without fear or favour, and do your part to improve access to justice in Singapore.

To conclude, over the years, we have continuously evolved our criminal justice system to improve access to legal representation and justice for all Singaporeans. Today’s establishment of the Public Defender’s Office is a significant step forward in these efforts. Even as the government leans forward to do more, what has not changed is the important role of the legal fraternity in providing criminal legal aid in Singapore.

For maintaining access to justice will require our collective effort. If we continue to work in partnership together – the Government, the legal fraternity, and community partners – we can make Singapore a fairer and more inclusive society. Thank you very much.

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