MCI response to PQ on making public consultations conducted by REACH

26 FEB 2021

Parliament Sitting on 26 February 2021

QUESTION FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

14. Mr Leon Perera: To ask the Minister for Communications and Information (a) over the past five years, what proportion of REACH public consultations have had their results (or a summary thereof) made open to the public; (b) whether the full findings (as opposed to the summary) of these public consultations are made available to independent researchers; and (c) what is the average length of time for which consultations are run.

Answer:

  1. REACH aims to engage Singaporeans and seek their feedback through multiple platforms such as dialogues, mobile listening points, chat groups and surveys to better understand ground issues and concerns.  

  2. Feedback collected by REACH is shared with the relevant Ministries as part of their ongoing process to review and improve policies. REACH also periodically releases findings that may be of public interest, such as the findings from our annual feedback exercise on the Budget. 

  3. Government agencies may also tap on the REACH Public Consultation portal to obtain feedback on specific issues as part of their policy formulation and review process. Government agencies decide on the duration of their respective public consultations on REACH’s website, but it typically lasts four weeks. 

  4. Over the past five years, 126 public consultations were hosted on the REACH website. The findings or summary of responses of 49 such public consultations were published on the REACH portal, at the request of the agency. Other agencies consolidate their findings from various feedback avenues and publish these on their own platforms and/or share them with relevant stakeholders, including researchers, as appropriate.