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Registration of Criminals
Act 1949

2020 REVISED EDITION

This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021

An Act to provide for the registration of criminals.

[29 June 1949]

PART 1

PRELIMINARY

[45/2002]

Short title

1. This Act is the Registration of Criminals Act 1949.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“authorised officer” means —

(a)	a police officer;
(b)	an officer of customs of the Singapore Customs in any case concerning an offence or alleged offence against any law or provision of law which is the function of the Singapore Customs to enforce;
(c)	an immigration officer;
(ca)	a forensic specialist acting in accordance with an authorisation under section 65B(1) of the Police Force Act 2004 to exercise a power under this Act;
(d)	an officer of any law enforcement agency in any case concerning an offence or alleged offence against any law or provision of law which it is the function of that agency to enforce; and
(e)	any other person who is duly appointed in writing by the Commissioner of Police as an authorised officer for the purposes of this Act or any provision of this Act;

“body sample” means —

(a)	a sample of blood;
(b)	a sample of head hair, including the roots of the head hair;
(c)	a swab taken from an individual’s mouth; or
(d)	any other sample that is prescribed under subsection (2); [Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

[Deleted by Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“DNA” means deoxyribonucleic acid;

“DNA database” means the database maintained under section 31;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“DNA information” means genetic information derived from the forensic DNA analysis of a body sample;

“DNA officer” means an individual who is qualified and authorised under section 18(1) to take body samples;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“eligible crime” means any offence that is, at the time of the commission of the offence —

(a)	punishable by imprisonment;
(b)	not a registrable crime; and
(c)	not compoundable under any written law (unless the offence is specified in the third column of the Fourth Schedule to the Criminal Procedure Code 2010); [Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“finger impression” includes palmar impressions, hand prints, finger prints, foot prints or toe prints;

“forensic procedure”, in relation to an individual, includes doing one or all of the following in relation to the individual:

(a)	taking an impression or cast of a wound from the external parts of the individual’s body other than the parts referred to in subsection (3); [Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]
(b)	the taking of physical measurements (whether or not involving marking) for biomechanical analysis of an external part of the body other than the parts referred to in subsection (3); [Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]
(c)	removing any article that the individual is wearing, and searching any article so removed;
(d)	removing a relevant thing attached physically to those external parts of the individual’s body or taking a sample of that relevant thing;
(e)	photographing any relevant thing in the position it is found on the external parts of the individual’s body, or in the individual’s mouth;

“forensic specialist” means an individual who is appointed under section 65A of the Police Force Act 2004 as a forensic specialist;

“identification database” means the database maintained under section 29;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“identifying information”, in relation to an individual, means all of the following information:

(a)

any description of the individual, including —

(i)	the individual’s sex;
(ii)	the individual’s age or apparent age;
(iii)	the individual’s bodily appearance; and
(iv)	the individual’s height;

(b)

any document that contains information that identifies the individual;

(c)

any finger impression of the individual;

(d)

any name of the individual or any name by which the individual is or is believed to have been known;

(e)

any photograph of the individual;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“law enforcement agency” means any body or organisation which is prescribed by the Minister to be a law enforcement agency for the purposes of this Act;

“other particulars”, in relation to an individual, means any particulars, information or description of that individual, other than his or her identifying information, that may be relevant or useful in the identification of that individual;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“photograph”, in relation to an individual, includes the photograph of any distinguishing feature or mark on the body of that individual;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“principal registration area” means Singapore and Malaysia;

“register” means the register of criminals maintained in accordance with section 4;

[Deleted by Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“registrable crime” means any offence included for the time being in the First Schedule;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“registrable particulars”, in relation to an individual, means —

(a)

the individual’s identifying information;

(b)

any record of any other particulars about the individual that has been made under section 9(2)(b)(iii), 10(2)(a)(ii)(C) or 11(4)(a)(ii)(C) or (6)(b)(iii);

(c)

the particulars of —

(i)	any conviction for a registrable crime;
(ii)	any sentence or order for that conviction; or
(iii)	any order of banishment, deportation, expulsion or removal,

in respect of the individual; and

(d)

any particulars of any charge for an offence (whether or not a registrable crime) that was taken into consideration in determining and passing sentence on the conviction for the registrable crime;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“Registrar” means the Registrar of Criminals appointed under section 3, and includes an Assistant Registrar of Criminals;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“Reviewing Tribunal” means a Reviewing Tribunal established by section 41;

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

“volunteer” means an individual who voluntarily gives his or her consent under section 14 or 23 for the taking of any identifying information or body sample (as the case may be) from him or her.

[45/2002; 4/2003; 10/2015]

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

(2) Subject to subsection (3), the Minister may prescribe any additional type of sample of or from an individual’s body that may be taken under this Act.

[Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

(3) The additional type of sample that may be prescribed under subsection (2) must not include body samples to be obtained from —

(a)	an individual’s genital or anal region;
(b)	an individual’s body orifice other than the mouth; or
(c)	the breasts of a woman. [Act 26 of 2022 wef 12/06/2023]

Appointment of Registrar of Criminals and Assistant Registrars

3.—(1) The President may appoint a Registrar of Criminals and such Assistant Registrars as he or she may consider necessary for the purposes of this Act.

(2) The President may, with the concurrence of the government of Malaysia, appoint an officer in the service of that government to be a Registrar of Criminals or an Assistant Registrar for the purposes of this Act.