Debated in Parliament on 4 Jul 2022.
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) in the past five years, how many cases are there of breach of Personal Protection Orders, Expedited Orders and Domestic Exclusion Orders under the Women's Charter annually; (b) in how many of those cases involved a repeat offender; and (c) in how many of those cases was the offender penalised with imprisonment and what is the average duration of the prison sentence.
Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) for the past five years, what is the proportion of applications that have been filed by male applicants for (i) Personal Protection Orders (ii) Expedited Orders and (iii) Domestic Exclusion Orders; and (b) whether the Ministry keeps track of the age group of such applicants.
Over the past five years, male applicants made up about one in four fresh Personal Protection Order (PPO) applications under the Women’s Charter (see annual breakdown in Table 1). Of these, 11% of male applicants were aged between 18 and 30 years, 52% between 31 and 50, and 37% were 51 and above.
When applying for a PPO, an applicant may request for a Domestic Exclusion Order (DEO). The annual breakdown of applicants who apply for a DEO by gender is in Table 1. There is no application process for an Expedited Order (EO), which is issued by the Court if it is satisfied that there is imminent danger of family violence being committed against the applicant.
The annual breakdown of criminal breaches of a PPO, EO or DEO is in Table 2.
Slightly more than 10% of the offenders were convicted of criminal breaches of a PPO, EO or DEO more than once between 2017 and 2021. Over the last five years, in about 80% of the criminal convictions under the Women’s Charter for the breach of a PPO, EO or DEO, the offenders were sentenced to an average of two months' imprisonment.
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