On 5 November 2025, the Public Sector (Governance) (Amendment) Bill (“Bill“) was introduced in Parliament to amend the Public Sector (Governance) Act 2018 (“PSGA“), seeking to provide for directions on the sharing and use of information under the control of Singapore public sector agencies.
By way of background, the PSGA currently authorises data sharing solely within the public sector. In recent years, however, the Government has been collaborating more frequently with non-public sector persons. To enable these partners to perform their functions more efficiently, the Bill aims to amend existing legislation to authorise public sector agencies to share relevant information with external parties.
A public consultation was conducted by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information in August this year to seek feedback on the proposed amendments to the PSGA. For more information, please refer to our August 2025 NewsBytes article titled “Proposed Amendments to the Public Sector (Governance) Act for Agencies to Share Data with External Partners“. The feedback gathered at the public consultation was considered in formulating the Bill.
The Bill includes the following key amendments:
- Data sharing and use directions: The Bill provides for a “data sharing and use direction”, which authorises a Singapore public sector agency to (i) share information under its control with another Singapore public sector agency; (ii) share information under its control with any non-public sector person, but only with further authorisation of a Minister; (iii) use information under its control; and (iv) re-identify anonymised information under its control.
- Specification requirements: The data sharing and use directions issued under the Bill must clearly specify: (i) the purposes for which information may be shared, used, or re-identified; (ii) the information that may be shared or used; (iii) the parties involved; and (iv) the anonymised information that may be re-identified.
- Offence: The Bill provides that improper disclosure or use of information received under the data sharing and use directions is an offence.
Click on the following link for more information:
- Full text of the Bill (available on the Parliament of Singapore website at parliament.gov.sg)
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