Written Reply by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen to Parliamentary Question Regarding Enlistees with Security Concerns

Mr Leong Mun Wai asked the Minister for Defence for each year of 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020 and 2024, what is the percentage of National Service enlistees who are identified by the Military Security Department as individuals who may pose security threats and are not placed into positions to acquire soldiering skills or gain access to equipment that pose a threat.

Minister for Defence, Dr Ng Eng Hen:

The Military Security Department (MSD) has in place a security screening process to detect military personnel who may pose a security risk. It is standard organisational capability for militaries around the world, to mitigate the risk of their trained soldiers inflicting harm on their peers or civilians.

These screening efforts take place during enlistment and throughout their course of service as national servicemen. MSD works closely with other Government security agencies in performing this role.

Personnel picked up by these screening efforts are excluded from roles where they can acquire skills or gain access to information or equipment that pose a threat.

These screening efforts require professional judgement and calibration. If the criteria are too tight, we may exclude from training an excess of soldiers who ultimately pose no threats; on the contrary, applying criteria that are too loose may result in high-risk individuals being missed during the screening process.

MSD, in performing its role, therefore calibrates these criteria periodically depending on review of feedback and prevailing security conditions. These calibrations can result in year-to-year fluctuations. At the current levels of screening, the number of individuals picked up for observation and exclusion annually are small at about 0.1% (or about 50 individuals for an average number of close to thirty thousand pre-enlistees screened each year) over the last 10 years.