Judicial Service Commission to be formed to take in legal officers in judicial roles; bills tabled

LEGAL service officers (LSOs) holding judicial posts will be transferred as judicial service officers to the newly established Judicial Service Commission from the Legal Service Commission, if the proposed change is passed into law.

The Legal Service Commission will be reconstituted to hold non-judicial posts in the legal branch, such as in the Attorney-General's Chambers and ministries.

These proposed changes to be made through the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill and the Judicial Service (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill were tabled for first reading by Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong in Parliament on Monday, and are expected to be implemented in January 2022.

The structural changes aim to allow the officers with the two commissions to deepen their specialisation, amid an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving legal landscape.

Currently, all LSOs are under the Legal Service Commission, with about 220 of them holding posts in the judicial branch, such as assistant registrars in the Supreme Court and district judges and magistrates in the State Courts and Family Courts, and about 580 in non-judicial roles.

The Judicial Service Commission will be helmed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, while the reconstituted Legal Service Commission's president will be Attorney-General Lucien Wong. The chairman of the Public Service Commission will be vice-president of both commissions.

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The prime minister, the respective presidents of the commissions and the Public Service Commission chairman may each nominate up to two members to the respective commission, subject to the approval of the Singapore president.

Nominated members cannot be public officers, members of Parliament, office-holders in any political association or trade union members.

The respective commissions will exercise personnel management functions in respect of the officers in their respective services. Each commission will be empowered to delegate to personnel boards its functions and powers, except for those relating to senior officers at or above a designated grade, and discipline and dismissal of any officers.

Cross-service secondments and permanent transfers between the services will be made available on application.

Separate tracks were set up for middle-ranked LSOs in 2014 to let them pursue judicial or non-judicial posts, and the personnel boards overseeing human resource functions were split into two to separately take care of the officers in judicial and non-judicial roles.

The Judicial Service Commission was proposed in Parliament earlier this year by Member of Parliament Murali Pillai, and this suggestion had also been raised prior to that.