Public Consultation on Remote Witnessing and Electronic Signing of Statutory Declarations

1. The Ministry of Law is seeking feedback on the framework for remote witnessing and electronic signing of statutory declarations. 

Background

2. A statutory declaration is a written statement that a person signs, and solemnly declares to be true. It has to be made before an authorised service provider, such as a Commissioner for Oaths. This is an in-person, paper-based process and usually involves the use of wet-ink signatures.

3. On 2 August 2023, Parliament passed the Oaths, Declarations and Notarisations (Remote Methods) Act 2023 (“ODN Act”). The ODN Act amends the Oaths and Declarations Act 2000. Once the ODN Act comes into force, it will, amongst other things, provide individuals, businesses and service providers who are executing statutory declarations with the option of remote witnessing in place of an in-person meeting, and electronic signing in place of wet-ink signing, as long as both the declarant and service provider are physically present in Singapore. 

4. We seek the public’s feedback on the specific requirements that should govern the remote witnessing and electronic signing process for the execution of statutory declarations. These requirements will be set out in subsidiary legislation. 

Public Consultation Paper

5. The public consultation paper can be accessed at the bottom of this page.

Invitation to Provide Feedback

6. Please submit your feedback by 2 August 2024 via FormSG using the following button / link: 

share your feedback

7. Your feedback is important to us. All comments received will be considered. However, we seek your understanding that we will not be able to individually acknowledge or address every comment. To maintain confidentiality, we will anonymise and aggregate the results of this engagement exercise in any public disclosure.

8. Thank you.