Review of the Community Dispute Management Framework

Response to parliamentary question on the timeline for the review of the Community Dispute Management Framework

Question

Mr Yip Hon Weng: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth when will a timeline on the review of the Community Dispute Management Framework be made available.

Response

Mr Edwin Tong, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth & Second Minister for Law:

1. The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth leads an inter-agency committee that regularly reviews the Framework - the Framework that Mr Yip has referred to - to update and improve measures such as referral protocol amongst frontline agencies, mediation and of course also legislative recourse.
2. Our guiding principles continue to be to:
   
   a. Strengthen the neighbourliness to minimise disputes upstream as far as possible;
   b. To encourage mediation between neighbours to mend relations as far as possible;
   c. And finally, as a measure of last resort, legal recourse for cases which may be intransigent.
3. Mr Yip and other members are welcome to share the views and feedback with us and with  the inter-agency committee, so this Framework can be strengthened.