KOH LIAN KOK v PUBLIC PROSECUTOR

Case Significance

Koh Lian Kok v Public Prosecutor [2024] SGHC 132 was decided by the General Division of the High Court of Singapore on 21 May 2024 in Magistrate's Appeal No 9111 of 2023, with Sundaresh Menon CJ delivering the judgment of the court, sitting with Steven Chong JCA and Vincent Hoong J, after hearings on 16 February and 1 March 2024. The appeal concerned workplace safety, with the court noting that the rules governing workplace safety are "written in blood" and referring to the 2004 Nicoll Highway collapse, the fire on the vessel "Almudaina" at Keppel Shipyard, and an accident at Fusionopolis, which together claimed 13 lives, as incidents that added urgency to reforming the Factories Act and led to the Workplace Safety and Health Act 2006 (Act 7 of 2006). The appellant, Mr Koh Lian Kok, was charged under s 12(2) read with s 20 of the Workplace Safety and Health Act 2006 (Cap 354A, 2009 Rev Ed), and appealed against his sentence after pleading guilty; the judgment addressed benchmark sentences for such statutory offences.