Introduction

Singapore’s legislative calendar from late 2024 through early 2026 has been unusually active, with Parliament passing or tabling several laws that touch on digital life, personal safety, and the structure of the legal profession. Four developments stand out for their practical impact on individuals, businesses, legal practitioners, and international law firms with a Singapore presence.

(a) Scams: Mandatory Caning and Platform Accountability

The Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2025, passed on 4 November 2025 and operationalised on 30 December 2025, introduced mandatory caning for scam-related offences — among the toughest anti-scam measures globally. Scammers and syndicate members face 6 to 24 strokes of the cane; scam mules (those who lend accounts, SIM cards, or Singpass credentials) face up to 12 strokes. The severity reflects the scale of the problem: over US$2.8 billion was lost to scams in Singapore between 2020 and mid-2025, with fraud crimes surging 70% in 2024 alone.

On the platform side, the Online Criminal Harms Act (OCHA) has been deployed to issue directives to major tech companies including Meta, Apple, and Google, requiring anti-spoofing measures and enhanced scam detection — with fines of up to S$1 million for non-compliance. Enforcement under OCHA signals a clear pivot from persuasion to compulsion in Singapore’s approach to platform accountability.

(b) Online Harms: Statutory Torts and a New Commissioner

The Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act (OSRA), passed on 5 November 2025, establishes the Office of the Commissioner of Online Safety — a one-stop agency targeted for launch in the first half of 2026. The law covers 13 categories of online harm including harassment, doxxing, stalking, intimate image abuse, impersonation, and incitement to violence. Critically, it creates statutory torts giving victims the right to sue online platforms for damages and injunctions — an approach that goes further than comparable legislation in Australia and the UK. The law was driven by survey data showing 84% of Singapore residents had encountered harmful online content.

(c) Consensual Obscene Material: Decriminalising Private Exchange

As part of the Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, Singapore has clarified that the consensual, private exchange of obscene material between adults will no longer be criminalised. The amendment recognises the reality of digital communication while maintaining strict protections for minors. The age threshold for enhanced penalties for obscene material involving minors has been raised from 16 to 18 years, and a new offence targets those who establish platforms facilitating large-scale distribution of such material, with enhanced penalties where obscene content is distributed to 10 or more persons.

(d) Law Practice Licensing: Domestic Training Reforms and the Foreign Firms Framework

Commencing on 17 April 2025, amendments to the Legal Profession Act reshape how lawyers are admitted to the Singapore Bar. The practice training period is extended from six months to one year, with trainees gaining limited rights to practise after the first six months. Up to three months of training may now be served at approved in-house legal departments, expanding pathways beyond traditional law firms. Admission to the Bar is decoupled from completion of the training contract, providing greater flexibility for candidates pursuing non-traditional legal careers.

For foreign law practices, the picture is equally significant. Singapore’s nine Qualifying Foreign Law Practice (QFLP) licences — held by elite international firms including Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Linklaters, and White & Case — expired at end-2025 and were renewed for an interim two-year period running from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027. This shorter renewal cycle, down from the standard five years, reflects an ongoing review of the QFLP framework.

In October 2025, MinLaw published the Report of the Committee to Review the Regulatory Framework for Law Practices and Collaborations, the first comprehensive review since 2014. The committee made 10 recommendations across four areas: criteria governing collaboration arrangements between Singapore Law Practices (SLPs) and foreign firms; requirements for foreign lawyers and Foreign Law Practices (FLPs) to hold interests in SLPs; lawyer composition requirements for foreign entities; and miscellaneous modernisation measures. A public consultation on the recommendations ran until 14 January 2026, with MinLaw’s formal response expected in 2026. The outcome will determine the shape of QFLP licences beyond 2027 and may loosen or tighten the terms under which foreign firms access Singapore law work through Joint Law Ventures and Formal Law Alliances.

Summary

Singapore’s 2025 legal reforms demonstrate a government comfortable using both criminal deterrence and civil remedies to address harms amplified by technology — while simultaneously modernising the legal profession’s structure. For international law firms, the interim QFLP renewal and the MinLaw committee review signal a period of regulatory flux that demands close attention to how foreign practice rights in Singapore may evolve after 2027.