The Environmental Sanitation Regime (ESR) is a nationwide effort to keep the public sanitation standards of high risk public areas high. Starting from 30 Jul 2021, the ESR has been rolled out in stages to the eldercare, youth and social service facilities, and pre-schools. The facilities that have to comply with the ESR are also known as “Specified Premises”
What is the Criteria for Specified Premises?
Public places that experience high human traffic and/or have occupants who have low immunity (immuno-vulnerable) will be progressively identified by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to be a specified premises.
Examples of public places that experience high human traffic are the hawker centres, coffeeshops and markets.
Examples of public places that house immuno-vulnerable occupants are the eldercare facilities, youth and social service facilities, pre-schools and schools.
How Do I Know If My Business Has to Comply with the Environmental Sanitation Regime (ESR)?
For every sector that has been identified to be covered by the ESR, the National Environment Agency (NEA) would identify “sectoral leads” who would advise NEA on how the sector-specific mandatory baseline standards could be customised for the sector. At the same time, the sectoral leads would identify the facilities in the sector that would have to comply with the ESR. The will subsequently inform them of the need to prepare for – and how to prepare for – the ESR.
In other words, you would have been informed by your sectoral leads, who are also government agencies, if you have to start the ESR in your workplace.
NEA Website
Alternatively, you can refer to NEA’s ESR website to find out if the sector you are in is included in the ESR. This is also the place where you will find the necessary resources to guide you on how to prepare for the ESR (it is also where this website obtains the authoritative information).
URL: https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/public-cleanliness/ESR
Singapore Statutes Online
Another source, albeit one that requires you to be very good in English, will be the Singapore Statutes Online.
You can follow this link https://sso.agc.gov.sg/SL/EPHA1987-S532-2021?DocDate=20210719 or go to https://sso.agc.gov.sg/ to search for “Environmental Public Health (Designation of Specified Premises)”. As the name suggests, it lists down and defines the public places designated as a specified premises.
As at 1 Aug 2021, the list of specified premises found on the Order is:
- adult disability home
- coffeeshop
- disability hostel
- early childhood development centre
- eldercare and social‑communal facility
- food centre or market
- Government school
- Government‑aided school
- healthcare institution
- home for children and young persons
- home for the aged
- independent school
- language centre
- welfare home
If the above list or the definitions on the Singapore Statutes Online page looks confusing, just know that the above refer to eldercare facilities, youth facilities, pre-schools, non-MOH nursing homes, hawker centres, markets, coffeeshops and schools (not distance learning universities, enrichment or tuition centres).
NEA has a special infographic that shows the start dates of these sectors till the end of Mar 2022:
Conclusion
The idea of having to comply with a new sanitation regime sounds daunting. In fact, the preparation for, starting with the consultation with the sectoral leads was years in the making. If you haven’t caught wind of whether your business have to comply with the ESR in the past 2 years, it means that you are most likely not required to start ESR in your workplace in the next few months. If in doubt, always refer to NEA’s ESR website or the Singapore Statutes Online to fact check what you had heard of!
Sources:
National Environmental Agency (Environmental Sanitation Regime): https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/public-cleanliness/ESR
National Environmental Agency (ECC Registration): https://licence1.business.gov.sg/feportal/web/frontier/home
Singapore Statutes Online: https://sso.agc.gov.sg/
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