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SINGAPORE \u2013 No further action needs to be taken against Workers\u2019 Party leaders Sylvia Lim and Faisal Manap for lying to a parliamentary committee<\/span><\/a> as the time limit for Parliament to impose penalties under the law has lapsed, said Leader of the House Indranee Rajah.<\/p>\n In a ministerial statement on July 7, she addressed the conduct of the two WP leaders in relation to former WP MP Raeesah Khan\u2019s lying case<\/span><\/a>, and explained why the House can no longer impose penalties on the duo under the Parliament (Privileges, Immunities and Powers) Act (PPIPA).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHad the timelines been different, I would have proposed a different course of action,\u201d said Indranee, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n \u201cThis outcome has happened because even though this House was entitled to act on the Committee\u2019s findings in 2021, it decided to give Ms Lim and Mr Faisal the benefit of the doubt for the time being,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Indranee also said that while the House can pass a motion to signal its disapproval of lying, this had already been done in January when Parliament declared WP leader Pritam Singh unsuitable as Leader of the Opposition<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n Her ministerial statement effectively brings the longstanding saga to a close in Parliament.<\/p>\n It comes one week after the WP closed a chapter on the issue during its internal elections and meeting on June 28, when party cadres voted for Singh to remain as their leader<\/span><\/a> despite his conviction over the matter.<\/p>\n Lim and Faisal were both MPs in Aljunied GRC when they were implicated in a lie involving former Sengkang GRC MP Raeesah Khan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Khan had made up an anecdote about the police<\/span><\/a> in her speech in Parliament in 2021, and Lim, Faisal and Singh were found to have lied to Parliament\u2019s Committee of Privileges investigating the issue.<\/p>\n The committee found that Singh had asked Khan to \u201ctake her lie to the grave\u201d<\/span><\/a> during a meeting on Aug 8, 2021.<\/p>\n While Lim and Faisal were at the meeting, they denied that the matter was discussed.<\/p>\n As Singh\u2019s conduct was deemed the most serious, he was referred by Parliament to the public prosecutor, for the matter to be independently investigated and for him to defend himself with the benefit of legal representation, said Indranee.<\/p>\n Lim and Faisal were found to have played a \u201csubsidiary\u201d role and had also been \u201csomewhat helpful to the committee, albeit in a limited way\u201d, she added.<\/p>\n As such, Parliament had opted to wait for Singh\u2019s criminal proceedings to be completed before dealing with Lim and Faisal, to be fair to the duo, she said.<\/p>\n Singh was eventually convicted by the District Court in February 2025, but appealed. His conviction was upheld by the High Court<\/span><\/a> in December 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Indranee said the court\u2019s findings in Singh\u2019s case \u2013 where he was convicted of lying to Parliament \u2013 confirmed the findings of the committee that Lim and Faisal had lied.<\/p>\n She added that she would ordinarily initiate a process under the PPIPA to deal with such \u201cdishonourable conduct and a serious contempt of Parliament\u201d.<\/p>\n In most cases, offences under the PPIPA can be dealt with fairly quickly and in the same session of Parliament, she noted.<\/p>\n \u201cOccasionally, the offence may occur in one session of Parliament but for whatever reason Parliament may not be able to deal with it immediately, and it is dealt with in a subsequent session of Parliament. However, in the interests of finality, there are constraints on this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n