On 20 October 2011, the Singapore Ministry of Law published the International Arbitration (Amendment) Bill (draft bill) proposing amendments to the IAA and commenced a one-month consultation, entitled Public Consultation on Proposed Amendments to the International Arbitration Act and Proposed Enactment of the Foreign Limitation Periods Act. The draft bill proposes some clarifications and a number of amendments intended to keep the IAA up to date. The main amendments proposed in the draft bill are to:

In its current form, the IAA does not apply to oral arbitration agreements. The proposed amendments would allow oral arbitration agreements and arbitration agreements concluded by conduct to be recognised pursuant to the IAA, as long as these arbitration agreements are later recorded in any form, including oral recordings. This is intended to acknowledge the commercial reality that many arbitration agreements, even those relating to high-value contracts, are initially concluded orally.

The IAA currently grants the Singapore courts the right of judicial review of an arbitral tribunal's decision that it has jurisdiction in an arbitration. However, there is no corresponding right of review in relation to a tribunal's decision that it does not have jurisdiction in an arbitration.

On 12 April 2011, the Singapore Law Reform Committee published a report calling for this inconsistency to be removed and for the Singapore courts to be allowed to review a tribunal's negative jurisdictional ruling (see Legal update, Singapore Law Reform Committee proposes right to judicial review of negative jurisdictional rulings of arbitral tribunals). Having received general (but not universal) support from arbitration practitioners in Singapore, this proposal to allow judicial review of negative jurisdictional rulings has been included in the draft bill.

The draft bill inserts a provision in the IAA to empower a court to make costs orders in cases where the arbitral tribunal determines that it has jurisdiction, but the court upon review finds otherwise.

The appointment of emergency arbitrators, to determine applications for urgent interim relief prior to a full arbitral tribunal being appointed, is becoming increasingly common in international arbitration. A number of arbitral institutions' rules now include provisions for such a procedure, including the most recent editions of the SIAC and the ICC rules of arbitration (see Legal updates, New SIAC arbitration rules: key changes and ICC Rules of Arbitration 2012 launched). The draft bill clarifies that awards granted by emergency arbitrators will be enforceable in the Singapore courts.

There is currently some ambiguity in Singapore as to the scope of an arbitral tribunal's powers to award interest. The draft bill clarifies that tribunals have the power to grant post-award interest. The bill expressly prescribes powers of a tribunal to grant simple or compound interest on monies claimed in arbitrations, as well as costs.