The Hawkers Department formulates, implements and administers hawker policies, including licensing and tenancy matters. The Department also oversees the upgrading of MEWR and HDB hawker centres.

The Department comprises the following sections:

1. Licensing & Tenancy
2. Hawker Centres Management
3. Hawker Centres Development
4. Strategic Planning & Policy
5. Quality Service & Communications
6. Administration
7. Revenue & Systems

On 1 April 2004, the management of HDB markets/food centres was consolidated under NEA and placed under the purview of the Hawkers Department. Today, there are more than 15,000 stalls in 112 government hawker centres comprising –

25 MEWR centres
82 HDB centres
5 JTC centres

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Licensing and Tenancy

NEA is in-charge of the following matters:

• Licensing of all hawkers, including the registration of hawker assistants, nominees and food handlers, etc.
• Tendering of vacant stalls in MEWR and HDB hawker centres for rent.
• Processing of applications for assignments and transfers of stall tenancies in MEWR and HDB hawker centres.

Hawker Centres Management

NEA is concerned with the management of all hawkers and the maintenance of MEWR hawker centres. Although the common areas of HDB centres are maintained by the respective Town Councils, the Department works closely with them to ensure that all hawker centres are maintained at a good standard of hygiene and cleanliness.  To this end, the Department carries out the following:

• Regular inspections at hawker stalls to ensure that all stallholders comply with rules and regulations, and maintain a high standard of hygiene.
• Regular inspections of all hawker centres to ensure that a high standard of cleanliness is maintained and monitor the performances of Town Councils to ensure that HDB centres are well maintained.
• Enforcement of cleaning contracts in MEWR centres.
• Investigation of all feedback/complaints from the public pertaining to hawker centres.