The Regulars' List

Being listed means the regulars of the centre have asked that the dish be kept. A regular is one named person who says he orders from the stall at least weekly, to eat there or take away; the unit is the order, not the plate, so a family's takeaway of several plates is one order; each person endorses once, verified lightly by a mobile number, and an endorsement is never bought. A stall is listed at Bronze when 20 regulars endorse it, or when its centre's hawkers' association nominates it, after one short listing visit with the hawker's consent. Bronze always needs its 20 names; Silver, Gold and Platinum follow at 50, 100 and 250 endorsements, or at 10%, 20% and 50% of the stall's weekly orders placed by its regulars, whichever comes first, so a small stall is not held back by its size (D.4.2 shows what each grade means in orders, by stall and by dish type, and why a Gold or Platinum base marks a sound business). Until the Year 0 stall baseline is in, the shares and plates an order (about 1.2 for drinks and snacks, 1.3 for noodles and rice, 2.0 for family dishes) are assumptions; the baseline sets them by dish type before the first listing, and the counts route does not move. Grades only go up, and a stall leaves only by its hawker's choice or by closing: there is no yearly re-test. A stall climbs by how it treats the people who come back; no one scores manners and there is no complaint channel. Nominations open at all 123 government hawker centres from Year 1; privately run coffeeshops and food courts follow the existing exception route. Everyone listed gets the same small things: a page in the Endangered Dish Registry in the regulars' own words, a counter decal showing the grade and the year of listing ('Regulars' List · a dish this neighbourhood wants kept'), a place on the centre's price board and in the Buying Circles' order book, a line in the centre's yearly booklet and map, and a thank-you note to the regulars. No visit stipends, no decal fees. Going further is opt-in: a Master Fellowship or documentation is offered only when the hawker wants to teach and the Registry's open test says the dish is fragile; grades never gate either. Kept apart, a yearly at-risk count, from two signals hawkers give voluntarily (no successor in view, an intention to stop within three years) and public facts (a closure notice, a lease ending), is published only as national and per-centre totals, never naming a stall, and goes to NEA and MSE, NHB and MCCY, and the Singapore Tourism Board. Assumed 300, 600 and 800 stalls listed by the end of Years 1–3, 15–25% of them counted at risk. From Year 4 the count feeds how many new Fellowships each pilot centre funds.

Who pays

PHILANTHROPY-FUNDED · SELF-FINANCING

What it costs

$416,570 SGD · Years 1–3, nationally, in the operating budget, with contingency

It sits in the operating budget, not the programme budget, because it is the cost of keeping the list, not money that reaches hawkers

What it builds on

None at stall level: MCCY confirmed on 7 Oct 2026 that the Government keeps no list of hawker trades at risk, and NHB's inventory of intangible cultural heritage names food practices, not the stalls at risk (§1.1, §3.6).

The ask of Government

Decision

Use the yearly at-risk count – the count (§3.6), national and per-centre totals that never name a stall, goes to one named recipient: the permanent committee below or, until it exists, NHB, the body that deals with UNESCO on Singapore's behalf, which shares it with NEA, MSE, MCCY and the Singapore Tourism Board; each says how it will use it

Instrument

Administrative; aggregates only, from signals hawkers give voluntarily and public facts

Fiscal cost

Zero

What it buys

The count Singapore does not yet keep (§1.1). NHB and MCCY can report it to UNESCO beside the Registry's list; NEA and MSE can point at-risk stalls to the Hawkers Succession Scheme; STB can send visitors to the stalls that most need the custom. "Singapore can name what it is losing, stall by stall."

From §7.7.

Who gains

Diners

Twenty regulars together put a stall on the Regulars' List at Bronze, and more of them lift it, grade by grade; the decal tells you the neighbourhood wants the dish kept (§3.6, §6.2.1).

Hawkers

The diners' honour, grade by grade, and the same small things for every listed stall: a Registry page, a decal, a place on the price board and in the booklet; a Fellowship only if you want to teach (§3.6).

Government

A yearly count of the stalls at risk, national and per centre, never naming a stall: the number MCCY said in October 2026 the Government does not keep (§1.1, §3.6, §7.7).