{"id":76465,"date":"2016-11-25T13:18:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-25T13:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=7c9e9f015b0418d748dddd4845d59d95"},"modified":"2016-11-25T13:18:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T13:18:00","slug":"news-story-government-supports-awards-for-valour-protection-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=76465","title":{"rendered":"News story: Government supports \u2018Awards for Valour (Protection)\u2019 Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

New proposals will make it a crime for anyone to pose as a military veteran by wearing medals, awarded by the nation, that they have not earned themselves.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Awards for Valour (Protection)\u2019 Bill was supported by the Government at Second Reading in the House of Commons today.<\/p>\n

With Government support, the Bill should become law and those flouting the rules, widely known as \u2018Walter Mittys\u2019, could face up to 3 months in prison or an unlimited fine.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Harriett Baldwin, who responded to the Bill in the Commons today on behalf of the Government said:<\/p>\n

\n

Wearing unauthorised medals is harmful because it undermines the integrity of our formal military honours
\nsystem \u2013 a historic system that has honoured the bravery and dedication of our world-class Armed Forces since
\nthe 19th century.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Bill tabled by MP Gareth Johnson and supported by the Government is also backed by the House of Commons Defence Committee<\/a> and an e-petition<\/a> signed by 11,000 members of the public.<\/p>\n

The Bill rightly protects family members wearing relative\u2019s medals as a sign of respect and theatrical, TV or film productions.<\/p>\n

Following the Bill passing Second Reading today, it will now move to the Committee Stage where it will be gone through in detail and any necessary amendments made.<\/p>\n

It is already an offence under the Fraud Act of 2006 for someone to wear a medal they are not entitled to, but only if it is for financial gain. This offence carries a sentence of up to 10 years\u2019 imprisonment. This Bill seeks to tackle those who are not covered by this provision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u2018Awards for Valour (Protection)\u2019 Bill will make it a crime for anyone to pose as a military veteran and deceive others by wearing honour or gallantry medals that they have not earned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76477,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76465\/revisions\/76477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}