The Armed Forces Act 2011 (c. 18) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Provisions It part of a series of acts to provide a legislative framework for the UK Armed Forces. The act gave the armed forces the legal authority to exist for another five years (under the terms of the Declaration of Right).Taylor, p. 1
Its most major element was to establish a requirement for the Secretary of State for Defence to make an annual report to Parliament on the implementation of the Armed Forces Covenant. It also made some revisions to the Armed Forces Act 2006, and provisions covering the three service police forces and the Ministry of Defence Police.
Ping-pong
Stage Date Hansard Reference NotesProgramme (No. 3) motion: House of Commons, and Commons Consideration of Lords' Amendments19 Oct 2011Columns 1008-1021Lord's Consideration of Commons Reason26 Oct 2011Columns 856-863
Royal assent
The bill was given royal assent (and thus became an act) on 3 November 2011.
Reception The director general of the Royal British Legion, Chris Simpkins, criticised the legislation describing it as a "U-turn" from the government's original commitment, due to the lack of an external body to monitor implementation of the covenant. Simpkins described it as the Ministry of Defence monitoring itself.
Notes
References
Further reading House of Commons Hansard, http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/commons/ Murrison, Andrew (2011) 'Tommy This 'an Tommy That: The Military Covenant' Biteback. Taylor, Claire; House of Commons Research Paper 10/85 'Armed Forces Bill', Bill 122 of 2010–11. Dated 17 December 2010.
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