Under consideration PE1893: Introduce legislation to protect Scotland's war memorials
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce legislation which recognises desecration or vandalism of war memorials as a specific criminal offence.
Previous action taken
I have met with my MSP, Annie Wells, who suggested that I use the public petitions route. She is fully in favour of our objective and is willing to give any support needed.
I have also written to MSPs and I know there is much cross-party support for such legislation.
I have gauged opinion on social media platforms where there is also great support.
Background information
Our group has identified what we believe to be a gap in the law.
The law treats vandalism/desecration of places of worship, for example, differently when compared to a block of flats but doesn’t treat desecration of a memorial to the fallen differently to that of a telephone box.
A war memorial is sometimes all that grieving families have left of their loved ones. Over the past 5 years there has been a significant increase in attacks on Scotland's war memorials.
These memorials have a special place in society, and we believe that they should be protected as such.
That is why we submit this petition.
This petition is now under consideration by the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
This petition did not collect signatures