Petition · past parliament

IRA bomber is set to be handed state-funded armed services pension

Rejected 19 signatures

What the petition asks

A FORMER solider who joined the IRA and bombed a British army barracks is set to receive an armed services pension.
Anyone who is convicted of an offence that attracts his kind of sentence, is automatically banned from receiving his AF pension.
Michael Dickson, who used to serve with the Royal Engineers, was sentenced to six years in prison for the mortar attack in Osnabruck in Germany in June 1996.
Dickson now regulary speaks at fundraisers for the IRA’s political wing Sinn Feinn

Why it was rejected

It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.

We can't accept petitions about an individual's pension arrangements.

You could start a new petition calling for the rules on pensions for ex-servicemen and women to changed, so that anyone convicted of specific kinds of offences would lose their pension entitlement.

Timeline

12 Aug 2016 Petition opened for signatures
16 Aug 2016 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 19
Status Rejected
Rejected 16 Aug 2016

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.