Award the Elizabeth Cross to families of NHS staff that died of corona virus. · petition

What the petition asks

The Government shroud recommend to Her Majesty that the award (or an NHS equivalent) should be given to NHS staff families who have lost their loved ones due to COVID-19

The Elizabeth Cross is awarded to families of Service Personnel recognizing the ultimate sacrifice on military operations. COVID-19 has placed many NHS staff in situations where they too could die, yet there is no question of them not supporting the State in their duties as the Military do. Some have died and many more may do so. It is reasonable to recognize this sacrifice in the same or similar manner. Whilst the GC is a civilian equivalent of the VC there is no Civilian equivalent of the EC

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

We cannot accept petitions that call for specific awards or honours to be given to individuals or organisations, because we can only accept petitions about matters for which the Government or Parliament are responsible for.

There is an independent process for considering nominations for awards and honours, and advising the Queen on granting these, so it is not something the Government or Parliament can do.

The Government has announced that it is delaying Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday honours list until the Autumn so people who have made a contribution to the fight against coronavirus can be recognised and celebrated: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/oliver-dowdens-statement-on-coronavirus-covid-19-20-may-2020

You can nominate someone who has made an exceptional contribution to the response to the coronavirus crisis in the UK for an award here: https://www.gov.uk/honours/nominate-someone-for-coronavirus-work

You may wish to sign these petitions calling for a similar action:

Award Covid-19 medals to all emergency services and involved armed forces: Award Covid-19 medals to all emergency services and involved armed forces

A medal to honour the fortitude of people working in essential occupations: A medal to honour the fortitude of people working in essential occupations

Award medals to the retired doctors and nurses who returned to NHS for COVID19: Award medals to the retired doctors and nurses who returned to NHS for COVID19

Award posthumous medals to NHS and other frontline workers; victims of covid-19: Award posthumous medals to NHS and other frontline workers; victims of covid-19.

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/192/the-governments-response-to-coronavirus/

Timeline

6 Apr 2020	Petition opened for signatures
26 May 2020	Rejected by the Petitions Committee