# Reserve Forces Act 1996, Paragraph 5

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

(1) Any person appearing before an enlisting officer for the purpose of being attested who knowingly ... makes a false answer to any question contained in the attestation paper and put to him by or by the direction of the enlisting officer is guilty of an offence.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under sub-paragraph (1) is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale (or both); and he may be proceeded against summarily notwithstanding that he has since become a member of the reserve forces.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under sub-paragraph (1) who becomes a member of the reserve forces is liable on conviction by the Court Martial to any punishment mentioned in rows 2 to 14 of the Table in section 164 of the Armed Forces Act 2006.
(4) For the purposes of determining the Court Martial's powers when sentencing an offender to whom Part 2 of Schedule 3 to the Armed Forces Act 2006 (ex-servicemen etc) applies for an offence under sub-paragraph (1), sub-paragraph (3) has effect as if the reference to rows 2 to 14 were to rows 2 to 12.
(5) Where an offence under sub-paragraph (1) is committed by a person within sub-paragraph (3), the time for which he is for the purposes of section 62 of the Armed Forces Act 2006 (time limits for charging) to be regarded as being a relevant reservist (within the meaning of that section) includes the period from (and including) the time he committed the offence to the time he became a member of the reserve forces.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/14/schedule/1/paragraph/5 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/reserve-forces-act-1996/schedule-1/paragraph-5
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.