Asked by: Baroness Crawley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to retrospectively assess the awards and decorations given to the agents who fought for the UK in the F section of the Special Operations Executive in World War II, in particular (1) the small number of women who received military honours, and (2) the men who were killed but have no British award or decoration.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
There is no doubt that the actions of the agents of F section of the Special Operations Executive were very brave, and the Government remains grateful for their service and sacrifice. Indeed, many were recognised with gallantry awards, such as the awards of the George Cross to Odette Sansom, Noor Khan, Cicely Lefort, Diana Rowden and Lilian Rolfe.
It is the long-standing policy of the UK Government, that military and civilian gallantry awards cannot be awarded retrospectively more than five years after the service or actions in question. This policy has been in place since the end of the Second World War and was approved by King George VI. Successive Governments have seen fit not to change it. It is a long-held belief that people making decisions at the time were better placed to make judgements about an individual’s actions than we can be now at a distance of many years and without information about other people’s contemporary actions for comparison.