Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to financially support the South Atlantic Medal Association.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has no plans to provide financial support to the South Atlantic Medal Association 1982 (SAMA’82).

However, veterans who have been awarded the South Atlantic Medal are entitled to concessionary travel to the Falkland Islands via the South Atlantic Airbridge. Applications for this concession can be made through the SAMA’82 website: www.sama82.org.uk/flights/. Within the concessionary priorities which govern the allocation of seats, the MOD has allocated SAMA’82 travellers a higher priority than most categories of Regular serving members of the UK Armed Forces and entitled MOD Civil Servants and their families.