Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to introduce a National Defence Medal for all veterans.

The Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals (HD Committee) examined the proposals to institute a National Defence Medal (NDM) as part of the independent Military Medals Review in July 2014. The Committee was not persuaded that a strong enough case could be made at the time. Therefore the Department has no current plans to introduce a NDM for veterans.

At the conclusion of Sir John Holmes review, a series of papers were placed in the Library of the House (http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/business-papers/commons/deposited-papers/?fd=2014-07-28&td=2014-07-29#toggle-1168). One of these, ‘Revised National Defence Medal – Updated’, contains an estimate of the potential cost of awarding a NDM to all veterans who have completed four years of regular or Reserve Service or completed national service (back to 9 September 1945). Based on an approximate figure of seven million recipients the cost was estimated to be £475 million.