Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of representations from nuclear test veterans involved in intelligence gathering of foreign nations' atmospheric nuclear tests, what progress they have made in extending the eligibility criteria for the Nuclear Test Medal to include those from 543 Squadron and 27 Squadron who recovered, washed, decontaminated, and maintained aircraft involved in nuclear cloud sampling operations between 1966 and 1980.

Nuclear Test Medal (NTM) eligibility has been broadened to include UK personnel who deployed in support of United States atmospheric nuclear tests, and UK personnel who were deployed from the UK in support of operations to monitor atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by France and China up to 1974 and 1980 respectively.

Ministry of Defence officials will continue to keep the eligibility criteria under review to ensure that they are as comprehensive and inclusive as they can be given the current boundaries. There are no current plans to expand the criteria to include personnel who did not deploy from the UK in support of either UK or other nations atmospheric testing.

Any formal proposal for the expansion of the NTM eligibility criteria would need to be endorsed by the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals (HD Committee) and approved by His Majesty The King.