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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many of his Department's personnel are processing claims for a campaign medal for those ex- service personnel who served in the Suez Canal Zone between 1951 and 1954; and when he expects this process to be complete. [156834] Mr. Caplin: The number of people who are dealing with applications for the new campaign medal for service in the Suez Canal Zone varies to meet the demand. Some staff are occupied full-time on this task, particularly with assessing individual entitlement to the medal, while support staff are working both on the Canal Zone medals and others as part of their duties. The individual medal offices have the following staff addressing this task: Royal Naval Medal Office: four staff assessing claims, plus one part-time clerk ordering and despatching the medals. Royal Marines Medal Office: overall one half of one person. Army Medal Office: Nine staff directly processing claims, plus three people acknowledging claims, stamping and despatching medals. Royal Air Force Medal Office: overall three personnel receiving, assessing and despatching medals. It is not possible to say when the process will be complete as it will depend entirely on when veterans and their families apply for the medal.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

418 c1267-8W;418 c1268-9W; 156834

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Applications Bureaucracy Military decorations Suez (Egypt) General Service Medal Veterans

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk