Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his policy is with respect to the Accumulated Campaign Service Medal; and if he will make a statement.

The Ministry of Defence has no plans to review the qualifying criteria for the Accumulated Service Medal (ACSM).

The ACSM was instituted in January 1994 (for all three Services) with a qualifying period of 36 months to recognise aggregated operational Service in Northern Ireland since 14 August 1969. The qualifying criteria were last amended in 2010 when it was agreed that the method of recognising repeat tours through the accumulation of operational service remained valid, but that the qualifying period should be reduced to 24 months from 1 January 2008. From that date, operational service has been rewarded, when eligible, by the award of the ACSM (2011), rather than ACSM (1994).

Issues surrounding the ACSM were looked at during Sir John Holmes's review of Military Medals, as part of work to consider claims for further medallic recognition. The conclusion of that review was announced in the House of Lords on 29 July 2014 (Official Report, column WS147).