Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason British service members are not allowed to wear NATO issued medals on their uniforms.

NATO medals have been approved for wear in the past, including for operations in the Balkans. Details of those medals that have been approved for wear are included in Chapter 8, Annex A of Joint Service Publication (JSP) 761 (Honours and Awards in the Armed Forces): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/honours-and-awards-in-the-armed-forces-jsp-761

However, some NATO medals have not been approved for wear, in particular where a UK medal is also awarded for the same service. In such circumstances, NATO medals are not approved for wear as allowing this would contravene the principle of no 'double-medalling' for the same service. An example of this was the NATO International Security Assistance Force medal in Afghanistan, which was not approved as UK Service personnel were already awarded the Operational Service Medal (Afghanistan).