Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to amend the qualification criteria for the Operational Service Medal (Afghanistan) to ensure that service personnel deployed to theatre during Operation Pitting qualify.

Medallic recognition for the evacuation in Afghanistan will be considered in due course. The current qualifying length of service is 30 days and any decision to change that will take lengthy consideration.

Medals or awards for individual acts of bravery or leadership are separate to the length of deployment criteria and are therefore considered based on a citation by citation basis.