To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what rules govern the determination of recipients of the award of a military campaign medal. (104503)

The eligibility of an individual for a particular campaign medal is determined by the qualifying criteria for that medal which is decided as early as possible during the campaign by the cross-Government Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals following advice from the MOD. The criteria will include elements such as the operational area, the qualifying period of service within that area, whether that time must be continuous or aggregated and any specific exclusions.

Details of the qualifying criteria for the Iraq campaign medal were published in Cm6135 (February 2004) and supplemented by Cm6936 (October 2006).

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which war correspondents accredited by his Department and deployed to Iraq in March and April 2003 do not qualify for the Iraq campaign medal. (104512)

In accordance with DCI Gen 170/04, all Ministry of Defence accredited war correspondents deployed to the qualifying Zones for the appropriate length of time during the related period (a minimum of seven continuous days between 19 March-28 April 2003 for the medal with clasp) are eligible for the award. All accredited war correspondents listed in MOD records for Operation Telic fall into this category and therefore qualify for the Operation Telic Campaign medal with clasp.