GovWire

On 5 May 23, the Culture Secretary announced the introduction of a Coronation Medal to recognise members of the Armed Forces, frontline emergency service workers and people actively contributing to The Kings Coronation, with an expected total of 400,000 recipients. In recognition of His Majesty The Kings role as Commander-in-Chief of the UK Armed Forces, members of the Defence community who meet any one of the following criteria will be awarded the Coronation Medal:

• Members of the Armed Forces, Civil Service and those from MOD sponsored voluntary organisations who provide active contributory service to the official constitutional Coronation events, including events in the Devolved Administrations, Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.

• Serving members of the Armed Forces who have completed five full calendar years of service and in active service on 6 May 2023.

• Members of the Armed Forces who participate in Armed Forces Coronation events throughout the rest of 2023, such as official gun salutes, parades, or presentations of regimental colours.

There is expected to be no application process for this medal - eligible personnel will automatically be identified and notified in due course. The medal will likely be distributed to eligible recipients beginning from late Summer 2023, as and when sufficient levels of stock are available.

Further details on eligibility criteria and the distribution process are in development and will be published as soon as available. In the interim, units and individuals are directed not to approach the MOD Medal Office. Any enquiries or attempts to apply will not be acknowledged and will be deleted.

If you are employed or sponsored by another frontline emergency service that may be eligible for the Coronation medal, please contact your respective Honours or HR departments for further information, as the MOD Medal Office only administers medals relating to the Armed Forces.

Delay to historic requests

As part of the Defence Records Management Project, a percentage of archived service files are being transferred to the National Archives.

This is having a significant impact on the time that it usually takes to assess for historic requests, such as those for WW2 medals.

We are working with the National Archives to speed up this process, however, some of our cases are suffering long delays.

This is outside of our usual expected standards, for which we apologise, and thank you for your patience.

Nuclear Test Veterans Commemorative Medal

On 21 November, the Prime Minister announced the introduction of a commemorative medal to recognise Service personnel and civilians who participated in nuclear testing between 1952 and 1967.The medal will also be available to the next of kin of eligible individuals who have since died.

Those who are entitled to the Nuclear Test Veterans Medal can apply via the medal applications form to the MOD Medal Office however medals will not be dispatched until late summer 2023.

We are currently receiving a high volume of enquiries, particularly regarding The Queens Platinum Jubilee Medal; we are working to respond to all enquires and applications as quickly as possible.