§ Mr. WatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what measures he proposes to take to expedite the issue of medals to second world war veterans; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. SoamesMy Department's medal offices have already taken measures to expedite the issue of awards and medals to those who served in the second world war. Additional staff have been allocated to the task of assessing claims for medals and overtime is being worked on a regular basis to reduce the backlog. We do not believe that it would he helpful to recruit new staff for assessment work as the task of training and supervising them would divert existing staff from the work in hand and would lead to further delays. Given the number of claims received and the time-consuming and exacting nature of assessing entitlements, medals for second world war veterans are being issued as quickly as possible.