In 1993 two separate reviews reported on the British honours system. The first, under prime minister John Major, reported in March and focused on civilian awards. The second was started in March, at Major's suggestion, and carried out by the Ministry of Defence. Major's review abolished the minimum rank requirements for certain civilian awards when made to military personnel and ended the practice of making awards purely on the basis of the recipient holding a certain appointment in the public or private sector (with the exception of High Court judges who were still to automatically become knights or dames). Major's review also ended the award of the British Empire Medal (BEM) and Imperial Service Order (ISO), compensated for by increasing the number of awards made to the Order of the British Empire. As a means of increasing the proportion of awards made to community figures and the voluntary sector he introduced direct nominations from the general public.
The outcome of the military review was reported by Minister of Defence Malcolm Rifkind in October 1993. It was largely focused on gallantry awards. The basic structure of the awards was retained but all distinctions of rank were removed, with officers and other ranks to receive the same awards for the same actions. Generally the officer-level awards were retained (and opened to all ranks) and the other ranks award abolished. A new Conspicuous Gallantry Cross was created as the second-level operational gallantry award for all ranks as the previous officer-level award (the Distinguished Service Order) was to henceforth be awarded for leadership and not gallantry. The review considered creating a medal for the mention in dispatches award, but decided against this though the existing insignia, an oak leaf, was upgraded to silver (from bronze). The Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air, which had been awarded for both gallantry and meritorious conduct, was abolished and replaced with new medals: the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service which awarded meritorious conduct in all theatres and the Queen's Commendation for Bravery in the Air for non-operational gallantry. The award of the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct was ended and replaced with the Queen's Commendation for Bravery for other non-operational gallantry.
Background
The Conservative Party leader John Major was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997. He was keen to move towards a classless society and, as part of this, carried out a review of the British honours system. Prior to Major's review the system had remained largely unchanged for 70 years. Many honours, civil and military, were restricted to recipients of certain rank. In the military officers received gallantry awards described as crosses (for example the Air Force Cross) while the other ranks received medals (for example the Air Force Medal). The only gallantry medal without distinction to rank was the highest, the Victoria Cross. This carried across to the civilian awards with other ranks generally not entitled to appointment to orders such as the Order of the British Empire, instead receiving the associated, but separate and lower ranking, British Empire Medal (BEM).
Major's review, which reported in March 1993, focussed on the civilian honours and ended the rank requirements there. He made a recommendation that a similar review be completed into military awards with a view to making them "rankless". The Ministry of Defence started a joint services (army, navy and air force) review in March 1993. This reported later that year and Secretary of State for Defence Malcolm Rifkind announced, on 17 October 1993, that the distinction between officers and other ranks in the issuing of gallantry awards would be abolished.