[1] In 2012, a review led by Sir John Holmes into the awarding of medals to the armed forces indicated that campaign medals were awarded on the basis of "risk and rigour", defined in terms of:[2] The changing nature of global operations leads to the potential that large numbers of personnel in support and enabling roles may in future not be eligible for the receipt of medals, while the increasing number of operations that do not meet the risk and rigour criteria for the award of either a campaign medal or the GSM with clasp would see personnel deployed for long periods on hazardous operations without the prospect of an award at the end.

The reverse depicts the crown within a ring containing the words "For Wider Service".

[5] The criteria for receipt of the Wider Service Medal were laid out upon the announcement of its release.

[note 1] Personnel must have served 180 days aggregated (not necessarily continuous) service on eligible operations.

[6] The initial set of operations eligible for the award of the Wider Service Medal were:[7][8]