The UK Ministry of Defence has denied trying to change the terms of an award made by a pensions tribunal to a former soldier who was granted a disability pension for Gulf war syndrome. Changes made by the ministry's Veterans' Agency to the wording of the award that seemed to ignore the finding of Gulf war syndrome were attributable to “a poor choice of words by a policy official,” a ministry spokesman said.

Harcourt Concannon, president of the Pensions Appeal Tribunals, which adjudicate appeals from servicemen and women who have been denied war pensions, accused the ministry of “tampering” with the terms of a ruling made in November last year (BMJ 2005;331:1103).

In that decision, …