Changes to the lists of Statements of Principles and accepted late-onset conditions, April 2026

The Statements of Principles (SOPs) are a tool to determine if an injury, illness, or death is service-related.

On 9 April 2026, 24 replacement and two new Statements of Principles, and changes to the names of four accepted late-onset conditions, come into force in New Zealand.

Replacement SOPs

• alcohol use disorder
• ascariasis
• Barrett oesophagus (Name has changed from Barrett’s oesophagus)
• cardiac myxoma
• fibromuscular dysplasia
• gallstone disease (cholelithiasis) (name has changed from cholelithiasis)
• hepatitis D infection (Name has changed from hepatitis D)
• hookworm infection  (Name has changed from hookworm disease)
• incisional hernia
• optochiasmatic arachnoiditis
• Parkinson disease and Secondary Parkinsonism (Name has changed from Parkinson’s disease and secondary parkinsonism)
• umbilical hernia, peri-umbilical hernia and para-umbilical hernia (Name has changed from umbilical hernia)

New SOPs

• occipital neuralgia

Accepted late onset conditions

The list of accepted late-onset conditions at Schedule 2A of the Veterans’ Support Regulations has been amended to reflect the name changes, except the change made to umbilical hernia which is not on the accepted late-onset list.

More information

More information on Statements of Principles

For more information on these amendments, you can read:

• The Australian Government Repatriation Medical Authority’s website(external link)
• Veterans’ Support Amendment Regulations 2026(external link)

To view all the current and past versions of a SOP, for example hookworm infection, see www.rma.gov.au/sops/condition/hookworm-infection(external link)