Memorandum by the Cabinet Office
1. This note brings the Committee up to
date on progress in the reform of the honours system since the
government's reply to the Select Committee (Cm 6479: Reform of
the Honours System) in February 2005.
AN INDEPENDENT
SYSTEM
2. In its report (A Matter of Honour),
the Committee recommended the establishment of a Statutory Honours
Commission, with members appointed by transparent procedures and
publicly named. The Government has made a number of major reforms
in response:
— Independent chairs and members have
been selected through public advertising in accordance with Nolan
principles;
— Experts from outside the Civil Service
form the majority of committee members;
— Main Committee is formed principally
from the chairs of the expert sub-committees;
— All committee members are named.
3. This has gone most of the way to meet
the Committee's recommendations. But given that The Queen is advised
by Her Ministers, it is right that the advice should continue
to be put to Her by the Prime Minister.
4. The new committees (full list at Annex
A) have now considered proposals for honours in the New Year 2006
honours round and the forthcoming Birthday list. The members of
the committees are keen to get better coverage of the honours
system (one of the Select Committee's recommendations) and are
working to spread knowledge of the system, and the ways in which
nominations can be made. They also want to use their own knowledge
to help identify and work with areas of the community which are
under-represented.
5. As well as chairing the Main Honours
Committee, the Cabinet Secretary is also a member of the State
committee which looks at candidates for honours from the Civil
Service. The Committee is chaired by Sir David Cooksey.
6. The House of Lords Appointments Commission
(HOLAC) was established in April 2001 as an independent non-departmental
public body to advise the Prime Minister on his recommendations
for peerages to The Queen. The Commission's role is to vet all
nominees for peerages for propriety (except Ministers and Law
Lords).
7. In addition, from June 2005 until March
2006 HOLAC gave advice on the propriety of the candidature of
individuals added to the list by the Prime Minister (see para
17 below).
ORDER OF
THE BRITISH
EMPIRE
8. In its review of the honours system the
Committee recommended that there should be no further appointments
to the Order of the British Empire and that a new Order, the Order
of British Excellence, should be founded in its place. (Recommendation
2)
9. A Memorandum setting out the government's
conclusion on the Committee's recommendation is attached at Annex
B. Major stakeholders were consulted; opinion sampling has been
carried out. The conclusion is that there is no enthusiasm for
change; the government does not propose to take the matter further.
DIVERSITY AND
PUBLIC AWARENESS
10. In its report on the reform of the honours
system, the government agreed that more needed to be done to increase
awareness (PASC Recommendations 14 & 15).
11. As the Committee is aware, the Cabinet
Office launched a publicity campaign "Do the Honours"
in January 2006 to encourage more nominations for women. Leaflets
were sent to public libraries, citizen's advice bureaux and post
offices throughout the country. The website was improved, including
an electronic version of the nomination form. The new honours
committees have been working to encourage a more diverse spread
of nominations. Further work is in hand with the Commission for
Racial Equality to raise awareness of the honours system amongst
ethnic minority groups.
12. In order to help increase understanding
of what can seem a complicated system, the Cabinet Office has
produced a flow chart (copy at Annex C) showing the various processes
involved in the consideration of a nomination for an honour.
13. In its review, the Committee believed
that existing holders of awards and future recipients would welcome
the opportunity to wear a small badge or emblem on non-formal
dress and recommended this be introduced (Recommendation 17).
The government accepted this and agreed to look into the options
and to consult interested parties.
14. The principle of a button-hole badge
has now been agreed. Work is in hand on the possible design and
manufacture of such an emblem. A public announcement will be made
as soon as possible.
POLICY DEVELOPMENTS
15. The major policy development since February
2005 has been the Prime Minister's announcement on 23 March 2006
that he would no longer exercise his right as Prime Minister to
nominate individuals directly for honours. His principal involvement
in honours in the future will be in setting the strategic policy
framework. This will involve the Prime Minister giving a remit
to the independent committees as to the general direction of policy,
including priority areas for recognition. In practical terms this
means that the list submitted to The Queen by the Prime Minister
will be the list agreed by the Main Honours Committee. The Prime
Minister will forward the list to The Queen without amendment.
In accordance with the Prime Minister's decision, the No 10 Appointments
Secretary has ceased to be a member of the Main Honours Committee
and the specialist honours committes.
CABINET SECRETARY'S
ROLE
16. The Committee will recall that the Cabinet
Secretary chairs the Main Honours Committee. This brings together
the work of the eight specialist committees. Other members are
the eight chairs of the specialist committees, the Chief of Defence
Staff, the Permanent Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
and another Permanent Secretary (presently Sir David Normington
of the Home Office). The committee reviews the work of the sub-committees,
reassesses any sensitive or controversial recommendations or omissions
and seeks to ensure that the balance between the various sectors
is satisfactory. It agrees the list of candidates to be recommended
by the Cabinet Secretary, as chair of the Committee, to the Prime
Minister.
17. Until the 23 March announcement, the
next step would have been for the Prime Minister to consider the
proposals and discuss them with the Cabinet Secretary. At that
stage, in line with practice over successive administrations,
the Prime Minister might suggest the addition of some names which
had not come forward through the committee system. If he did so
the names (at any level from MBE upwards) would be submitted to
HOLAC for consideration. The role of the Commission is to decide
whether there is anything in the past history or character of
individuals which might render them unsuitable for an award. HOLAC
took over this role in 2005 from the Honours Scrutiny Committee,
which has been disbanded. This was reported in Cm 6479.
SUBMISSION TO
THE QUEEN
18. Notwithstanding that the Prime Minister
has said that he will not change the recommendations put to him
by the Main Honours Committee, it remains his responsibility to
submit the proposals for honours to The Queen. This will continue.
TEAM AWARDS
19. The Committee proposed the introduction
of collegiate honours (Recommendation 18).The government is looking
carefully at this suggestion. A number of practical difficulties
arise. A decision will be reached shortly and an announcement
made.
May 2006
Annex A
Committee Composition
BY NAMED INDIVIDUALS
ARTS AND
MEDIA
Independent Chair
| Lord Rothschild |
| Permanent Secretary (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
| Dame Sue Street |
| Permanent Secretary (Scottish Executive) |
John Elvidge |
| Non-civil service members | Jenny Abramsky
John Gross
Ben Okri
Andreas Whittam Smith
|
| |
Total 7
SPORT
Independent Chair | Lord MacLaurin
|
| Permanent Secretary (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
| Dame Sue Street |
| Permanent Secretary (National Assembly for Wales)
| Sir Jon Shortridge |
| Non-civil service members | Dame Tanni Grey Thompson
Tony Lewis
Ian McGeechan
Sir Matthew Pinsent
Tessa Sanderson
Sir Bobby Robson
|
| |
Total 9
HEALTH
Independent Chair | Dame Carol Black
|
| Permanent Secretary (Department of Health) |
Hugh Taylor (Acting) |
| Chief Medical Officer (England) | Sir Liam Donaldson
|
| Chief Medical Officer (N.Ireland) | Cover by CMO (Wales) Ann Lloyd
|
| Chief Nurse—Scotland | Paul Martin
|
| Non-civil service members | Sir Netar Mallick
Dame Karlene Davis
Professor Mansel Aylward
Niall Dickson
Professor Anthony Newman Taylor
Professor Irene Scott
Neil McKay
|
| |
Total 12
EDUCATION
Independent Chair | Dame Alexandra Burslem
|
| Permanent Secretary (Department for Education and Skills)
| David Bell |
| Permanent Secretary (Northern Ireland Executive)
| Nigel Hamilton |
| Non-civil service members | Professor Sir George Bain
John Anderson
James Gillard
Professor Ludmilla Jordanova
Sir Mike Tomlinson
Mary Oliver
|
| |
Total 9
SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
Independent Chair | Lord May
|
| Permanent Secretary (Department of Trade and Industry)
| Sir Brian Bender |
| Chief Scientific Adviser | Sir David King
|
| Non- civil service members | Professor Sir Richard Brook
Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta
Professor Dame Julia Higgins
Rob Margetts
Professor Noreen Murray
|
| |
Total 8
ECONOMY
Independent Chair | Sir John Collins
|
| Permanent Secretary (HM Treasury) | Nicholas Macpherson
|
| Permanent Secretary (Department of Trade and Industry)
| Sir Brian Bender |
| Permanent Secretary (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
| Dame Sue Street |
| Permanent Secretary (Scottish Executive) |
John Elvidge |
| Non-civil service members | Dame Steve Shirley
Rob Margetts
Rosemarie Harris
Christopher Hyman
Peter Chappelow
David Thomas
|
| |
Total 11
COMMUNITY, VOLUNTARY
AND LOCAL
SERVICE
Independent Chair | Lord Newton
|
| Permanent Secretary (Home Office) | Sir David Normington
|
| Permanent Secretary (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister)
| Peter Housden |
| Permanent Secretary (Department for Education and Skills)
| David Bell |
| Permanent Secretary (Department for Constitutional Affairs)
| Alex Allan |
| Permanent Secretary (Northern Ireland Office)
| Jonathan Phillips |
| Non-civil service members | Mohammed Aziz
Sir Jeremy Beecham
Stephen Bubb
Christine Harris
Professor Ted Milburn
Elspeth Mitcheson
Richard Temple Cox
Mary Thomas
|
| |
Total 14
STATE
Independent Chair | Sir David Cooksey
|
| Cabinet Secretary | Sir Gus O'Donnell
|
| Permanent Secretary DCA | Alex Allan
|
| Non-civil service members | Mohammed Aziz
Dame Jessica Rawson
Sir Michael Tomlinson
|
| |
Total 6
Cabinet Office
May 2006
Annex B
HONOURS: FUTURE OF THE ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
NOTE BY
THE CABINET
OFFICE
1. In its Report "A Matter of Honour: Reforming
the Honours System" (HC212-I), the Public Administration
Select Committee (PASC) recommended (Para 153) that:
"There should be no further appointments to the Order
of the British Empire. A new Order, the Order of British Excellence,
should be founded in its place".
2. In its reply to the Committee (Reform of the Honours
System, Cm 6479) the government said:
"The government has considered [these recommendations]
carefully.
The Government believes that the Order of the British Empire continues
to play a well-understood—and in terms of numbers—predominant
role in the honours system. It was founded in 1917 in order to
make space within the honours system for those who had made important
contributions to sustaining the life of the nation during the
war. It has developed and matured in scope and recognition. There
are currently some 120,000 men and women members of the Order
and normally around 1150—1200 are appointed at each honours
round . . .
The government does not believe the case has been made for
change to the Order of the British Empire. It is regarded with
affection and respect by very many people, not only in the United
Kingdom. But the government is conscious that for some the title
of the Order of the British Empire feels anachronistic in a different
sense to other historic titles. The government will consider the
matter further, without prejudice as to whether there should be
any change."
3. The government has now concluded its examination of
the matter.
4. We have consulted the Officers of the Order; they
do not see the need for change. They believe that the enthusiasm
of new members and the dedication to the Order of existing members
(witnessed by the several hundreds who filled St Paul's Cathedral
at the 4-yearly Service of Remembrance in 2004) give no cause
to suggest that change is necessary. A change could not be embarked
upon without a major exercise in public consultation.
5. Before embarking on such an exercise, which would
be time consuming and expensive, the Government has carried out
some opinion polling to establish whether there is a real public
desire for change, and whether, if there were to be change, there
is agreement as to the likely candidates to replace the Order
of the British Empire.
6. The results of the survey, undertake by RSEB in August
2005 are enclosed. The main points of the findings are:
(a) 47% thought that the title of the Order of the British
Empire reflects our nation's history and should be retained;
(b) 15% thought that the title of the Order was inappropriate
in post Empire times and should be replaced;
(c) 38% had no opinion either way;
(d) If there was to be a change, there was no clear favourite
as to a new name. When names were suggested the main preferences
were:
— Should remain the same—OBE—39%;
— Order of the United Kingdom—13%;
— Order of British Excellence—9%;
7. The retention of the status quo was favoured most
by people aged 65+ (53%) and by social groups AB and C1 (49%).
Those most in favour of change came from age groups 55-64 in social
group AB. The largest group with no opinion (59%) was age group
16-24.
8. Of non-white responders:
— 61% had no opinion on the Order as a whole;
— 23% thought that the status quo should remain;
— 13% preferred the Order of the United Kingdom
as a replacement.
9. The largest groups believing that the title of the
Order was inappropriate and should be replaced were:
— Northern Ireland (23%);
10. In the light of these findings, the government has
concluded that the case for a change to the Order of the British
Empire has not been made. It therefore does not propose to take
the matter further.
Cabinet Office
May 2006
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