5 Membership of the Honours Committees
78. Following the recommendation of the Public
Administration Select Committee in the previous Parliament, the
names of the specialist honours committees are now published and
the independent members are now recruited through open applications
in line with Nolan principles. The Cabinet Office emphasised that
it sought to recruit "a broad crosssection of members".[131]
79. Witnesses, however, raised concerns about
the number of honours held by members of the honours committees.
Mr Lidstone noted that there were 102 honours shared among the
84 people currently listed as members of the honours committees.
He argued that this meant there was no "objectivity about
any of those committees at all".[132]
Graham Smith suggested that it appeared there was "an
elite that awards these titles to members of their own circles
and rarely do they get awarded outside of those circles".[133]
80. Sir Bob Kerslake did not accept that argument.
He argued that members of the honours committees were usually
not familiar with the names of the people nominated for honours
as nominees "often make their impact at a very local level".[134]
Sir Bob also said that while it was not "inevitable"
that members of the honours committees would have honours themselves,
it was "more likely" as the specialist sub-committees
sought members who were "knowledgeable and expert" in
their field.[135] There
was not, however, an "expectation that you have an honour
in order to be on the committees".[136]
81. The Government acted on
recommendations of our predecessor committee to open up the membership
of the honours sub-committees through the public appointments
system. The honours committees, however, remain composed of an
establishment elite. We recommend that the Cabinet Office, or
the new Honours Commission, sets out how it will broaden the range
of people who take up roles as independent members of the honours
committees.
131 Q 195 [Richard Tilbrook] Back
132
Q 160 Back
133
Ibid. Back
134
Q 204 Back
135
Q 196 Back
136
Ibid. Back
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