Defra honours nomination guidance
Published 7 August 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defra-honours-nomination-form/defra-honours-nomination-guidance
Guidance on how to nominate a Defra stakeholder for an honour.
If you are a member of the public and you want to nominate someone for an honour, you should follow the Cabinet Office honours guidance.
Who you can nominate
You can nominate people in the following sectors for an honour:
- animal and plant health and welfare
- environmental quality
- floods and water
- food, farming and trade
- marine and fisheries
- natural environment
You can also nominate stakeholder employees solely for their unpaid voluntary work. This doesn’t need to be Defra related.
How to submit a nomination
You should complete the nomination form and send it to the Defra group honours team at: defra-honours@defra.gov.uk
You must make sure that you include women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds in your honour nominations to reflect diversity.
What you need to include
For each nomination, you need to include a minimum of 2 letters or emails of support. These should be a maximum of 1,000 words. They can come from anyone that is able to support the nominee’s achievements.
They can be used to bring out in more detail an element of the nomination text.
When writing a letter or email of support, you should:
- ensure that the nominee’s significant achievements have been highlighted, including key actions, outcomes, timeframes, facts, figures, and outcomes
- include the relevant date for each achievement to ensure the citation timeline is clear
- explain how these achievements have made a positive difference and to whom – the impacts of their actions
- provide evidence where the nominee has gone above and beyond what is expected of their usual role – above the paid job
- include an unpaid voluntary contribution – this should include key actions, timeframes, facts, figures, outcomes, and impacts. Corporate contributions are not considered to be voluntary, but can be included in your nomination as an addition to an external voluntary contribution
Future nominations
You can nominate someone for future honours rounds. For example, if you want to submit a nomination when you know someone is due to:
- come to the end of an appointment
- retire
- reach a milestone anniversary
- complete a large project
What happens next
Nominations that meet the internal committee criteria are then submitted to Cabinet Office.
The decision about who will be awarded an honour is made by an honours committee in Cabinet Office. The final approval is then made by the Prime Minister and the King.